1 I know what people in this country are.
2 I know what people are in this country.
It seems to me that the sentences can have different meanings. But I can't pinpoint the difference explicitly. Are there two meanings or am I wrong?
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1It's difficult to find a credible semantic distinction with [TO BE] as in your example. But we could in principle distinguish between, say, #1: what people here need and #2: what people need here. With that pair, feasibly #1 might refer to people who are normally here (because they live here), where #2 is more likely to refer to people who are temporarily here (on holiday, for example). But oftentimes no difference is intended or perceived. Syntactically, it's probably a matter of whether here adjectivally modifies people or adverbially modifies need.– FumbleFingersCommented May 25, 2023 at 13:40
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Hi. What is the context here? What do you know that people are? Do you live in "this country"? Are you a visitor? Is it something unpleasant? Something about their nature/character? Is it something about their nationality/ethinic origin? Meanings often depend on context. Without context, all we can really do is guess.– Billy KerrCommented May 25, 2023 at 16:16
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You might know something in country X but not know it in country Y, although that seems unlikely in most contexts. But maybe you lose your powers to think, reason, or remember in Y because of some quality it has.– Stuart FCommented May 26, 2023 at 12:56
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1 Answer
Without context, it's impossible to say the intended meaning or if there will be any meaningful difference between the two.
There could be a distinction between defining "people in this country" and defining "people" within the context of this country.
For instance if the definition of a "person" is different in this country than elsewhere, then sentence 2 would apply better.
But if the intent is to say you know the nature of all the people in this country, then both sentence work fine.