You’re interpreting a child being the subject of the statement. For this to be true, the original text would need to say ‘a child’. Only then would the sentence mean there’s a child going about eating paedophiles
No I’m not, I’m interpreting it as the object of the preposition by. The lack of hyphenation means that child is either a noun which is eating pedophiles or an adjective describing pedophiles who are eating. Presumably neither is what the author intended.
It says “stolen by child eating pedophiles”. The preposition “by” takes a noun phrase as its object.That noun phrase is “child eating pedophiles”. The head noun is clearly pedophiles. “child eating” is a modifier (a compound/participle phrase) describing those pedophiles
Hyphenation would make it clearer, but its absence doesn’t suddenly create a new valid reading where “child” becomes a separate noun or the main object
PapaStevesy@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
It’s not my phrasing, take it up with the OP.
Vincentmario@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
You’re interpreting a child being the subject of the statement. For this to be true, the original text would need to say ‘a child’. Only then would the sentence mean there’s a child going about eating paedophiles
PapaStevesy@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
No I’m not, I’m interpreting it as the object of the preposition by. The lack of hyphenation means that child is either a noun which is eating pedophiles or an adjective describing pedophiles who are eating. Presumably neither is what the author intended.
Vincentmario@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
It says “stolen by child eating pedophiles”. The preposition “by” takes a noun phrase as its object.That noun phrase is “child eating pedophiles”. The head noun is clearly pedophiles. “child eating” is a modifier (a compound/participle phrase) describing those pedophiles
Hyphenation would make it clearer, but its absence doesn’t suddenly create a new valid reading where “child” becomes a separate noun or the main object
Gamer and yeah