who

[idiotmike]

Dear all,

Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers, only child of Liliane Bettencourt, heiress to the L’Oréal cosmetics empire,

"heiress to the L’Oréal cosmetics empire" describes Liliane Bettencourt or Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers?

Would the meaning change if I add a "who" before heiress, for example:

Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers, only child of Liliane Bettencourt, who is heiress to the L’Oréal cosmetics empire?

Thank you

[Rover_KE]

...heiress refers to Lilian. It's reasonably clear to me.

Adding 'who is' would remove the ambiguity you perceived in the first sentence, and make the meaning crystal clear.

Rover

[emsr2d2]

Dear all,

Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers, only child of Liliane Bettencourt, heiress to the L’Oréal cosmetics empire,

"heiress to the L’Oréal cosmetics empire" describes Liliane Bettencourt or Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers?

Would the meaning change if I add a "who" before heiress, for example:

Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers, only child of Liliane Bettencourt, who is heiress to the L’Oréal cosmetics empire?

Thank you

I still see ambiguity. It is hard to tell, from either sentence, whether Francoise or Liliane is the heiress. In the second sentence I would assume that it is Liliane, but I don't think I would be completely sure.

[TheParser]

Dear all,

Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers, only child of Liliane Bettencourt, heiress to the L’Oréal cosmetics empire,

"heiress to the L’Oréal cosmetics empire" describes Liliane Bettencourt or Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers?

Would the meaning change if I add a "who" before heiress, for example:

Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers, only child of Liliane Bettencourt, who is heiress to the L’Oréal cosmetics empire?

Thank you

********** NOT A TEACHER **********

Hello, Mike.

(1) What a coincidence! I opened my newspaper this morning

and read something that immediately reminded me of your question.

(2) Yes, Teachers Rover and EMSR are 100% correct.

(3) My newspaper says:

When L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt met her lawyers....

THANK YOU

[kfredson]

Dear all,

Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers, only child of Liliane Bettencourt, heiress to the L’Oréal cosmetics empire,

"heiress to the L’Oréal cosmetics empire" describes Liliane Bettencourt or Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers?

Would the meaning change if I add a "who" before heiress, for example:

Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers, only child of Liliane Bettencourt, who is heiress to the L’Oréal cosmetics empire?

Thank you

I agree with the others. The way you have written it suggests that Liliane is the heiress. We would need to see the entire sentence to be positively sure, however. I assume that the next word would be a verb. That makes Liliane the heiress, for sure.

However, if you were to continue with another string of appositives it would no longer be so clear:
Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers, only child of Liliane Bettencourt, heiress to the L’Oréal cosmetics empire, owner of the world's first solar powered airplane, two-time winner of the Daytona 500, estranged wife of the Olympic Badminton Commissioner, set out today on her round-the-world unicycle expedition.

Perhaps The Parser's newspaper can make this clearer!