Same sentence but different meaning!?!

[AsadA969]

Hi Stacey, Hope you are well. You provide two examples (examples are given below) to explain a specific OG problem. The both sentences look same in their structure but provide different meaning. Could you please clarify why different meaning happens?

I'll have the pie with ice cream: along with or side by side with,
I'll have the pie with apples: the pie containing the apples (not another pie)
Thanks....

[RonPurewal]

You provide two examples (examples are given below) to explain a specific OG problem. The both sentences look same in their structure but provide different meaning. Could you please clarify why different meaning happens?

I'll have the pie with ice cream: along with or side by side with,
I'll have the pie with apples: the pie containing the apples (not another pie)
Thanks....

in the vast majority of languages, the vast majority of common words can have multiple meanings. (usually this is one of the main reasons why they're common words!)

the point is that there's no problem, as long as the meaning is clear in context (with normal common sense, of course).

i'm sure you are very well aware of this already; if you've studied english for any non-negligible length of time, you've definitely seen single words used for multiple purposes. (hey, look right there—2 uses of 'for', doing 2 totally different things.)

if your objection is that THOSE PARTICULAR EXAMPLES are not very well chosen, then ... i totally agree with you.
i had no idea, in fact, that you can't make a pie with ice cream inside it. (maybe this is so; i hate sweet desserts, so i wouldn't know either way.)
also, i don't see any reason why you couldn't eat /1/ a slice of pie AND /2/ some apples.
so, yes, those are not the best examples in the world (although they do reveal something about differing cultural standards for food, i suppose).

here are 3 different usages of 'with', all correct and all different:
1/ I did calculations with big numbers.
2/ i did calculations with a calculator app on my phone.
3/ i did calculations with my brother.
in these examples, it's (hopefully) obvious what 'with' is doing in each case. to tell the difference, you needn't use anything beyond ordinary common sense.

[RonPurewal]

Hi Stacey, Hope you are well.

fyi, stacey hasn't moderated this folder in several years (she posts only in the General Questions folder).

[AsadA969]

Hi Stacey, Hope you are well.

fyi, stacey hasn't moderated this folder in several years (she posts only in the General Questions folder).

Thank you Ron for your nice explanation.
N.B.: i did not know that Stacey is not the moderator of this folder before posting this question. so, sorry ....actually i got these examples from one of Stacey's tutorials, so i thought she'll be responsible to answer my question. Anyway, thanks for your help and sorry for late response.

[RonPurewal]

no problem.