English Gurus Pls What Is The Answer To This ?? - Education (3)

English Gurus Pls What Is The Answer To This ?? - Education (3) - Nairaland

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Re: English Gurus Pls What Is The Answer To This ?? by ejimatic: 3:58pm On May 02, 2024*

Asawoboy:

This is an example of structural ambiguity in English.An ambiguity is an instance of having two possible meanings from a sentence..
In the sentence above it could mean either of them was drunk. In order to dsiambiguate it it should be "A mother saw her daughter and the woman beat her because her daughter was drunk"

Another example of structural ambiguity is: Mary saw Agnes and she gave her #5. Who gave whom money? grin

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Re: English Gurus Pls What Is The Answer To This ?? by LordJessie10(m): 3:59pm On May 02, 2024

Biglittlelois:
No straight answer to this

The mother MAY be drunk and beat the daughter cos she's intoxicated, or due to anger, alcohol bring out the worst in humans

The daughter MAY be underage so can't drink alcohol

The daughter MAY be drunk which made the mother beat her.

Swear yhu funi onyem. Best comedian of the year goes to yhu ALUbam🤣

Re: English Gurus Pls What Is The Answer To This ?? by kokomilala(m): 3:59pm On May 02, 2024

Two-fold or Ambiguous Answer

The interpretation or grammatical meaning has too answers. Either of them could be drunk. It depends on the viewpoint. To remove any ambiguity,the sentence will have to be reconstructed.

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Re: English Gurus Pls What Is The Answer To This ?? by smogicesamson(m): 4:00pm On May 02, 2024

The subject is the one drunk

Re: English Gurus Pls What Is The Answer To This ?? by LordJessie10(m): 4:00pm On May 02, 2024

The daughter is fxxkn drunk if not she for no beat am. If I dey there I for follow beat her. She is too young to be drinking any how biko

Re: English Gurus Pls What Is The Answer To This ?? by ellizy(m): 4:01pm On May 02, 2024

Na mother dey beat children so na the daughter got drunk

Re: English Gurus Pls What Is The Answer To This ?? by Benwallt(m): 4:05pm On May 02, 2024

Subject verb agreement has solved the whole.

The subject performs the action "beat" and the object "daughter receives the action "beat". The reason for the action"beat" is "drunk". Therefore, the mother beats her daughter because the daughter was drunk.

Re: English Gurus Pls What Is The Answer To This ?? by EducasionMe(m): 4:07pm On May 02, 2024

Who was coret in you all?

Re: English Gurus Pls What Is The Answer To This ?? by Akujuriobi: 4:08pm On May 02, 2024

The mother was drunk

Re: English Gurus Pls What Is The Answer To This ?? by socialmediaman: 4:09pm On May 02, 2024

Nahunger:
The statement doesn't break with a comma sign, so the drunk person is actually the daughter.

A comma is unnecessary in this context and doesn’t provide the necessary context either

The “she” there, in fact, was providing the reason for the beating and could go both ways, either conveying that the mother’s action was induced by drunkenness on her own part (as some irresponsible parents do), or the mother’s action was because of the daughter’s drunkenness

If she was referring to the daughter, the sentence could’ve been changed to “A mother beats up her daughter, who was drunk”.

If she was referring to the mother, the sentence could’ve been changed to “A mother, who was drunk, beats up her daughter”

Re: English Gurus Pls What Is The Answer To This ?? by poiZon: 4:12pm On May 02, 2024

How will this help solve Garri wahala currently?

Re: English Gurus Pls What Is The Answer To This ?? by Konquest: 4:13pm On May 02, 2024

kings59:
A mother is the subject, her daughter is the object, because = is the emphasis, she was drunk was the reason for the action.

Her daughter was drunk.

He threw the fruit away because it was bad.

Re: English Gurus Pls What Is The Answer To This ?? by emerem: 4:14pm On May 02, 2024

Asawoboy:

she was drunk. No comma to show which is the subject and the predicate.

Re: English Gurus Pls What Is The Answer To This ?? by Konquest: 4:15pm On May 02, 2024

ejimatic:
This is an example of structural ambiguity in English. An ambiguity is (an) instance of having two possible meanings from a sentence.

In the sentence above it could mean either of them was drunk. In order to diambiguate it it should be "A mother saw her daughter and the woman beat her because her daughter was drunk"

Another example of structural ambiguity is: Mary saw Agnes and she gave her #5. Who gave whom money?

Very well said.

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Re: English Gurus Pls What Is The Answer To This ?? by Tapout(m): 4:20pm On May 02, 2024

Biglittlelois:
No straight answer to this

The mother MAY be drunk and beat the daughter cos she's intoxicated, or due to anger, alcohol bring out the worst in humans

The daughter MAY be underage so can't drink alcohol

The daughter MAY be drunk which made the mother beat her.

It's obvious you're among the 140 million that scored below 200 in jamb..

Re: English Gurus Pls What Is The Answer To This ?? by triplechoice(m): 4:21pm On May 02, 2024

It's the mother who was drunk, not the daughter.

The adverbial clause of reason, "because she was drunk" functions to modify the phrasal verb, "beats up" in the main clause, "A mother beats up her daughter" to tell us the reason for the action of beating up.

"because she was drunk" is modifying the phrasal verb, "beats up", and not describing the daughter as drunk.

If the daughter is the drunk, then the correct sentence will be,

A mother beats up her daughter who was drunk.

2 Likes

Re: English Gurus Pls What Is The Answer To This ?? by horlakay(m): 4:21pm On May 02, 2024

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Re: English Gurus Pls What Is The Answer To This ?? by selleniza: 4:23pm On May 02, 2024

tishbite42:
You're the only person that has said something sensible
The reason for the action

I have seen Oyibo reporting the action of a drunkard several times. What they will say is; dash dash dash did this after getting drunk.

Re: English Gurus Pls What Is The Answer To This ?? by Hillarie(m): 4:23pm On May 02, 2024

kings59:
A mother is the subject, her daughter is the object, because = is the emphasis, she was drunk was the reason for the action.

Her daughter was drunk.

He threw the fruit away because it was bad.

Well, while it is a cohesive and coherent sentence, this is a case of ambiguity. Unless the speaker gives further information, it is hard to tell whether it is the mother or the daughter that was drunk.

Re: English Gurus Pls What Is The Answer To This ?? by Bliss4mf2: 4:24pm On May 02, 2024

Asawoboy:

Let's rearrange this active voice in the passive form for the sake of emphasis:

Daughter was beaten up by her mother because she (the daughter) was drunk.

The adverbial clause 'because she was drunk' modifies the action originally carried out by the performer of the action (mother) whose reason was recorded by the modifier.

I surmise

Re: English Gurus Pls What Is The Answer To This ?? by Strap: 4:26pm On May 02, 2024

Prof, I hail thee 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Master can you be my English Teacher?

APOPTOSIS:
The QUESTION ought to be reported in a past form. Generally, Narrative writings are reported in past forms.
Therefore, the right sentence is...
A Mother beat up her daughter because she was drunk. However at this point we still don't know who was drunk😂😂, but the word " beat" should take precedence.

Typing BEATS makes it look like her daughter is still receiving the beating since beats is part of the present.

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Re: English Gurus Pls What Is The Answer To This ?? by jayfad001: 4:30pm On May 02, 2024

The daughter was drunk

Re: English Gurus Pls What Is The Answer To This ?? by Hillarie(m): 4:31pm On May 02, 2024

triplechoice:
It's the mother who was drunk, not the daughter.

The adverbial clause of reason, "because she was drunk" functions to modify the phrasal verb, "beats up" in the main clause, "A mother beats up her daughter" to tell us the reason for the action of beating up.

"because she was drunk" is modifying the phrasal verb, "beats up", and not describing the daughter as drunk.

If the daughter is the drunk, then the correct sentence will be,

A mother beats up her daughter who was drunk.

No, sir. Semantics doesn't work that way. It's an ambiguous sentence. That is to say that it can mean different things.
While you're very correct about the adverbial clause modifying the verbal phrase "beat up", (even though it was erroneously written as "beats up" ) it still doesn't explain whether it's the mother who was drunk or the daughter. Read up on ambiguity in language.

Re: English Gurus Pls What Is The Answer To This ?? by selleniza: 4:32pm On May 02, 2024

triplechoice:
It's the mother who was drunk, not the daughter.

The adverbial clause of reason, "because she was drunk" functions to modify the phrasal verb, "beats up" in the main clause, "A mother beats up her daughter" to tell us the reason for the action of beating up.

"because she wore a short skirt" is modifying the phrasal verb, "beats up", and not describing the daughter as wearing a short skirt.

If the daughter is the drunk, then the correct sentence will be,

A mother beats up her daughter who was drunk.

So if I say:

A mother beats up her daughter because she wore a short skirt.

You are going to say:

It's the mother that wore a short skirt, not the daughter.
The adverbial clause of reason, "because she wore a short skirt" functions to modify the phrasal verb, "beats up" in the main clause, "A mother beats up her daughter" to tell us the reason for the action of beating up.
"because she wore a short skirt" is modifying the phrasal verb, "beats up", and not describing the daughter as drunk.
If the daughter wore a short skirt, then the correct sentence will be,
A mother beats up her daughter who wore a short skirt.

Re: English Gurus Pls What Is The Answer To This ?? by MetalJigsaw(m): 4:32pm On May 02, 2024

Very easy

A drunk mother beat up her daughter. (Mother)

A mother beat up her daughter because she was drunk. ( daughter)

Re: English Gurus Pls What Is The Answer To This ?? by ThierryJay: 4:33pm On May 02, 2024

triplechoice:
It's the mother who was drunk, not the daughter.

The adverbial clause of reason, "because she was drunk" functions to modify the phrasal verb, "beats up" in the main clause, "A mother beats up her daughter" to tell us the reason for the action of beating up.

"because she was drunk" is modifying the phrasal verb, "beats up", and not describing the daughter as drunk.

If the daughter is the drunk, then the correct sentence will be,

A mother beats up her daughter who was drunk.

I slightly disagree. Your modified sentence does not necessarily have the same meaning as the original.

The clear meaning from your revised statement is that the daughter was drunk at the time the mother beat her. It does not necessarily tell us that being drunk was why the daughter was beaten.

The original statement is ambiguous and needs a clear reconstruction.

Re: English Gurus Pls What Is The Answer To This ?? by WesKiz: 4:34pm On May 02, 2024

Na person wey drink Na him go beat the person wey no drink Na

Re: English Gurus Pls What Is The Answer To This ?? by gidyambi(m): 4:38pm On May 02, 2024

Fûck em all

Re: English Gurus Pls What Is The Answer To This ?? by achorladey: 4:42pm On May 02, 2024

the "she" problem

Re: English Gurus Pls What Is The Answer To This ?? by CaptainGo: 4:43pm On May 02, 2024

kings59:
A mother is the subject, her daughter is the object, because = is the emphasis, she was drunk was the reason for the action.

Her daughter was drunk.

He threw the fruit away because it was bad.

Impressive

Re: English Gurus Pls What Is The Answer To This ?? by presiade(m): 4:45pm On May 02, 2024

Asawoboy:

It's obviously an ambiguous statement that needs refinement to convey the intended meaning and eliminate excessive word usage. So either:
"A drunk mother beats up her daughter." Or "A mother beats up her drunk daughter."

Re: English Gurus Pls What Is The Answer To This ?? by usmanktg2(m): 4:46pm On May 02, 2024

Arabic is just the best language in Grammar.
In Arabic, the Person much closest to the Object takes it.
So, in this case, the Daughter was drunk.

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