Grammar Structure

Question

1.Nearly one in every nine people put to death are later proven innocent or would not have reveived a sentence that harsh.

I'm a bit confused about the last part of that sentence 'a setence that harsh.'

Could you explain it?

2. Their significance is less than is usually claimed.

Why is the second 'is' in the sentence above necessary?

What does it refer to?

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

Nh?t Bình
1.Nearly one in every nine people put to death are later proven innocent or would not have received a sentence that harsh.
I'm a bit confused about the last part of that sentence 'a sentence that harsh.'
Could you explain it?

a sentence that harsh ~ a sentence as harsh as that ~ such a harsh sentence

Nh?t Bình
2. Their significance is less than is usually claimed.
Why is the second 'is' in the sentence above necessary?
What does it refer to?

The second 'is' is not necessary.

Strictly speaking, verbs don't "refer". The subject of the second 'is' is not explicitly stated.

Here are some rough paraphrases.

Their significance is less than [what / the significance that] is usually claimed (by people).
Their significance is less than the amount of significance that people claim they have.

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

Nh?t BìnhI'm a bit confused about the last part of that sentence 'a setence that harsh.'

Me, too.

Nh?t BìnhCould you explain it?

Bad writing. If we eliminate the first option, we get "Nearly one in every nine people put to death would not have received a sentence that harsh." They would not have if what? I suspect the writer meant "should not have". It's a misleading statement even so because it plays games with the statistics, which I think he just made up, anyway. Say 90 people were put to death. That means that 9 or 10 of them should not have been, but if they all were guilty, that still fulfills his criterion, so to mention innocence poisons the well. An honest account would break that out.

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