鲜花( 152) 鸡蛋( 1)
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发表于 2019-5-10 09:14
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My friend said he knew a man with a wooden leg named Smith.
3 P# V$ `. v6 p6 Q% qSo I asked him "What was the name of his other leg?") [/ E6 |0 K7 r1 p0 l# y
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There is no name for the other leg. It's a joke based on a misplaced modifier - some words in a sentence that were in the wrong place, causing comic confusion. * c7 Q$ Q: y6 n p; k- T; |
/ r: W1 \7 h0 i! Y' T+ L$ n/ Y+ AOne person says, "I once knew a man with a wooden leg named Mr. Smith." It sort of seems like the leg is named Mr. Smith, since the name is closer to "leg" than it is to "man". 0 K4 c' ? }$ m) N7 C
' f+ O* {% |0 G; A: tBut it's the MAN who's named Mr. Smith, not the leg. To avoid confusion, and to be grammatically correct, what he should have said was, "I once knew a man, named Mr. Smith, who had a wooden leg."
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! q6 s; {, c# e+ |By saying "I once knew a man with a wooden leg named Mr. Smith", it causes the other person to wrongly think that the leg is named Smith, so he (perhaps jokingly) asks in response, "What was the name of his other leg?" 3 z) j+ [7 [/ Q
6 @4 x$ n3 Q- X$ _0 JGet it? |
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