Fragments?

Question

I'm an assistant language teacher in Japan, and a Japanese Teacher asked me why this sentence doesn't follow the examples from the English grammar book:

The more time you spend in the company of smokers, the greater the risk to your health.

He asked if that sentence should be:

The more time you spend in the company of smokers, the great the risk to your health becomes.

Can the former structure ever work? For example:

The higher we climbed, the steeper the path. Instead of: The higher we climbed, the steeper the path became.

Thanks!

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi,

I'm an assistant language teacher in Japan, and a Japanese Teacher asked me why this sentence doesn't follow the examples from the English grammar book:

The more time you spend in the company of smokers, the greater the risk to your health. This is a fragment, not a sentence. It has no main clause.

He asked if that sentence should be:

The more time you spend in the company of smokers, the great the risk to your health becomes. Yes. This makes it a sentence.

Can the former structure ever work? I don't like to generalize, because some things we say just sound OK and some don't.. But generally speaking, I think not.

For example:

The higher we climbed, the steeper the path. Instead of: The higher we climbed, the steeper the path became. It seems to me the same comments apply here.

Having said all this, we certainly do say this kind of thing. You might mention to your Japanese colleague that quite a lot of our English comunication consists of fragments, and sentences that are not perfectly grammatical. I inmagine that the same is true of communication in Japanese.

Best wishes, Clive

CalifJim · Answer

There is no doubt that the structure "works". In my opinion, it's grammatical. I would not call it a fragment, nor a concatenation of fragments. I think it even has a name in linguistic circles, which escapes me just now -- something like 'double comparison' or 'reduplicative comparison' or 'parallel comparison' or 'proportional comparison'. It has a family resemblance to an if or as structure. ([ If / As ] X increases, Y increases.) When the verb is missing, it is a deleted form of to be, typically is -- although a paraphrase with becomes is often equally good. Examples can be found by the thousands (see below).

The greater the ignorance, the greater the dogmatism.
(The greater the ignorance is/becomes, the greater the dogmatism is/becomes.)
(If the ignorance is greater, the dogmatism is greater.)
(If there is more ignorance, there is more dogmatism.)
(As the ignorance increases, the dogmatism increases.)

And so on, for the rest:

The greater the truth, the greater the libel
The greater the struggle, the greater the victory.
The greater the risk, the greater the opportunity for return.
The greater the volatility, the greater the likelihood of profit taking.
The greater the bandwidth, the greater the resolution.
The greater the sinner, the greater the saint.
The greater the absorbance, the greater the number of bacteria.
The greater the distance, the greater the amount of work done.
The greater the usefulness, the greater the reward.
The greater the zeal, the greater the evil.
The greater the angle, the greater the distortion.
The greater the exposure, the greater the number of deaths.
The greater the dose, the greater the concentration.
The greater the obstacle, the greater the glory.
The more specific the input, the more specific the output.
The more rapid the evaporation, the more intense the cold.
The more complex the automation, the more complex the possible motivations.
The more severe the pterygium, the more the amount of astigmatism.
The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the state.
The more complicated the arrangement, the more complicated the distribution.
The more prevalent the gambling, the more prevalent the associated problems.
The more grass, the more stock; the more stock, the more manure; the more manure, the more crops.
The more vigorous the friction, the more pronounced the heart reflex.
The more diverse the palette, the more colorful the painting.
The more exotic the destination, the more exotic the disease.

CJ

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