[Grammar] ambiguous meanings

[keitin]

what does it means?

the king of Egland's people

one possible meaning is " the Egland's people' king" ?

 

[Barb_D]

What does it mean?

Please note: It's spelled England.

No it cannot refer to the king himself. Whether it means all of England or the specific group of people who take care of him/support him, I can't tell, but it's the kings people, not the people's king.

 

[keitin]

thanks a lot!:-D

so the one meaning is

[the king of England's] people

right?


does the NP have another possible meaning?

 

[Tdol]

In what context did you see this?

 

[keitin]

it's not in the article.
i'm studying Andrew Raford's transformatinal grammar.
we need to analyze the ambiguity meanings in the NP

just like

a toy factory

 

[Barb_D]

I see.

"The King of England" is so strongly joined as a phrase that you would have to deliberately seek a misinterpretation.

We tend not to say a monarch "of a country's people" but a monarch of a country.

With "a toy factory," it would be immediately obvious which you meant in a context. If you simply saw that phrase spray painted on a wall you wouldn't know, but you'd surely know if you were talking about a factory that made toys, or a toy that was in the form of a factory.

With the king [of England's people] you'd be asking your reader to change the way they traditionally say this.

Verbally, you could say "The king [pause] of England'speople [almost as one word]" and you would probably get them to take this meaning.

 

[TheParser]

it's not in the article.
i'm studying Andrew Raford's transformatinal grammar.
we need to analyze the ambiguity meanings in the NP

just like

a toy factory

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

Good morning, keitin.

(1) Congratulations on studying transformational grammar. It is too difficult for me to understand.

(2) I just thought that you would like to know something that I read in A GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, by Dr. George O. Curme, written in "the old days" (1931):

(a) Today we say: the King of England's property.

(b) Until the year 1500, we said: The king's property of England.

(c) Professor Curme explains that the English people decided to stop this because when people spoke, people would think you were saying: The kings (plural) of England property.

(d) Therefore, the people decided to treat "king of England" as a unit/group.

(i) So today we say: The king of England's property. (We are talking about one king.)

(ii) As Dr. Curme says, we now keep the plural for a sentence such as:

The kings of England now have less power than formerly.

Thanks for the great question.

 

[keitin]

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

Good morning, keitin.

(1) Congratulations on studying transformational grammar. It is too difficult for me to understand.

Really thank's a lot

transformational grammar is really difficulty for me, too!:-|

ha

i always spend one day long doing the exercises


---------------------------------
also thanks Barb_D
---------------------------------

i know how to do my homework:-D

 

[keitin]

can i ask one more question?

i need to find the possible differences in structure between the bracketed NPs in

She's [another friend of Mary]
She's [another friend of Mary's]

(simply assume that of Mary and of Mary's are PPs, don't concern with the internal structure of these PPs)

i think is that

[another] [friend of Mary]
[anothr friend] of Mary's