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  1. Reproductions of fine art should only be sold to the public if they are of high quality.
  2. Reproductions of fine art should be sold to the public only if they are of high quality.

How do they differ in meaning exactly?

Thank you.

Decapitated Soul
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徐道邻
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    There is no difference in meaning, only in emphasis. (A more pressing issue is that both sentences are nonsense to begin with.) – RegDwigнt May 25 '20 at 11:13
  • The peculiarity is that you are confining the sale to a public which is of high quality. They needs a referent, and the nearest is public, which despite apparently being singular can easily be treated as plural as it comprises many people. "The public are..." is quite normal. – Andrew Leach May 25 '20 at 11:24
  • should only be sold* to the public* admits of the possibility that the writer lives in some "near-parallel" universe where reproductions of fine art are normally *rented out* to members of the public. But the writer thinks they should be *sold* outright (to foster an "art-owning democracy", as opposed to Thatcher's vision of a "property-owning democracy"). – FumbleFingers May 25 '20 at 11:30
  • @AndrewLeach: pragmatically, your suggestion is so unlikely that I never even noticed it as a possible meaning. – Colin Fine May 25 '20 at 11:31
  • And @FumbleFingers: I was going to comment that some people would complain that the first was ambiguous, but that the ambiguity is not there in the real world. Pragmatics again. 徐道邻, both are fine, and the first seems more natural to me. – Colin Fine May 25 '20 at 11:34
  • Purists would want 'Reproductions of fine art should be sold to the public only if those reproductions are of high quality.' But most native speakers would use 'Reproductions of fine art should only be sold to the public if they're high quality.' Probably, like Colin and unlike FF, not even thinking about admittedly valid different interpretations. – Edwin Ashworth May 25 '20 at 11:35
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    I guess I'm a purist, because I do notice the difference in meaning -- or if not meaning, possibilities of meaning, particularly when I'm reading. I agree that most people would probably use #1 in speaking, and most people would suppose that they meant #2. I don't think #2 is less natural than #1, just less common. That said, I would stick to #2 in written English, especially formal or professional written English. I have no authority for this view, but I have always had the impression that written English doesn't move as fast as spoken English toward less formal structures. – Isabel Archer May 25 '20 at 12:16
  • thank you all, really nice of you. have a good day! – 徐道邻 Aug 24 '20 at 13:41

1 Answers1

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There are likely two things at play here (Although the context of the statements are rather puzzling):

  1. Perspective
  2. Emphasis

Reproductions of fine art should only be sold to the public if they are of high quality. -

  1. If you stress on "only", it would imply that the priority is the quality of the item. i.e. If and only if the product is of high quality, should it be sold to the public.
  2. If you stress on "sold", I'm afraid the sentence wouldn't really make sense because, it would mean the following - The product should be sold to the public only if it is of high quality. Else, it should be, I don't know, rented or something.
  3. If you stress on "public", again another nonsensical outcome - The product of high quality should be sold to the public and otherwise, it should be sold, may be, internally?

As you can see, the variants are on the basis of emphasis. However, the right point of stress would be option 1 above because, the usage of the word only implies that you're expected to stress it.

Reproductions of fine art should be sold to the public only if they are of high quality. -

  1. Now this, seems to me, like the more meaningful arrangement. The emphasis does not look ambiguous here. It says, quite clearly, that we must stress on only and that gives us the same meaning as option 1 in the first case - i.e. the product should be sold to the public provided it is of high quality - priority is clearly quality.

The sentence that makes sense may differ from person to person. Which is why, I mentioned that perspective is also at play here.

Overall, I feel that both sentences are trying to say that only good quality items should be sold to the public. If they're not up to quality, they shouldn't be sold at all.

Hope this helps.

NS

Nocturnal Storyteller
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  • Exactly so. The first sentence can have multiple interpretations, so it's ambiguous. (Even though it's likely most people would only interpret it one way.) However, both sentences also have another interpretation: fine art should only be sold the public if the public are of high quality … (However, the first sentence still has more possible interpretations than the second.) – Jason Bassford May 25 '20 at 14:47
  • Ah, true. Thank you, @JasonBassford. That is indeed another good, yet overlooked interpretation. Keen observation. – Nocturnal Storyteller May 25 '20 at 15:05
  • thank you all, really nice of you. – 徐道邻 Aug 24 '20 at 13:41