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Takehisa Tanaka Posted 10 years ago
Grammar
About sentence structure.
How can I understand this sentence structure?
This is from my English grammar book:
"Only through these finer distinctions can an adequate account be given of what combinations of constituents enter into the structure of the English clause."
I can't find out the structure of the sentence.
Could you explain me, please?
Or, paraphrase it, please?
This is from my English grammar book:
"Only through these finer distinctions can an adequate account be given of what combinations of constituents enter into the structure of the English clause."
I can't find out the structure of the sentence.
Could you explain me, please?
Or, paraphrase it, please?
Top answer
e. " X = "these finer distinctions" The thing to be achieved is the production of "an adequate account of what combinations of constituents enter into the structure of the English clause".
- e.
- " X = "these finer distinctions" The thing to be achieved is the production of "an adequate account of what combinations of constituents enter into the structure of the English clause".
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6 Answers
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Basically it is saying "Only through X can Y be achieved", i.e. "The only way that Y can be achieved is by means of X."
X = "these finer distinctions"
The thing to be achieved is the production of "an adequate account of what combinations of constituents enter into the structure of the English clause".
X = "these finer distinctions"
The thing to be achieved is the production of "an adequate account of what combinations of constituents enter into the structure of the English clause".
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Let's consider a simpler example.
eg Mary can visit Tom only on Sundays.
This can be reworded as
eg Only on Sundays can Mary visit Tom.
It's a rather literary and uncommon word order, and gives mo
eg Mary can visit Tom only on Sundays.
This can be reworded as
eg Only on Sundays can Mary visit Tom.
It's a rather literary and uncommon word order, and gives mo
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Takehisa Tanaka"Only through these finer distinctions can an adequate account be given of what combinations of constituents enter into the structure of the English clause."In plain English, it means that only through elaborated syntax analysis you can assess the structure of the English clause which is a combination of word forms/classes (parts of speech) and
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