Googling ‘Clint Eastwood’ I found this, taken from a reputable newspaper.
Ex-husband of Clint Eastwood’s girlfriend Christina Sandera reveals her criminal past
The interpretation is that an ex-husband of Christina Sandera dished the dirt on her.
Does this modification make sense?
Ex-husband of Clint Eastwood’s girlfriend Christina Sandera reveals his criminal past
which changes the focus from Christina Sandera to the ex-husband, but I don’t suppose is newspaper style.
Is there a concept for ‘multi-person sentences’, where the pronouns can point in several directions? In this case I think the pronouns are vague.
Answer
Ex-husband of (Clint Eastwood’s girlfriend Christina Sandera) reveals her criminal past
“Clint Eastwood’s girlfriend Christina Sandera” is a noun phrase referring to a person. Presumably the celebrity reference is there to justify the inclusion of pure gossip in a newspaper. We can simplify:
(Ex-husband of Christina Sandera) reveals her criminal past
Another noun phrase referring to a person.
This kind of lengthy phrasing is not unusual in gossip where someone is trying to explain the extremely indirect route by which they’ve been told something. “Your aunty Margaret’s cousin’s ex-wife’s brother-in-law …” etc.
Edit: comments have been discussing how “her” is critical to disambiguating this. Consider:
Ex-husband of Clint Eastwood’s girlfriend Christina Sandera reveals their criminal past
There isn’t any way to tell unambiguously whether this refers to Christina, her ex-husband, Clint Eastwood, or all of them together in the plural. You could even wonder whether we’re talking about Clint Eastwood’s ex-husband.
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : JMP , Answer Author : pjc50
