He motioned to the boy

[99bottles]

The teacher motioned to the boy, thus wordlessly asking him to tell him his name.

If the teacher is male, is it clear that the first him and his are referring to the boy and not to the teacher, or is this sentence confusing?

 

[5jj]

It is not confusing,

By the way, you have been told countless times to give us the source and author (even if you wrote it yourself) of any sentence you quote, If you don't do so, your posts may well be deleted.

 

[Tdol]

Always try the less confusing interpretation first- we all do. We don't assume ambiguity or confusion.

 

[99bottles]

By the way, you have been told countless times to give us the source and author (even if you wrote it yourself) of any sentence you quote, If you don't do so, your posts may well be deleted.

Well, since I post this on the Editing section, isn't it obvious that it is about what I'm writing myself?

 

[5jj]

No.

 

[emsr2d2]

Well, since I posted this on in the Writing and Editing Topics section, isn't it obvious that it is about what I'm writing something I wrote myself?

That was another acerbic and almost rude comment, 99bottles. Please moderate your tone on the forum. You should have gone with something like "I thought that this sub-forum was only for people's own writing. If I'm wrong about that, please let me know".

 

[Tdol]

It's not confusing- we generally default to the most obvious meaning, and this sentence is clear enough. We usually try not to find unnecessary ambiguity.

And can we have a bit of peace and love here?