Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: Dubbio su un soggetto

Ciao a tutti, vorrei chiedervi un altro aiuto. Sto leggendo un libro su 
popolazioni africane e c'e' una frase, che riporto sotto, di cui non sono 
sicuro del soggetto. Il soggetto "they", che ho scritto in maiuscolo, sono 
le donne o gli uomini? A mio parere sono le donne "che chiedono" ma forse 
sbaglio...
 
"Occasionally a woman will be asked by a man to carry the scars he has 
earned by killing an enemy. But more frequently THEY ask that it be done for 
reasons of their own and because women look better with than without them."
 
Grazie per il chiarimento!
 
 
Massimo Gironi 
 
 

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S�, sbagli. "They" sono gli uomini che chiedono che le donne portano i 
segni.
 
Occassionally a woman will be asked by a man... � la strutura passiva. 
"A man" � il soggetto.
 

 ha scritto nel messaggio 
news:kkcljo$sti$1...@dont-email.me...

Grazie per la risposta Tony (e grazie due volte se mi hai risposto anche su 
yahoo!).
Il mio dubbio su questa frase dipendeva dallo stesso motivo che hai 
spiegato. Adesso ho avuto la conferma che la mia lettura della frase non era 
corretta.
 
Ciao! 
 
 

 
 
"MG"  wrote in message news:516d64eb$0$37131$4faf...@reader1.news.tin.it...
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Tony the Ice Man is usually right , but I have to disagree this time - it is 
the women who ask . The contrast is signalled by 'Occasionally ... but more 
frequently' : occasionally the men ask the women , but more frequently the 
women ask the men.
 
Mike 
 

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Upon rereading the original text I see that Mike may be right in 
thinking that the author intended that the "they" in the second sentence 
should refer to the women. I may have been mislead by the parallel 
construction of the two sentences to ignore certain hints about the 
probable logic that ties them together.
 
"Occasionally a woman will be asked by a man to carry the scars he has 
earned by killing an enemy. But more frequently THEY ask that it be done 
for reasons of their own and because women look better with than without 
them."
 
The second sentence is ambiguous and poorly written. One can only 
determine the implied subject from the logic of the sentence. I mistook 
the 'occasionally' as referring to the accepted custom "to carry the 
scars he has earned by killing an enemy." And I mistook the "more 
frequently" as referring to the "reasons of their own."
 
After reading Mike's comment I've examined the implied logic more 
"consciously." I would have to agree that, probably, the author switched 
subjects and is referring to the women as "they" in the second sentence. 
This is an almost purposely confusing structure. I would not be 
surprised to discover, if I were able to delve further into the context, 
that the author confused not only the structure but also the logic of 
the sentences and really meant to refer to the men.
 
If indeed the author intended that women ask in the second sentence, the 
sentences should have been written this way.
 
Occasionally a woman will be asked by a man to carry the scars he has 
earned by killing the enemy. But more frequently it is the women who ask 
to carry the scars for their own reason, that is; they think that they 
look better with the scars than without them.
 
See? Eight more words and now there's no problem.