the whistling man

English grammar questions, answered by Alan

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navit
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the whistling man

Post by navit »

Are these correct:

1) Stop that man whistling. He wants to go out through the fire exit.
2) Stop the man whistling. He wants to go out through the fire exit.


3) Stop that whistling man. He wants to go out through the fire exit.
4) Stop the whistling man. He wants to go out through the fire exit.


The idea is: stop that man who is whistling and prevent him from going through the fire exit.

I think '1' and '2' could mean: stop that man from whistling. I don't know if they could be used in this context.

Gratefully,
Navi
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Alan
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Re: the whistling man

Post by Alan »

1 & 2 would generally be understood to have only the meaning 'prevent him from continuing to whistle'.

For the alternative meaning (i.e. stop=arrest his progress) you would need to use a full relative clause 'the man who is whistling' in order to make a well-formed English sentence ("?the whistling man" is unidiomatic almost to the point of ungrammaticality).
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