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Looking past the literal meaning of the sentence; I'm struggling to identify which is the true subject and object in the following sentence.
"The mother beats up her daughter because she was drunk." Q: Who is drunk?
Anyone able to help me break this down, please?
"The mother beats up her daughter because she was drunk."
Here, "She" may refer either to 'the mother' or to 'her daughter'. We can remove this ambiguity in any one of the following ways :
- "The mother beats up her daughter because she (the mother) was drunk."
Or,
"The mother beats up her daughter because the mother was drunk."
Or,
"The mother beats up her daughter because the former was drunk."
And
- "The mother beats up her daughter because she (her daughter) was drunk."
Or,
"The mother beats up her daughter because the daughter was drunk.
Or,
"The mother beats up her daughter because the latter was drunk."
//The mother beats up her daughter because she was drunk.// This should be, a) The mother beats up her daughter because she (the mother or the daughter - whoever it is) was drunk. b) Being drunk, the mother beats up the daughter. c) The mother beats up the daughter who was drunk. It can be presented in many ways without confusion.
