reversed "blame"

[Joel S. Berson]

Well, perhaps my only request is, use a better example (that is, one
that would confuse me more)!  :-)
Joel

At 8/27/2011 07:11 PM, Arnold Zwicky wrote:
>On Aug 27, 2011, at 1:39 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>
> >
> > Why all the fuss about this particular headline?  I read "Obama
> > blames Congress Republicans on bus tour" as "Obama blames
> > Congressional Republicans on bus tour", with at worst a poorly placed
> > "on bus tour" -- "Obama, on bus tour, blames Congressional
> > Republicans."
>
>yes, yes, that's the point for the posting to come -- on the
>intended structure, with high attachment.  but the sentence as
>written invites (the preposterous) low attachment, yielding a
>potential ambiguity that involves the argument structure of "blame".
>
>so i used that to lead into a discussion of the various argument
>structures for "blame". the original sentence was just an entry
>point into the larger discussion.
>
> >  The "Obama blames Congress Republicans" seems
> > analogous to the use in headlines of a place-name noun instead of an
> > adjective in cases like "Turkey army invades Persia" vs. "Turkish
> > army invades Persia".
>
>i was simply assuming this in my posting, treating the "Congress
>Republicans" variant as irrelevant to the point i was talking about.
>
>arnold
>
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