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ESL forum >
Grammar and Linguistics > Ambiguity
Ambiguity
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tahriali
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Ambiguity
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How can disambiguiate this expression:
"she pulled her brother �s leg mercilessly."
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2 Jan 2010
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Carla Horne
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Hi Tahriali,
That sentence is an idiom, and it means that she teased or pulled practical jokes on her brother frequently. She probably did this to the point that the jokes were not funny at all, hence the word "mercilessly."
Carla
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3 Jan 2010
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MarionG
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unless, of course, she was literally pulling his leg because he was stuck/ or she wanted his attention...In that case the ambiguity would indeed be between the fact that �pulling his leg � usually means �making fun of � whereas in that situatiuon it wouldn �t be connected to the expression at all. In that case it could be �disambiguated � (what a word!, should remember that one for hangman!) by writing "She pulled at her brother �s leg mercilessly" |
3 Jan 2010
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