Americans in general are more open-minded.

Question

Americans in general are open-minded.In general, Americans are open-minded.Do you sense some difference between the two sentences and I think that 'in general' can modify Americans in the first and it modifies'are' in the second and there is some difference in meaning. what do you think? Thank you so much.

RandomGuy · Accepted Answer

Hans51What do you think?

I think they are the same. In general is a sentential adverb in both sentences, meaning that it modifies the whole main clause. The only difference is that the phrase in the first sentence focuses on (not modifies) Americans for emphasis.

BillJ · Answer

Hans51Americans in general are open-minded.In general, Americans are open-minded.Do you sense some difference between the two sentences and I think that 'in general' can modify Americans in the first and it modifies'are' in the second and there is some difference in meaning. what do you think?

[1] Americans in general are open-minded.

[2] In general, Americans are open-minded.

Semantically, there's a subtle difference. Syntactically, there's a big one. In [1] the preposition phrase "in general" modifies "Americans". It's part of the subject noun phrase - tightly integrated into it, an indispensible part of it. It modifies the noun "Americans" in the sense that it delimits (restricts) its meaning to "most, but not all, Americans". So we understand "Most Americans are open-minded".

By contrast, "In general" in [2] is an adjunct, or more precisely a 'supplement', a loosely attached appendage making a separate and omissible extra entailment. Unlike [1], which makes an assertion about most Americans, [2] asserts that the American people as a whole are generally open-minded. Supplements don't modify anything as such; instead they have an 'anchor' (or 'host'). In this case the anchor is the main clause.

BillJ

Americans in general are more open-minded.

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