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

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 109241

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "romulusmmcdougal" 
<romulus at h...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Geoff Bannister" 
> <gbannister10 at a...> wrote:

RMM:
> 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.


Geoff:
I think you actually mean "adverbial clauses" and "adjectival 
clauses"...

The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines a preposition as  
an "indeclinable word serving to mark relations between the noun or 
pronoun it governs and another word", i.s. words like for, on, by etc.


RMM:

<snip>
  
> 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.


Geoff:
But that type of wording would never be used in a UK paper. A fairly 
standard layout would be "Investigations continue into the (recent) 
break-in at Gringotts (on Tuesday)/(on 31st July). The only possible 
structure which might use your heading wuold be if n investigation 
was re-opening with 31st July as the date ut was happening - not the 
date of the break-in.


RMM:
> 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.


Geoff:
Which I considered and decided was't really relevant.


RMM:
> 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.


Geoff:
How on earth can Harry be so thick that he doesn't know his own 
birthday? Come on, Romulus, be serious, Harry recognised the date as 
his birthday, 31st July....... What more evidence do you want?