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Pructus Posted 18 years ago
[We had to admit we could not imagine this. The man paid some capital into my uncle's business and we were converted. Our family were the first Purifiers -- as they were called -- in the town. Soon a congregation of fifty or more was meeting every Sunday in a room at the Corn Exchange.
At once we found ourselves isolated and hated people. Everyone made jokes about us. We had to stand together because we were sometimes dragged into the courts. What the unconverted could not forgive in us was, first, that we believed in successful prayer and, secondly, that our revelation came from .]
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The underlined part seems to be understood as "we found ourselves isolated and we hated people".
Is this reasonable understanding?
And I feel that if this sentence should be understood as such, then it is not a very good sentence, so how about your opinions?
Grammar
We found ourselves isolated and hated people.
[We had to admit we could not imagine this. The man paid some capital into my uncle's business and we were converted. Our family were the first Purifiers -- as they were called -- in the town. Soon a congregation of fifty or more was meeting every Sunday in a room at the Corn Exchange.
At once we found ourselves isolated and hated people. Everyone made jokes about us. We had to stand together because we were sometimes dragged into the courts. What the unconverted could not forgive in us was, first, that we believed in successful prayer and, secondly, that our revelation came from .]
*********
The underlined part seems to be understood as "we found ourselves isolated and we hated people".
Is this reasonable understanding?
And I feel that if this sentence should be understood as such, then it is not a very good sentence, so how about your opinions?
Top answer
Yeah, this is a classic example of ambiguity if I ever saw one. You could make it less so by reversing the adjectives. A native speaker would figure it out, but would certainly get a chuckle out of it, as I did.
- Yeah, this is a classic example of ambiguity if I ever saw one.
- You could make it less so by reversing the adjectives.
- A native speaker would figure it out, but would certainly get a chuckle out of it, as I did.
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2 Answers
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Yeah, this is a classic example of ambiguity if I ever saw one. You could make it less so by reversing the adjectives.
A native speaker would figure it out, but would certainly get a chuckle out of it, as I did.
A native speaker would figure it out, but would certainly get a chuckle out of it, as I did.
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