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a. You didn't come home late last night, as your Dad told you to.
b. You didn't come home late last night, as your Dad told you.
Do these mean:
Your Dad told you to come home late last night
Your Dad told you not to come home late last night
How about this example:
You didn't come home late last night, as your brother did.
Does it mean:
Your brother did come home late last night
Your brother did not come home late last night
To be honest, in my opinion this is one is quite ambiguous, as it would likely depend on the context. Either suggestion for both statements could be accurate.
The construction of the first part of the statements as a little odd, as I would more likely go for "you came home early (...)" in most circumstances. Whether this is intentional or not I don't know. But with that wording, it would very much depend on context.
If "didn't come home late" is intentionally worded that way, while technically meaning the same thing, the use of the word didn't (in my opinion) suggests a negative connotation, so I would make a guess that it's more likely to mean that you didn't come early, despite your dad asking you to come home early.
On that one though, if the person making the statement isn't a native speaker and doesn't quite have a solid grasp of the language, and the tone of the sentence isn't clear from context, it could be either.
TL;DR: A and B imo mean 1, and C means 3, but in no way is it a straightforward answer.
a. You didn't come home late last night, as your Dad told you to.
b. You didn't come home late last night, as your Dad told you.
a. means "Your dad told you to come home late but you did not come home late.
b. means "Your dad told you not to come home late and you did not come home late.
You didn't come home late last night, as your Dad told you to [come home late].
You didn't come home late last night, as your Dad told you [not to come home late].
Technically, grammatically, these statements are ambiguous. Do you mean that your dad told you to come late and you did not, or that your dad told you not to come late and you complied? But in real life, unless the context called for interpreting it as #1, listeners would assume you meant #2. It is unlikely that a father would tell a child to come home late, so we would normally dismiss that possibility.
This is the sort of ambiguity that is often used for jokes. The comedian relates the statement and the audience assumes #2, based on their general knowledge of fathers and children. Then the comedian makes some statement that makes it apparent that he meant #1, and everyone laughs.
The one about the brother is arguably ambiguous but not really. The contrast between "did not" and "did" would be interpreted to mean that you acted differently than your brother did. So you did not come home late. Your brother did come home late. You could turn this into an ambiguous sentence -- assuming that was the goal -- with different wording. Like, "You did not come home late last night, like your brother." Now do we mean that your brother came home late but you did not? Or that your brother did not come home late and neither did you? Not clear.
