I have ambiguity with the meaning of some compound nouns, especially in the form noun+noun like: "The Pirate King", "The Lion King", "The Pirate Bay" and so on. EDITED: to put it in context: Consider this famous movie title: "The Lion King", is it literally another structure of "The King of Lions", meaning are they … Read more
And if it’s grammatically correct, does it have ambiguity to it? If so, how to rephrase this sentence to get rid of this ambiguity? Answer There are a couple of problems. Ways to express the idea of studying someone’s art: “I studied the art of Pablo Picasso.” “The artist whose art I studied is Pablo … Read more
In describing living creatures English is ambiguous. Even if we leave aside possible figurative meanings, “you are cold” may signify either that you are externally cold when someone touches you-cold in the sense that an inaminate object is cold- or that you feel cold to yourself internally. There appears to be no way to remove … Read more
I have seen the following sentences in a book given to us during our training period at The Regional Institute of English, Bangluru I got married to Priscilla. I got married with Priscilla According to the book, the first sentence means "I married Priscilla" and second sentence means "I and Priscilla married at the same … Read more
“When we consider either the history of opinion or the ordinary conducf of human life, to what is it to be ascribed that the one and the other are no worse than they are?” I am confused by what this quote means. The source of my confusion lies in “no worse than they are” and … Read more
The MacMillan Dictionary has the following definition for the phrase ‘there is no question that‘: used for saying that something is definitely true It gives the example: There is no question that she has a great voice. In other words: It is definitely true that she has a great voice. Therefore it appears that the … Read more
If you say “We need some manpower tomorrow to move some of the stuff downstairs.” could you mean both “moving stuff down the stairs” and “move stuff that is downstairs”? Which is the more common understanding of it? Answer Yes, it can be understood either way. I don’t know which is more common. As the … Read more
Can anyone please explain to me the meaning of the following sentence? Learning disabilities are immutable irrespective of time and nature of interventions. I am also not sure whether the structure of the sentence is correct. Thank you in advance. Answer “immutable” = “cannot be changed” “interventions” = various therapies, drugs, tutoring, etc. “irrespective” = … Read more
I do not know the history of the words affect and effect. I know their use in English, with the words being verbs and nouns respectively, but as a point of curiosity and enthusiasm, I wonder if there is a need to have separate words at all? Is there ever a case where there is … Read more
I recently read a long list of English proverbs and strongly felt that a considerable number of them have a double meaning, despite that the explanations of the proverbs provide only one meaning for each proverb. I am curious as to whether native English speakers see double meanings of English proverbs as I do and, … Read more
