Harry's B-day Re: Riddle and Grindelwald in 1945

[romulusmmcdougal]

No: HPFGUIDX 109214

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Geoff Bannister" 
<gbannister10 at a...> wrote:
> Geoff:
> I feel must respectfully disagree.
> 
> Canon to start with:
> 
> 'It was a cutting from the Daily Prophet:
> 
> "GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST
> Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on 31 
July...."
> 
> "Hagrid!" said Harry. "That Gringotts break-in happened on my 
> birthday!..."'
> 
> (PS "The Potions Master" p. 105 UK edition)
> 
> The structure of the sentence only allows the interpretation that 
the 
> crime was committed on 31st July. The phrase "on 31st July" refers 
> to "Gringotts" and not "Investigations". If the report wanted to 
> indicate that investigations were continuing, the standard wording 
> would be....
> 
> "Investigations are still continue into the break-in...."
> 
> No way would the paper produce something like "On 31st July, 
> investigations are continuing into the break-in..." which is what 
you 
> seem to be implying.

Geoff,
Let me explain what I mean.
What you say regarding the structure of the sentence may be true, but 
not necessarily.  It is ambiguous based on the grammatical rules for 
Adverb Prepositions versus Adjective Prepositions.
To understand the first part of the first sentence in the Prophet 
article, we have to properly construct the sentence. Here are the 
parts of that first sentence:

Subject = "Investigations",
Verb = "continue",
Adverb Preposition #1 = "into the break-in" (since this preposition 
modifies the verb "continue", it is an adverb preposition),
Adjective Preposition = "at Gringotts" (since this preposition 
modifies the noun "break-in", it is an adjective preposition)
Adverb Preposition #2 = "on 31 July" since this preposition can 
modify the verb "continue" and not necessarily the noun "Gringotts". 
With adverb prepositions, they can be interchanged within the 
sentence without the meaning of the sentence being changed.  To show 
this, let's simply interchange the two adverb prepositions in the 
sentence above. Here then is the new sentence:
"Investigations continue on 31 July into the break-in at
Gringotts,
"

Therefore, based on grammar, the headline can indicate that the 
investigations were continuing on 31 July instead of the break-in 
occurring on 31 July.

Secondly, the "piece of paper", the cutting from the Daily Prophet, 
was lying on the table under the tea cozy. This implies that the 
cutting was from an old paper and not a new one. Hagrid cut it out of 
an old issue of the Daily Prophet because of its significance in 
regards to the Stone and Hagrid and Harry being at Gringotts on the 
same day of the break-in.

Thirdly, the whole article from the Daily Prophet may not have been 
given to us.  And Harry waits until well into the reading of the 
article to make the statement that the break-in occurred on his 
birthday.  

Thus, with the above grammatical reading of the headline, the 
birthday discrepancy for Harry Potter disappears.
Tuesday is July 30th, and Tuesday is Harry Potter's birthday.
Therefore, Harry Potter was born on July 30, 1980.

RMM