“Picked up by my ear by the teacher”
The phrase looks awkward because of the double use of ‘by’. What would be a better way to phrase it short of completely re-arranging it (“The teacher picked me up by my ear”)?
Is re-arranging it the only option?
Probably not the only option, but I think it’s certainly the best option. As it is, it’s not clear whether you were picked up by the teacher (i.e. the teacher picked you up) or you were picked up near the teacher.
I think the ambiguity argument is strained since it’s pretty clear based on life’s context what is going on there. I think if you said
I was picked up by my arm by the car
it might not be as clear as to whether the car grabbed your arm or whether you were standing next to it.
The following could be confusing:
I was picked up by my ear by the teacher by the principal.
Once a drunk guy told me, “I’m going to pick your ass by the balls up”. I knew exactly what he meant. He’s a doctor now.
Was the teacher Lyndon Johnson?
Ahhh, good ol’ “by.” It has so many meanings.
In a passive voice sentence, it names the agent: by the teacher.
It tells the means or manner by which a verb is enacted: by the ear.
It’s a synonym for near: by the principal.
When you have multiple by’s in a sentence, it’s best to recast the sentence to avoid them:
“The teacher picked me up by my ear near the principal.”
By Your Leave.
Well, if you’ve got a little German blood in you, I suppose you could say that you were ear-up-picked by the teacher. Or even that you had been teacher-up-ear-picked.
The teacher used my ear to drag me across the floor for overuse of the word ‘by’ while the principal said “To by or not to by, that is the question”.
Was that in days gone by?
No, just by the by.