小白求大神，解答逻辑困惑，不胜感激！

zzzzzzjw

曼哈顿的SC书中，在讲到颠倒几个词的顺序之后，句子意思会发生改变（书中的第33页）

这不是一道题，我只是对这个句子存在问题。

原句：The council granted the right to make legal petitions TO CITY OFFICIALS。

原文是这样说的：what does the phrase to "city offcials"mean? Did the city officials recieve the right to make leagal petitions? Or did someone else recieve the right to ake petitions to the officials ?(这是他说这个句子有歧义的地方)

但是我的问题是：这个句子的意思不就是说→理事会想城市的官员授予法律请愿的权利，这个意思嘛。我认为没有原书说的歧义问题呀？

还请各位大神帮我解答一下，我的问题到底出在哪里了呀？不胜感激！！！！！！！！

spicytaco

The council granted the right ( to make legal petitions to city officials).

The council granted the right ( to make legal petitions ) to city officials.

zzzzzzjw

spicytaco 发表于 2018-11-8 10:10
The council granted the right ( to make legal petitions to city officials).

The council granted the ...

感谢！我其实还有一个问题，想问问大神哈
They're all big contributors to the huge trade surplus Germany has run up with the United States。（出自阅读小分队）

划线部分不是很懂，到底修饰的是哪里呀
是德国有贸易顺差呢，还是美国有贸易顺差呀

碰到这种情况，要怎么判断到底修饰的是谁呢

newyork201999

They're all big contributors to the huge trade surplus that Germany has run up with the United States。

zzzzzzjw

newyork201999 发表于 2018-11-8 12:19
They're all big contributors to the huge trade surplus that Germany has run up with the United State ...

从句部分其实就是说的 德国赶上了美国的那部分贸易顺差。
文中其实就是指的德国具有的贸易顺差吧