I didn't move to Miami...

[Grablevskij]

Let's have a look at this sentence:

I didn't move to Miami to live in a Spanish-speaking province.

What does it mean?
1. It is a clause of porpuse and means that I didn't move to Miami where I would live in a Spanish-speaking place. In order not to live in a Spanish-speaking province.

2. The infinitive is used as an adverbial modifier of attendand circumstances.
I didn't move to Miamy and stayed in a Spanish-spesking province.

3. Both the cases are possble depending on context.

Michael

[David L.]

The sentence has a hint of sarcasm.
The writer may have moved to Florida for the warmer climate. However, what he found was that, with such a large proportion of the population being emigrees from Spanish-speaking countries (Puerto Rico, a USA protectorate, is practically just off the coast) it feels to him like he's moved to a part of a foreign country where the language and culture are different to what he's familiar with- and that was definitely not what he had in mind! It's like he's no longer in the real ' good ol' USA'.

[Grablevskij]

Let us suppose it is not a Miamy but, say, a town of Urupinsk. That is let us remove any geographic hints and keep only a linguistic task. So, which case is your favorite?

Michael

[David L.]

I didn't move to Miami in order to live in a Spanish-speaking province.

Correct.
2 is not.

[Grablevskij]

I feel dizzy. My number two was "in order not to live".
In fact you just write the initial sentence once more. We can add "in order" or omit it without changing the meaning.

About number two.
Some more examples of adverbial modifiers of attendand circumstances:
She woke up to see that the sun was shining.
(=She woke up and saw that the sun was shining).

At the age of forty-five he resigned never to return to publec life.
(=At the age of forty-five he resigned and never returned to publec life).

So, why our sentence can't be like this?

Michael

[Grablevskij]

And one more thing.
Am I in Miami or am I not?

I have understood that in order not to live in a Spanish-speaking province, I left where I was (case 1).

If I have moved house to Miamy, I would say: "I moved to Miami not to live in a Spanish-speaking province". So, I am angry with all those Spaniards. Or this would mean that I lived in among Spanish-speakng people? This is difficult case.

And case 2 for me is also Ok. Why not.

Michael

[David L.]

OK, so sentence 1 is:
I didn't move to Miami in order not to live in a Spanish-speaking province.

You have changed the meaning of the sentence by adding 'not'. This sentence now means: (a) either, I now live in Miami because I moved here, or (b) I moved to Miami and then left because I was unhappy, and I am telling somebody about why I decided to leave Miami after taking all the trouble to move there in the first place
I moved to Miami (or moved here and then left to go somewhere else) because I understood that Miami was like a Spanish-speaking province in the USA. That is not what I found to be the case when I moved here and I am unhappy about it. I did not move to Miami so that I would be with ordinary English speaking people - I wanted to live among Spanish-speaking people, almost like being in a real Spanish province.

She woke up to see that the sun was shining.
(=She woke up and saw that the sun was shining). Correct

At the age of forty-five he resigned, never to return to public life.
(=At the age of forty-five he resigned and never returned to public life).
Correct.

So, why our sentence can't be like this?
You are indicating 'like the sentences that I've just quoted above, about the 'sun' and about 'resigning'. I don't understand what you mean. Can you write the sentence like those sentences so I can see what you mean?

[Grablevskij]

I meant the case 2.
I didn't move to Miamy and continue living in a Spanish-speking province as usual.

I focus my attention on "didn't move" and at once imagine that I really didn't move from my old place.
This construction turned out not to be so simple as it seemed to be.

Michael

[riverkid]

Let's have a look at this sentence:



Sometimes, it makes me wonder why a certain structure causes a student problems with comprehension. I think that it may be mother tongue interference. What's a logical structure in English or Russian or Japanese could directly translate to a confusing statement in the target language.

[David may have covered this, so forgive me if I go over the same things but I thought it best to try first from my own perspective instead of trying to figure out what David discussed]

Let me try this with another example, Michael.

riverkid: Michael, go to the store and get two liters of milk.

Michael: Okay, give me some money.

[Michael goes to the store and gets two liters of beer.

riverkid: I didn't send you to the store to get beer!

OR

You didn't go to the store to get beer.

You, that's Michael, actually went to the store to get, ie. for the purpose of getting milk. You didn't go to the store to get beer.

I didn't move to Miami to live in a Spanish-speaking province.

It means, "I moved to Miami for certain unmentioned reasons" The sarcasm that David mentioned is highlighted by using the negative, "I didn't move to Miami". Having moved to Miami, the speaker found that Spanish was used a lot, it was like living in a province in Spain.

It can be paraphrased or explained as,

I didn't move to Miami to live in what seems like a province of Spain.

I didn't move to Miami for the purpose of living in what seems like a province of Spain.

For all the reasons I moved to Miami, living in what seems to be Spanish speaking province wasn't one of them.

I don't know what,

"adverbial modifier of attendand circumstances"

means, Michael, so I'll leave it at this for now and see how you're faring with my explanation.

What does it mean?
1. It is a clause of purpose and means that I didn't move to Miami where I would live in a Spanish-speaking place. In order not to live in a Spanish-speaking province.

2. The infinitive is used as an adverbial modifier of attendand circumstances.
I didn't move to Miami and stayed in a Spanish-speaking province.

3. Both the cases are possible depending on context.

Michael

##

[Grablevskij]

Thank you, Riverkid and David.
Thanks to you I start to understand something.
Or maybe not.

You didn't go to the store to get beer.

Without any context can't it mean that you wanted to buy some beer but was too lazy and just stayed at home?

Michael