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Debpriya De Posted 15 years ago
Grammar
Use of partitives
"Three of my friends who volunteered for the program are missing."
Here the relative clause "who volunteered for the program" could refer to "my friends" or
to "Three of my friends". How can we disambiguate such sentences which use partitives ?
Here the relative clause "who volunteered for the program" could refer to "my friends" or
to "Three of my friends". How can we disambiguate such sentences which use partitives ?
Top answer
Debpriya De " Three of my friends , who volunteered for the program , are missing. " The main clause says that three of your friends are missing. Not all of your friends are missing.
- Debpriya De " Three of my friends , who volunteered for the program , are missing.
- " The main clause says that three of your friends are missing.
- Not all of your friends are missing.
- The relative clause gives additional information about these three friends.
- I see no ambiguity.
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3 Answers
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Debpriya De"Three of my friends, who volunteered for the program, are missing."The main clause says that three of your friends are missing. Not all of your friends are missing. The relative clause gives additional information about these three friends. I se
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x = a friend
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x = all of my friends
xv = a friend who volunteered
xm = a friend who is missing
xvm = a friend who volunteered and is missing
_____________
Three of my friends who volunteered for the program are missing.
xvm xvm xvm xv xv xv xv xv x x x x x x x
___
Three of m
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x = all of my friends
xv = a friend who volunteered
xm = a friend who is missing
xvm = a friend who volunteered and is missing
_____________
Three of my friends who volunteered for the program are missing.
xvm xvm xvm xv xv xv xv xv x x x x x x x
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Three of m
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