a english grammar question

[julio]

Derek is very modest for someone who is so rich.
in this sentence.does "someone" means Derek,or "someone" refers other people?
is this mean Derek is rich and modest
or is this mean Derek is modest when he meet someon rich.
--- thank you very much.

[aaleks]

Yes, it means Derek is rich and modest. He is very modest for a rich person. "Someone" refers to rich people in general, sort of.

[Lianne]

It means that rich people are often not modest, but even though Derek is rich, he is also modest.

When an adjective is followed by "for a (something)" like this, it is a way of qualifying the adjective. For example, I might say "My niece is very tall for a 4-year-old." She isn't really very tall (she is much shorter than me), but relative to other 4-year-olds she is tall.

[julio]

Yes, it means Derek is rich and modest. He is very modest for a rich person. "Someone" refers to rich people in general, sort of.

thanks

[eido]

Yes, it means Derek is rich and modest. He is very modest for a rich person. "Someone" refers to rich people in general, sort of.

I thought the "someone" was referring back to Derek himself. Am I wrong? My own language confuses me.

[aaleks]

Yes, it means Derek is rich and modest. He is very modest for a rich person. "Someone" refers to rich people in general, sort of.

I thought the "someone" was referring back to Derek himself. Am I wrong? My own language confuses me.

eido, you are a native speaker, not me . Actually I was going to write that "someone" was referring to Derek but I wasn't sure about that. I mean to me "someone who is so rich" means "one of rich people" or something like that.

[Lianne]

Yes, it means Derek is rich and modest. He is very modest for a rich person. "Someone" refers to rich people in general, sort of.

I thought the "someone" was referring back to Derek himself. Am I wrong? My own language confuses me.

Haha yeah English is weird.

Umm, this is a tough call. I would say that the "someone" here is more general. This is a bit clearer when looking at other examples of this construction. Like in the example I used above, "My niece is very tall for a 4-year-old." Like, she IS a 4-year-old, but also this is comparing her to the larger population of 4-year-olds. (Gosh, native speakers are so frustrating lol. I barely know what I'm saying.)

[reineke]

---

[WildGinger10]

[I've removed my previous comment as I was misremembering the original text, and made an analysis that doesn't quite work with the actual text.]

[Iversen]

Actually I was going to write that "someone" was referring to Derek but I wasn't sure about that. I mean to me "someone who is so rich" means "one of rich people" or something like that.

It is actually a good question. My feeling is that "someone who is so rich" refers to any member of an abstract class of persons, and since Derek just is one of those persons you can't say that "someone" refers directly back to him. On the other hand he is the the only member of that class who is under consideration so in in a purely practical way you could identify Derek as the one who is referred to by that word.

In practice it doesn't mean a great deal since the construction has become not only automatized, but also quite common so everybody knows how to use it even though they can't analyze it.

It reminds me of other cases where you speak in general about someone who is or does something, but no one is in doubt about whom you refer to .. though in some cases you actually mean that the person in question isn't a member of the abstract class under consideration - like in "Some people know how to say things in a nice way". Do you feel you are one of them or not? Probably not, because otherwise there wouldn't be a need to bring up the topic...