jutfrank
VIP Member
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2014
- Member Type
- English Teacher
- Native Language
- English
- Home Country
- England
- Current Location
- England
"An inanimate piece of iron" confuses me. When we animate or reanimate something we, first of all, give life/breathe life into it. Of course, it can live independently, but only after that.
Yes, I understand what you mean. The context of (b) would be ideally suited for an uncountable use of give life with the sense that you mention.
I'm not sure what's confusing you, however. The writer certainly could very well have used life uncountably, but he/she didn't. The choice to use the word countably tells us something about how he/she was thinking.
But children or "children" (products) can start to live their own life only after their parents/creators, first, give life to/create them. However, (d) says, "You give a life to this individual, and then they have a life of their own." That's what confuses me.
Okay. Yes, that makes sense. I do agree that that's confusing. Don't expect people to always phrase their thoughts in a way that makes perfect sense.
But if "then" is of little importance, and the whole sentence means just "they live a life you give them", I get this.
Yes, that's right. We have to think about what people mean from the greater context of what they say. The idea of sentence (d) is a simple comparison of the logo and a child. The designer is the one who provided the logo with a life in the first place, and then the logo went on to lead an independent existence. You seem to have understood this correctly.