Re: Grammar - Can

Isaac Penzev wrote:
> scott wrote:
>
>
>
>>I'm starting to translate the New McGuffey First Reader. I have
>>a question about the word can.
>
>
> Ho! McGuffey calls many questions on my side too. Sometimes I fail to
> understand the precise meaning of short sentences.
When faced with this dilemma, I assume the simplest meaning is the
correct one (in the case of "See the man!", the imperative one).  This
is a FIRST reader after all, so it's less likely that a kid is going to
understand all possible readings until later when context is actually given.

As for your running example, however, i guess you could always just
write up two examples, with annotation illustrating the two different
meanings.

Pipian