with no 'full' mind of their actions

[navi]

1) So, if they'll do a young child or teenager that way (which they have
done many times before) you know how they'll do any other person,
especially with no 'full' mind of their actions.

Source

https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Truth/yq4pTE3M0w4C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22+which+they+have+done+many+times+before%22&pg=PA63&printsec=frontcover


https://tinyurl.com/2byf8kjr

'They' are the courts of law. They sentenced a minor the same way they'd
sentence an adult. The author says that if they treated that minor that
way, we can tell how they'd treat any other person.

​Logically, "especially with no 'full' mind of their actions" seems to
refer to "any other person". But grammatically, I'd say it refers to
'they'.

Who in '1' is 'with no full mind of their actions'?


Consider:

2) You know how in such a situation I'd have dealt with any other
person, especially with a gun.


I think in '2' 'especially with a gun' modifies 'I' and not the other
person. Would you agree?

--
Gratefully,
Navi

Lost in the Twilight Zone of the English language
Obsessed with ambiguity
Interested in strange structures

[jerryfriedman]

Post by navi
1) So, if they'll do a young child or teenager that way (which they have
done many times before) you know how they'll do any other person,
especially with no 'full' mind of their actions.
Source
https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Truth/yq4pTE3M0w4C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22+which+they+have+done+many+times+before%22&pg=PA63&printsec=frontcover
https://tinyurl.com/2byf8kjr
'They' are the courts of law. They sentenced a minor the same way they'd
sentence an adult. The author says that if they treated that minor that
way, we can tell how they'd treat any other person.
​Logically, "especially with no 'full' mind of their actions" seems to
refer to "any other person". But grammatically, I'd say it refers to
'they'.
Who in '1' is 'with no full mind of their actions'?
2) You know how in such a situation I'd have dealt with any other
person, especially with a gun.
I think in '2' 'especially with a gun' modifies 'I' and not the other
person. Would you agree?

No, I'd say 2 has the same ambiguity as 1, and if I
had to pick something for "especially with a gun" to
attach to, it would be the closer noun phrase, namely
"any other person".

Both sentences need to be rewritten--and a lot of
the sentences in that book need to be rewritten.
I'm sure you're not going to take it as a model,
but I'm making sure you know a lot of the author's
nonstandard usages are AAVE.

--
Jerry Friedman

--

[navi]

Thank you very much, Jerry, for this detailed response.
I really appreciate it.