help with "that" and meaning analysis

bubu · Jul 6, 2004

dear sir

I have just registered. My good greetings to you.

I have questions about the quoted lines.

I was discussing with my students a paragraph of a story. The story is about a boy who vanished. In the story a father comes to know that his new born child’s feet must not touch the earth until the child completes his 12th year otherwise the child will face big trouble.
“Great care was taken that this should be avoided.” [Extract from the original text]
So he appoints nurses to take care of the baby. Everything goes fine until he reaches his 12th year. The father becomes very happy and one day arranges a big feast to celebrate his son’s release. But while a nurse was carrying the baby a frightful unearthly yell distracts her attention and she drops the child on the ground and goes over to the window to sea what had caused the noise. But at the next moment-
“With a cry, she realized that she has disobeyed her master”. [Extract frm the orignl text]

This is how the story begins.

Now I would like to know the meaning and grammatical behaviour of the word “that” in the first indented sentence. Does it mean “so that”?

And in the second indented sentence I have this following question:

Doesn’t the sentence sound ambiguous?

“With a cry, she realized” I think may convey two different meanings 1] the cry made her realize or the cry was responsible to make he realize. 2] She realized her mistake and as a result uttered the cry [This is certainly the meaning the writer wants to convey]

Could you plz explain? Thanks

Bubu

bubu · Jul 6, 2004

dear sir

I have just registered. My good greetings to you.

I have questions about the quoted lines.

I was discussing with my students a paragraph of a story. The story is about a boy who vanished. In the story a father comes to know that his new born child’s feet must not touch the earth until the child completes his 12th year otherwise the child will face big trouble.
“Great care was taken that this should be avoided.” [Extract from the original text]
So he appoints nurses to take care of the baby. Everything goes fine until he reaches his 12th year. The father becomes very happy and one day arranges a big feast to celebrate his son’s release. But while a nurse was carrying the baby a frightful unearthly yell distracts her attention and she drops the child on the ground and goes over to the window to sea what had caused the noise. But at the next moment-
“With a cry, she realized that she has disobeyed her master”. [Extract frm the orignl text]

This is how the story begins.

Now I would like to know the meaning and grammatical behaviour of the word “that” in the first indented sentence. Does it mean “so that”?

And in the second indented sentence I have this following question:

Doesn’t the sentence sound ambiguous?

“With a cry, she realized” I think may convey two different meanings 1] the cry made her realize or the cry was responsible to make he realize. 2] She realized her mistake and as a result uttered the cry [This is certainly the meaning the writer wants to convey]

Could you plz explain? Thanks

Bubu

MikeNewYork · Jul 6, 2004

bubu said:
dear sir

I have just registered. My good greetings to you.

Welcome to our forum. :hi:

I have questions about the quoted lines.

I was discussing with my students a paragraph of a story. The story is about a boy who vanished. In the story a father comes to know that his new born child’s feet must not touch the earth until the child completes his 12th year otherwise the child will face big trouble.
“Great care was taken that this should be avoided.” [Extract from the original text]
So he appoints nurses to take care of the baby. Everything goes fine until he reaches his 12th year. The father becomes very happy and one day arranges a big feast to celebrate his son’s release. But while a nurse was carrying the baby a frightful unearthly yell distracts her attention and she drops the child on the ground and goes over to the window to sea what had caused the noise. But at the next moment-
“With a cry, she realized that she has disobeyed her master”. [Extract frm the orignl text]

This is how the story begins.

Now I would like to know the meaning and grammatical behaviour of the word “that” in the first indented sentence. Does it mean “so that”?

That would be one explanation. The conjunction "that" could be ellipsis of "so that". In that case, great care was taken for the reason that bad things didn't happen. There is another use of "that" as a conjunction -- its use to indroduce a subordinate clause of hope or desire. In that case, great care was taken in the hope that bad things didn't happen. In this use, the two possibilities are very close.

And in the second indented sentence I have this following question:

Doesn’t the sentence sound ambiguous?

“With a cry, she realized” I think may convey two different meanings 1] the cry made her realize or the cry was responsible to make he realize. 2] She realized her mistake and as a result uttered the cry [This is certainly the meaning the writer wants to convey]

Could you plz explain? Thanks

Bubu

I would read the second sentence to have your second meaning. If the "cry" had been causal, I would not have expected it to begin with "with a cry".

MikeNewYork · Jul 6, 2004