Placement of pronoun

[Richard Togher]

The following sentence can have the word 'EITHER' in one of 3 positions. Is the meaning of the sentence affected by the positioning of this word:

"meaning can be clarified EITHER by placing the clause at the beginning or the end of the sentence"

"meaning can be clarified by EITHER placing the clause at the beginning ..."

"meaning can be clarifed by placing the clause EITHER at the beginning..."

[BobK]

The following sentence can have the word 'EITHER' in one of 3 positions. Is the meaning of the sentence affected by the positioning of this word:

"meaning can be clarified EITHER by placing the clause at the beginning or the end of the sentence"

"meaning can be clarified by EITHER placing the clause at the beginning ..."

"meaning can be clarifed by placing the clause EITHER at the beginning..."

They don't change the meaning; the first is wrong, but common (acceptable in informal contexts). The second two could be OK, with the endings I've provided:

meaning can be clarified by EITHER placing the clause at the beginning OR putting it at the end
(This form lets you change the verb, so it can support a different meaning; but the placement of the EITHER/OR doesn't make the meaning change).

meaning can be clarifed by placing the clause EITHER at the beginning OR at the end
(This form lets you change the preposition, so it can support a different meaning; but the placement of the EITHER/OR doesn't make the meaning change).

The phrases that follow both EITHER and OR should be syntactically parallel.

(Some commentators are more permissive than others; examiners are at the lower end of the permissiveness scale!)


b