‘just as common a problem is’

Question

Hello, everyone,“We worry that the robots are taking our jobs, but just as common a problem is that the robots are taking our judgement. In the large warehouses so common behind the scenes of today’s economy, human ‘pickers’ hurry around grabbing products off shelves and moving them to where they can be packed and dispatched. In their ears are headpieces: the voice of ‘Jennifer’, a piece of software, tells them where to go and what to do, controlling the smallest details of their movements. . . .”About the underlined part I have two inquiries below;1. When I parse this part as follows, is it plausible?;“just as common” a problem is that the robots are ~= a problem [which is &lt;equally&gt; common] is that the robots are ~= a problem [which is &lt;as&gt; common (as the robots are taking our jobs)]&gt; is that the robots are ~2. Is there a possibility that we consider this underlined part an inverted one – that is, “just as common a problem” is not a subjective phase but a complementary one with ‘that’ clause as a subject?I would really appreciate it, if you share your valuable opinions.* source; from ‘Messy: How to Be Creative and Resilient in a Tidy-Minded World’https://books.google.co.kr/books?id=QPMeCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT119&lpg=PT119&dq=%22We+worry+that+the+robots+are+taking+our+jobs,+but+just+as+common+a+problem+is+that+the+robots+are+taking%22&source=bl&ots=WeGgaV60aq&sig=ACfU3U326dM40tF_dgxynL9ZuzmzM1uaaA&hl=ko&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiazfLUwbn6AhWHw4sBHe38CYQQ6AF6BAgCEAM#v=onepage&q=%22We%20worry%20that%20the%20robots%20are%20taking%20our%20jobs%2C%20but%20just%20as%20common%20a%20problem%20is%20that%20the%20robots%20are%20taking%22&f=false

Asitwas · Accepted Answer

deepcosmos
2. Is there a possibility that we consider this underlined part an inverted one – that is, “just as common a problem” is not a subjective phase but a complementary one with ‘that’ clause as a subject?

Hi, deepcosmos,

The structure you are suggesting is quite rare, and the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language provides a good example of such kind:

(i) She’s a nice woman, isn’t she? Also a nice woman is our next guest . .

Here, the inversion of the Subject(our next guest) with an NP in predicative function(Also a nice woman) is taking place. And also a nice woman is taken as the predicative complement rather than the Subject for the following two reasons.

First, the propositional meaning of a sentence should be about the Subject, and it's no doubt, the example I gave you is about our next guest. Second, also a nice woman lacks some of the important syntactic properties of subjects, for example, of being able to invert with an auxiliary verb to form an interrogative:

(ii) * Isn't also a nice woman our next guest? (sounds weird, innit?)

Now if you agree with this way of thinking, we can apply the same criteria to the sentence in question, and see what happens.

First, it sounds perfectly okay to say that the propositional meaning of the sentence is about the robots taking our judgment. But it doesn't sound problematic either to say the sentence is talking about just as common a problem. What about this slightly changed version of the original sentence?

(iii) Just as common a problem needs our attention.

It appears that just as common a problem has no problem taking the Subject position of a sentence.

Now the second criterion. Take a look at these two interrogatives for comparison:

(iv) Is that the robots are taking our judgment just as common a problem?

(v) Isn't just as common a problem that the robots are taking our judgment?

Here again, I think both sound okay.

So my conclusion is, whether one takes as the Subject the that-clause or just as common a problem, it's not as dire a problem as the robots taking our judgment!

CalifJim · Answer

deepcosmos
1. When I parse this part as follows, is it plausible?;
“just as common” a problem is that the robots are ~
= a problem [which is <equally> common] is that the robots are ~
= a problem [which is <as> common (as the robots are taking our jobs)]> is that the robots are ~

Yes, that's right.

deepcosmos2. Is there a possibility that we consider this underlined part an inverted one – that is, “just as common a problem” is not a subject~~ive~~ phrase but a complementary one with ‘that’ clause as a subject?

It's an equative clause (X = Y), so inversion is certainly possible (Y = X) without changing the meaning. That means, depending how you write it, the subject might be X, or it might be Y.

Just as common a problem is that the robots are taking our judgement.
That the robots are taking our judgement is just as common a problem.

However, there a few points to bear in mind here.

We normally analyze sentences as they are written, not as we might be able to rewrite them. Sometimes the subject does not occur at the beginning of a clause, but that's not the case here.

It's unusual to start a sentence with a that-clause as its subject, so in some sense, the sentence that starts Just as common takes priority over the one that starts That the robots.

The only way that the X=Y pattern is not the same as the Y=X pattern is that the usual arrangement is to place the thing to be identified first. [To-be-identified = Identifier.] In this sentence we're trying to identify which problem is as common as the one already mentioned, and we identify it as the possibility that robots are taking our judgement, so it is more reasonable to put Just as common a problem first.

The that-clause contains the "punch line" — the most important information in the sentence — so had the writer actually used the inverted form, it would have been a stylistic disaster.

CJ

AlpheccaStars · Answer

deepcosmos“We worry that the robots are taking our jobs, but just as common a problem is that the robots are taking our judgement.

Here is the same sentence written in the usual way. As expressed, the style is not uncommon in academic or literary writing.

We worry that the robots are taking our jobs, but a problem that is just as common is that the robots are taking our judgement.

‘just as common a problem is’

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