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Old 21-Nov-2007, 15:30
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Default Which interpretation is correct?

Ex :- A1)His bills are paid.

How do we interpret the above sentence?Is it that he paid all the bills or he pays all the bills.

Same sentence if extended in two ways

B1)His bills are paid regularly every month.

B2)His bills are paid,he owes nothing now.

In B1 i feel like He pays the bills every month and so its a general action and refered to the action not done now.

In B2 i feel like He paid the bills and so the paying action is done.

First of all I need to know Whether my interpretation of A1 and A2 are correct?If correct,then does it mean that same clause gives different meaning in differnt contexts?If it gives,How do we generally recognise in which way it has been used.
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Old 21-Nov-2007, 21:50
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Default Re: Which interpretation is correct?

You are correct: the sentence has a different meaning based on context. We generally recognise which meaning is correct by looking at the context -- and that's really the only way.

Only in text-books do sentences appear out of context. In real life, there is always a context.
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