"the other painting's owner"
    Joel S. Berson 
    Berson at ATT.NET
       
    Sat May 14 02:29:20 UTC 2011
    
    
  
 From an "Arts, Briefly" item in the print
NYTimes of Friday, May 13, about a dispute over the ownership of a painting:
"Last year, the gallery told Mr. Wylde it had
learned that the Met already owned 31 percent of
the painting  which depicts a cow gazing at a
portrait of other cows  and that the other
painting's owner had promised that the museum
would eventually own the whole painting."
At first, I was confused because no other
painting had been mentioned in the
item.  Eventually I realized that the phrase
meant not "the owner of the other painting" but
rather "the other owner of the painting"
Clearer on-line, in "Arts Beat", by Felicia Lee:
"Last year, the gallery told Mr. Wylde it had
learned that the Met already owned 31 percent of
the painting  which depicts a cow gazing at a
portrait of other cows  and that the other owner
had promised that the museum would eventually own the whole thing."
Although now I wonder what the "whole thing" is
-- perhaps the entire dispute and its two legal cases?  :-)
Joel
------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
    
    
More information about the Ads-l
mailing list