a man injured in the house

[navi]

1-We saw a man injured in the house.

Does this mean:
a-We saw a man get injured in the house.
b-We saw a man who had been injured while he was in the house. (maybe he was not in the house when we saw him.
c-We saw a man who was injured and who was in the house.

Gratefully,
Navi.

[trolley]

It could mean any or all of those things. It is up to you to convey to the listener exactly what you saw. If there is a way to express it that leaves no doubt...that's always your best choice.

“If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant; if what is said is not what is meant, then what must be done remains undone; if this remains undone, morals and art will deteriorate; if justice goes astray, the people will stand about in helpless confusion. Hence there must be no arbitrariness in what is said. This matters above everything.”

Confucius

[Wizard of Oz]

.. Navi this is your sentence >> We saw a man injured in the house. .. my first response is What is his "house"? as the implication to me is that it is the mysterious "house" that was injured .. I think it is a very poorly constructed sentence and whoever wrote it needs to completely revise how to communicate to the reader what it is they mean to say ..

.. please have another go at it ..

WoZ covering his house in case it gets injured

[JerrySmile]

I think it is a very poorly constructed sentence

Indeed.

[Wizard of Oz]

.. I notice that in my previous post there are some words, viz completely and please, that appear in upper case .. I did not post it that way and my attempts to correct the problem do not work .. Erik is this part of the WW hack problem ?? ..

WoZ not shouting

[Erik_Kowal]

.. I notice that in my previous post there are some words, viz completely and please, that appear in upper case .. I did not post it that way and my attempts to correct the problem do not work .. Erik is this part of the WW hack problem ??

I see that you have now been able to edit those words. I don't know what the original problems (mysterious capitalization, apparent uneditability) were due to. But as far as I know, the recent spam attack was not responsible for them, and I can't see what the point of that kind of interference might be in any case.

Anyway, things now seem to be back to normal.

[Wizard of Oz]

.. normal as they can be around here ..

WoZ popping pills

[navi]

Thank you all very much.

.. Navi this is your sentence >> We saw a man injured in the house. .. my first response is What is his "house"? as the implication to me is that it is the mysterious "house" that was injured .. I think it is a very poorly constructed sentence and whoever wrote it needs to completely revise how to communicate to the reader what it is they mean to say ..

.. please have another go at it ..

WoZ covering his house in case it gets injured

I did not get your reply the first time I read it! Thanks.

Every man's head is his house!

Respectfully,
Navi.

[Phil White]

Now Woz, that puts a whole new dimension of meaning on "house party" and "full house".

A man was stabbed in the Gorbals yesterday.

[trolley]

It could have been worse. He could have been stabbed in his pajamas.

[Edwin F Ashworth]

I'd say interpretation C is very unlikely; 'We saw an injured man in the house' would be the normal way of putting this.