0
Takehisa Tanaka Posted 10 years ago
Grammar
How can I understand this "to this"?
How can I understand this "to this"?
This is from my grammar book:
"Such arguments, however, have more to do with the labelling of categories that with the question of how we can best explain the grammatical behaviour of items on the basis of their various degrees of similarity and contrast. It is to this more substantial question that we shall address ourselves in the following chapters."
I'm wondering how I can understand "to this" in the above sentences.
Could you tell me, please?
This is from my grammar book:
"Such arguments, however, have more to do with the labelling of categories that with the question of how we can best explain the grammatical behaviour of items on the basis of their various degrees of similarity and contrast. It is to this more substantial question that we shall address ourselves in the following chapters."
I'm wondering how I can understand "to this" in the above sentences.
Could you tell me, please?
Top answer
"to this" is not a phrase in itself; the phrasing is "to / this more substantial question". "to" comes from the pattern "address oneself to something", which means to direct one's attention/effort to something. The sentence as a whole is a re-ordering of "We shall address ourselves to this more substantial question in the following chapters".
- "to this" is not a phrase in itself; the phrasing is "to / this more substantial question".
- "to" comes from the pattern "address oneself to something", which means to direct one's attention/effort to something.
- The sentence as a whole is a re-ordering of "We shall address ourselves to this more substantial question in the following chapters".
- The reordering (so called "cleft" sentence) puts a bit more focus on "this more substantial question".
Get the Weekly English Kit 📬
New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.
4 Answers
0
"to this" is not a phrase in itself; the phrasing is "to / this more substantial question".
"to" comes from the pattern "address oneself to something", which means to direct one's attention/effort to something.
The sentence as a whole is a re-ordering of "We shall address ourselves to this more substantial question in the following chapters". The reordering (so called "cleft" sen
"to" comes from the pattern "address oneself to something", which means to direct one's attention/effort to something.
The sentence as a whole is a re-ordering of "We shall address ourselves to this more substantial question in the following chapters". The reordering (so called "cleft" sen
00
Takehisa TanakaIt is to this more substantial question that we shall address ourselves in the following chapters.It's a cleft sentence, a sentence structure that comes about by highlighting part of a more "normal" sentence with the pattern "It is ... that ...":
We shall address ourselves to this mo
00
Thanks, GPY.
I got it.
I came to know for the first time that a prepositional phrase can be used in cleft sentence.
I got it.
I came to know for the first time that a prepositional phrase can be used in cleft sentence.
00
Related Questions