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Taka Posted 22 years ago
Grammar
Ellipsis?
The sentence:
Despite a ten-day visit to Japan that I made in spring 1960, Japanese literature did not enter my awareness until high school, and then only in the most tangential way, when we were assigned to compose haiku in my freshman English class.
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I take the sentence as ellipsis, and my interpretation is:
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Despite a ten-day visit to Japan that I made in spring 1960, Japanese literature did not enter my awareness until high school, and then only in the most tangential way, when we were assigned to compose haiku in my freshman English class, (Japanese literature entered my awareness).
Am I right?
Despite a ten-day visit to Japan that I made in spring 1960, Japanese literature did not enter my awareness until high school, and then only in the most tangential way, when we were assigned to compose haiku in my freshman English class.
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I take the sentence as ellipsis, and my interpretation is:
------
Despite a ten-day visit to Japan that I made in spring 1960, Japanese literature did not enter my awareness until high school, and then only in the most tangential way, when we were assigned to compose haiku in my freshman English class, (Japanese literature entered my awareness).
Am I right?
Top answer
I wouldn't call it ellipsis. Well, at least not where you place it! I think you may have got the wrong end of stick in assigning a meaning to the word "then" in "and then only in the most tangential way".
- I wouldn't call it ellipsis.
- Well, at least not where you place it!
- I think you may have got the wrong end of stick in assigning a meaning to the word "then" in "and then only in the most tangential way".
- In this phrase, "then" is not used to mean "next in time"; it means "at that time".
- I believe you are reading it as: Despite a ten-day visit to Japan that I made in spring 1960, Japanese literature did not enter my awareness until high school.
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9 Answers
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I wouldn't call it ellipsis. Well, at least not where you place it!
I think you may have got the wrong end of stick in assigning a meaning to the word "then" in "and then only in the most tangential way". In this phrase, "then" is not used to mean "next in time"; it means "at that time".
I believe you are reading it as:
Despite a ten-day visit to Japan that I made
I think you may have got the wrong end of stick in assigning a meaning to the word "then" in "and then only in the most tangential way". In this phrase, "then" is not used to mean "next in time"; it means "at that time".
I believe you are reading it as:
Despite a ten-day visit to Japan that I made
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The ellipsis I see, Taka, is:
'. . .Japanese literature did not enter my awareness until high school, and then [it entered] only in the most tangential way, when we were assigned to compose haiku in my freshman English class. '
Oops! You here too, Jim?
'. . .Japanese literature did not enter my awareness until high school, and then [it entered] only in the most tangential way, when we were assigned to compose haiku in my freshman English class. '
Oops! You here too, Jim?
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Yes, that was my second choice. I thought there was not much difference between "[it entered] only in the most tangential way" and "only in the most tangential way, [it entered] ", or is there any?
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But Jim says "I wouldn't call it ellipsis. Well, at least not where you place it!
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Not where it's placed and on the premise that you gave it the reading I indicated (then = later).
I thought you were saying that what amounts to the main clause of a sentence could be omitted and understood as ellipsis, e.g.,
Then, only in jest, when we noticed that all the others had left.
If you were not interpreting the sentence in the way I surmised, then my comments
I thought you were saying that what amounts to the main clause of a sentence could be omitted and understood as ellipsis, e.g.,
Then, only in jest, when we noticed that all the others had left.
If you were not interpreting the sentence in the way I surmised, then my comments
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