1) Sally was dancing with Paul with a black jacket on, not with Paul with the blue jacket on.
2) Sally was dancing with the Paul with a black jacket on, not with the Paul with the blue jacket on.
Let us say we are at a party where there are two Pauls. I want to say which Paul Sally was dancing with. Which sentence should I use?
Gratefully,
Navi
which Paul are we talking about?
which Paul are we talking about?
ACCESS_POST_ACTIONSRe: which Paul are we talking about?
You should use 2), which is pretty unambiguous.
1) could be parsed as meaning that Sally was wearing a black jacket while dancing with Paul, whereas she was not wearing a blue jacket while dancing with Paul. It is also unclear whether the second mention of Paul in this version of the sentence relates to the same Paul or to a different one.
Preceding the names with "the" precludes any misunderstanding about who was wearing the jackets and whether or not Sally was dancing with the same Paul.
ACCESS_POST_ACTIONS
1) could be parsed as meaning that Sally was wearing a black jacket while dancing with Paul, whereas she was not wearing a blue jacket while dancing with Paul. It is also unclear whether the second mention of Paul in this version of the sentence relates to the same Paul or to a different one.
Preceding the names with "the" precludes any misunderstanding about who was wearing the jackets and whether or not Sally was dancing with the same Paul.
ACCESS_END_OF_TOPIC