English question

I have a question about sentence (1).

(1) I saw him eat his dinner.

Does (1) mean that I saw his dinner situation from the beginning to the end?
Or does (1) focus on the end of the event, i.e. I saw him as he finished his dinner?

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Joshlost · M

The sentence has an ambiguous meaning. To have the specific meanings you have inferred it would need qualifiers such as
'I saw him eat his whole dinner'.
For your second suggestion I think in colloquial English one would say 'I saw him finish his dinner'.
However as there is no qualifier to suggest it was only some of the dinner that was seen being eaten I would suggest the most likely meaning would have been the whole meal was seen being eaten.

Yay, Im definitely going to pass my literature exam!

Hidenori · 46-50, M

@Joshlost Thanks for your detailed explanation. That helps. 😀

swirlie · 31-35, F

@Joshlost
It's not ambiguous at all unless you decide it's meaning is ambiguous to you. From there, you'll turn the sentence into meaning what you want it to mean.

Joshlost · M

@swirlie I'll defer to your obviously higher degree of learning 😁

LamontCranston · M

@Joshlost Your answer was just fine.