Peter kisses Tom.......

I think that sentence is ambiguous. I have no way of knowing who is happy!

I agree with Phoenix. But I suspect that most people would think that it is Peter that is happy -- because Peter was the subject of the previous sentence (vs. Tom who was the object).

The sentence structure isn't the only thing that's ambiguous....

Thanks.

I found the following from Wikipedia :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antecedent_%28grammar%29

"....... A common stylistic problem in writing, often leading to ambiguity, is the use of a pronoun for which the antecedent is not clear, as in the following example:

"I met John at Mike's party. He told me about his new girlfriend."

Did John tell the speaker about his own new girlfriend? Did John tell the speaker about Mike's new girlfriend? Did Mike tell the speaker about his own new girlfriend? Or did Mike tell the speaker about John's new girlfriend?

Strictly speaking, "he" should refer only to "John" (a rule of prescriptive grammar states that pronouns in the nominative case, like "he" and "she," cannot refer to an antecedent in the genitive case), but in ordinary speech, listeners are still confused by such sentences....."


Hence, am I correct to refer "he" to "Peter" in "Peter kisses Tom. He feels happy." ?

Two more examples :
(1) Bill likes Fred. He has a great sense of humour.
(2) Bill likes Fred. He likes humorous guys.

It seems that the 2 "He"s are referring to different persons...

Well, you're right. That's English for you

Luckily, it's not really necessary to know all the little detailed rules on this stuff to speak English well.

In this case, the ambiguity is resolved by the context of the sentences. That's often the case.

I didn't know that ESL books are so progressiv these days.

Wait until you get to the chapter where Mary fondles Ellen...

Oh goodie, I can't wait for MML's next question then