1-The open-minded and generous patrons, and workers, of this restaurant weclomed me warmly when I became manager.

Could the adjectives 'open-minded' and 'generous' apply to both 'the patron' and 'the workers'?

2-The historical, social and economic limits, and customs, or every society influence its memebers.

Do 'historical, social and economic' apply only to 'limits' or also to 'customs'?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: navi,

Both sentences are badly written, Navi, so you're asking for an analysis about "damaged goods," so to speak. The punctuation and typos in each sentence are the culprits. Here's how I think the sentences should be written:

1-The open-minded and generous patrons and workers of this restaurant weclomed me warmly when I became manager.

The answer to your question is yes, the writer can describe the workers and the patrons (regular customers) with these adjectives. It's interesting that the writer uses open-minded. I'd like to know the context, what it is about the writer, that makes him/her feel like describing those people in that way. I get the impression that there's something about the writer that wouldn't be easily accepted by a great many people, but what that is, I have no idea out of context.

2-The historical, social, and economic limits and customs of every society influence its members.

We can interpret all those adjectives to apply both to limits and customs, but we can't be sure since we can't ask the writer him-/herself what is meant. Again, we're trying to analyze damaged goods.

Thanks a lot Richard,

Your interpretation of the first sentence is quite correct. I think the commas are there just to show that something was added as an afterthought. To me it seemed that in both cases, since the definite article 'the' isn't used before the second noun, the adjectives apply to both nouns.

Compare:
1-The open-minded and generous patrons and workers of this restaurant weclomed me warmly when I became manager.
with:
1a-The open-minded and generous patrons and the workers of this restaurant weclomed me warmly when I became manager.


or:
2-The historical, social, and economic limits and customs of every society influence its members.
with
2a-The historical, social, and economic limits and the customs of every society influence its members.

That's a great point about using or not using the definite article there, Navi. You've got such good insight!