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Taka Posted 15 years ago
Grammar

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Partial sensory deprivation can lead to hallucinations, and extreme deprivation to madness, so the 'thoughts' of the monkey's brain removed from its body which was on the apparatus may not have been meaningful or clear thoughts, but nerve cells firing randomly. All pretty grotesque. But it carries an important lesson for scientists.

Question#1: About 'meaningful' above, is it a modifier of 'thought', as 'clear'? Or is it a subjective complement on its own?

Question#2: About 'nerve cells firing randomly', if reworded, is this below the same?

The 'thoughts' of the monkey's brain removed from its body which was on the apparatus may not have been meaningful or clear thoughts; the thoughts may have been nerve cells firing randomly.

Question#3: If 'all pretty grotesque' were supposed to be a complete sentence, would it be 'It's all pretty grotesque'? Or would it be something different?
  

Top answer

" Your rewording of "but nerve cells firing randomly" is correct, in my opinion. "It's all pretty grotesque" is a correct and natural usage of the expression.

— Avangi

  • " Your rewording of "but nerve cells firing randomly" is correct, in my opinion.
  • "It's all pretty grotesque" is a correct and natural usage of the expression.
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5 Answers
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"Meaningful" and "clear" are two alternate adjective modifers of the noun complement "thoughts."

I'd say that you'd need a comma after "meaningful" for the sense "they may not have been meaningful."

Your rewording of "but nerve cells firing randomly" is correct, in my opinion.

"It's all pretty grotesque" is a correct and natural usage of the expression.
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TakaPartial sensory deprivation can lead to hallucinations, and extreme deprivation to madness, so the 'thoughts' of the monkey's brain removed from its body which was on the apparatus may not have been meaningful or clear thoughts, but nerve cells firing randomly. All pretty grotesque. But it carries an important lesson for scientists.
Question#1: About 'meaningful'
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CalifJim Probably my brain picks up the dissonance of having both an adjective meaningful and a noun phrase clear thoughts as complements, and rejects it.
Probably my brain is more forgiving.
Sometimes it takes two words to replace one. I guess it's more common in conversation. We use a term, and think "Hmmm, I wonder if they know what I mean." We "add
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Avangi"The thoughts may not have been meaningful" expresses a complete idea, while "The thoughts may not have been clear" doesn't say much.
We'll have to agree to disagree on this one! Both sentences seem equally complete and coherent to me!
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AvangiSometimes it takes two words to replace one. I guess it's more common in conversation. We use a term, and think "Hmmm, I wonder if they know what I mean." We "add a comma," and express it another way.
"The thoughts may not have been meaningful" expresses a complete idea, while "The thoughts may not have been clear" doesn't say much. "Clear thoughts" would be
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