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wrosecrans t1_iyfc8rd wrote

Reply to comment by BKStephens in Letter bomb explodes in Ukranian embassy in Madrid by The_Food_Scientist

In the phrase "serious accident" the adjective serious modifies the noun accident.

Are you saying somebody accidentally sent a letter bomb?

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teaklog2 t1_iyfd6lv wrote

Going to jump in and argue the grammar here specifically, in an ‘or’ statement like that the ‘serious’ can also modify both things being listed.

‘i want to buy a red car or truck’ does not imply you want a red car or any colored truck

‘an accretive merger or acquisition’ - doesn’t imply you don’t care if the acquisition is accretive or not

unless you are saying if you want to say ‘I want to buy a red car, table, blanket, and shirt!’ you should instead say ‘i want to buy a red car, a red table, a red blanket, and a red shirt!’

if you want to remove that assumption from your sentence, you could instead say ‘a truck or a red car’ or ‘a red car or any colored truck.’

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wrosecrans t1_iyfejq3 wrote

In that case, the reading is that a wartime casualty can only happen in a "serious war," and someone killed in a minor border conflict wouldn't count as a casualty. Is that a reasonable reading of the definition?

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