ambiguity - Ambiguous relative clause


In the following expression, whom does 'who' refer to? The friends of the participants or the participants themselves?


"The friends of the participants who were told to order soft drinks"


This was an option in a multiple choice question and I suggested that it was ambiguous, yet the professor insisted that it clearly referred to the friends of the participants.



Answer



If I were writing this, and my intention was to convey the idea that the participants' friends were told to order drinks, I would write:



"The friends of the participants, who were told to order soft drinks"



However, if my intention was to convey the idea that the participants were the ones who were told to order drinks, I would write:



"The friends of the participants who were told to order soft drinks"



It is still rather ambiguous in print. To avoid this, I might split it into two along the lines of:



"Participants were told to order soft drinks. Their friends ..."



or bring the subject and verb closer together, as in:



The participants' friends were told to order soft drinks



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