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Pinenut Posted 20 years ago
Grammar

Looking for an accepted grammatical explanation.

0 01font00The pull of gravity becomes less 01b00the farther02b00 you move away from Earth’s center.02br
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00In the above sentence it is not clear to me what other role 'the farther' plays besides its role as an adverb. Although it is not difficult to understand what the sentence implies, I want to know if the usage of ' the farther' in this sentence is a well-known grammatical construction. 02br
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01b00The farther02b00 you move away from Earth's center, 01b00the less 02b00the pull of gravity becomes. 02br
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00 I am very much familiar with this 'contrasted comparatives' or 'combined comparatives' construction. 02br
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00 Your input will be greatly appreciated. 02br
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10 Answers
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0The sentence is grammatically correct, but I think it could be improved by switching the order of the clauses (so that cause precedes effect):02br
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01b00The farther [away] you move from the Earth's center, the less the pull of gravity becomes.02b02br
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00Having made that switch, I would think about variations:02br
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01cite10Peano12cite10The sentence is grammatically correct, but I think it could be improved by switching the order of the clauses (so that cause precedes effect):12br
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11b10The farther [away] you move from the Earth's center, the less the pull of gravity becomes.12b12br
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0 You asked whether "the farther" in that sentence is a well-known grammatical construction. When I replied that the sentence is grammatically correct, that was intended as a "yes" answer to your question. What there something more you were asking?0-
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01cite10Peano12cite10You asked whether "the farther" in that sentence is a well-known grammatical construction. When I replied that the sentence is grammatically correct, that was intended as a "yes" answer to your question. What there something more you were asking?12br
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00 You
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0 That's an interesting question. I'm sorry, but I don't know the answer.0-
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0 01font00"The farther you move away from Earth's center, the less the pull of gravity becomes" 02font02br
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00This "the" was originally "thy", i.e., the instrumental case of the nominative definite article "the" and was used to mean "by means of". Now this "the" is lexically classed as an adverb and OED's grammarians take it that t
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0I think this answers your question: 01i00Farther02i00 and 01i00less 02i00are simply adverbs; the two clauses are linked by 01i00the … the …02i00, which function as correlative conjunctions comparable to such pairs as 01i00either/or, neither/nor, 02i00etc. 02br
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00Take a look her
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01cite10Peano12cite10I think this answers your question: 11i10Farther12i10 and 11i10less 12i10are simply adverbs; the two clauses are linked by 11i10the … the …12i10, which function as correlative conjunctions comparable to such pairs as 11i10either/or, neith
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01cite10Paco200412cite11font10"The farther you move away from Earth's center, the less the pull of gravity becomes" 12font12br
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10This "the" was originally "thy", i.e., the instrumental case of the nominative definite article "the" and was used to mean "by means of". Now this "
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0 A. I don't see the term "correlative conjunction" in your initial post.02br
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00B00. 01font00The pull of gravity becomes less 01b00the farther02b00 you move away from Earth’s center. 02font00When you changed the word order and supplied the tacit 01i00the02i00 before 01i
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