Примењена лингвистика у част Ранку Бугарском - Језик у

JEZIK U UPOTREBI / LANGUAGE IN USE
as the adjunct so derived may be attached to (i.e. bracketed with) more than one
constituent in the sentence. In the normal structural representation of
(23) Jim waved at the girl in the bookshop.
we have no superficial way of knowing whether only Jim was in the bookshop
when the waving was performed, or only the girl was, or whether they were both
in the bookshop. Similarly with
(24) (a) Anna kissed the young man in a hurry.
(b) Oscar showed his guests the wine barrels in the basement.
(c) The seniors were told to stop demonstrating on campus. 12
4.3.5.1. Application of the combined two transformations may result in humour.
The following dialogue depicts a scene in an episode from the benny hill
show. Bashful Benny is inside his room, wearing his pyjamas and is about to
go to bed; his man-craving fiancée knocks at the door:
(25) Benny: Who is it?
Fiancée: It’s me, darling. Open the door.
Benny: I can’t open the door. I’m in my pyjamas.
Fiancée: Why can’t you open the door in your pyjamas?
Benny: ‘Cause I haven’t got a door in my pyjamas!
Clearly, what causes the desired effect here is the ambiguity deriving from the
double nature of the phrase ‘in my pyjamas’: in one case it derives from the
clause ‘... while you are in your pyjamas’, and in the other it functions as a regular
prepositional phrase in the incompatible though perfectly grammatical frame of
reference‘.. a door in my pyjamas’.
4.3.6. Comparison+Deletion
Application of the deletion transformation in comparisons (in the positive or the
comparative degree) may render a sentence multiply ambiguous as is shown in
(26) Jill loves Edith more than her husband.
which may receive the following interpretations
(27) (i) Jill loves Edith more than she (Jill) loves her own husband.
(ii) Jill loves Edith more than she (Jill) loves her (Edith’s) husband.
(iii) Jill loves Edith more than her (Jill’s) husband loves her (Edith).
(iv) Jill loves Edith more than her (Edith’s) husband loves her (Edith).
depending on who loves whose husband or on whose husband loves whose wife
in the second, deleted occurrence of ‘love’!
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The example was taken from Jacobs and Rosenbaum (1968: 6). Note that the sentence receives
six different interpretations.
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