[General] The meaning of a sentence. Thank you.

[richuk]

Hey everyone, just a quick question regarding the meaning of a sentence, if anyone would be kind enough to offer any opinions as I am a little confused.
‘What do you think of the toy show?
I was surprised it wasn’t as much fun as the car show but we learnt so much more!’
The ‘learnt so much more’ does this apply to the ‘toy show’ or the ‘car show’?

Initially I thought it was the ‘toy show’ because the first part of the sentence before the ‘but’ is a negative opinion regarding the toy show (positive opinion regarding the car show) and after the ‘but’ one would expect the positive opinion ‘we learnt so much more’ to relate to the ‘toy show’ to contrast with the previous negative opinion.

I was wondering if anyone thinks the ‘we learnt so much more’ applies to the ‘car show’ instead? The contrast either side of the ‘but’ could be from the change in surprise for example:
‘What do you think of the toy show?
I was surprised it wasn’t as much fun as the car show but we learnt so much more [in the car show so no surprise]!’
I guess the additional wording ‘so no surprise’ may need to be added to the original sentence to produce this meaning. What do you think?
Thank you everyone for your time and help. This is a really great forum, thank you.

 

[2006]

Hey everyone, just a quick question regarding the meaning of a sentence, if anyone would be kind enough to offer any opinions as I am a little confused.
‘What do you think of the toy show?
I was surprised it wasn’t as much fun as the car show but we learnt so much more!’
The ‘learnt so much more’ does this apply to the ‘toy show’ or the ‘car show’? toy show

2006

 

[mmasny]

I guess the additional wording ‘so no surprise’ may need to be added to the original sentence to produce this meaning. What do you think?

I think you're right. Even without it, the sentence might be amibiguous in my opinion. The problem is where the 'but' belongs.

I am not a teacher.

 

[bhaisahab]

It applies to the toy show, there is no ambiguity, it is certain.

 

[mmasny]

It applies to the toy show, there is no ambiguity, it is certain.

I don't agree.
It was surprising that the toy show wasn't as fun as the car show, but we learned so much from the car show.
Doesn't this sentence make sense? To me, it does.

 

[euncu]

I don't think that there is an ambiguity. The problem is that analysing something too much leads to confusion.

 

[MASM]

I don't think that there is an ambiguity. The problem is that analysing something too much leads to confusion.

That's right

 

[mmasny]

It can be right, that's for sure. Then the confusion needs to be worked out and no one seems to try

 

[MASM]

It can be right, that's for sure. Then the confusion needs to be worked out and no one seems to try

You are trying! :-D. For me, there's no ambiguity in "I was surprised it wasn’t as much fun as the car show but we learnt so much more!" because maybe you're supposed to have much more fun in a toy shop than in a car show, that's what is surprising for the speaker, as he/she learnt much more in the toy shop.