grammar - The number of people who do not know an odd number of people


See the linked question on Math SE:


https://math.stackexchange.com/q/1781353/187867


The OP and others were confused about whether "the number of people who do not know an odd number of people" refers to




  1. People who know an even number of people, or




  2. People for whom the number of people they do not know is odd.




I'm aware that option 1 is the correct choice, and I answered the question without thinking twice. But someone whose first language wasn't English had no idea how to interpret it, and I attempted to explain why option 1 was correct. My attempt was poor. Can anyone here do better?



Answer



You knew it was true because of your background; you understand the question in the context it is given. Thus while there is nothing conclusively guiding you to one interpretation or the other in the grammar and syntax itself, you intuit the probable meaning based on the grammatical and syntactical formulations common to the context of the question. Your past experience informs your decision.


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