"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