living in a shabby house

[navi tasan]

1-He was not an unhappy man, living in a shabby house.
Was he living in a shabby house or not?

2-He was not an unhappy man, dressed in shabby clothes.
Was he dressed in shabby clothes or not?

I think the sentences are ambiguous.

Gratefully,
Navi.

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

Not ambiguous.

For me, with the comma there, they mean that he was not unhappy but that he was living in a shabby house and/or dressed in shabby clothes.

 

[BobK]

:up: If there were no comma there'd be a risk of ambiguity (although in the context of a negative the defining relative clause would be unlikely.)

b

But it would be a lot better to clarify: 'Although [...shabby circumstances...] he was not unhappy.'

 

[Raymott]

To me it's ambiguous. I'm not confident enough of people's use of commas to be confident of the meaning.
Certainly the comma has no explicit function in negating the 'not'.