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Stenka25 Posted 15 years ago
Vocabulary
One tricky sentence to figure out the meaning
The below paragraph is from a famous book, MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING.
You can encounter many blogs which have quotes from this book.^^
I think it was Lessing who once said, "There are things which must cause you to lose your reason or you have none to lose." An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior. Even we psychiatrists expect the reactions of a man to an abnormal situation, such as being committed to an asylum, to be abnormal in proportion to the degree of his normality.
Of the paragraph, the thick-red part of this sentence is hard to comprehend.
"There are things which must cause you to lose your reason or you have none to lose."
Let me give you my understanding.
It seems in front of the thick-red part "in which" is omitted.
I mean : "There are things which must cause you to lose your reason or (in which) you have none to lose."
So I figure out the meaning like this,
there are such situations...
#1 that you lose your reason
#2 you have none to lose in the situations.
Am I right?
If it's OK, ONE MORE question.
Does this ELLIPSE of "in which" happen often? And can you give me one other example of this?
Thanks a lot.
You can encounter many blogs which have quotes from this book.^^
I think it was Lessing who once said, "There are things which must cause you to lose your reason or you have none to lose." An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior. Even we psychiatrists expect the reactions of a man to an abnormal situation, such as being committed to an asylum, to be abnormal in proportion to the degree of his normality.
Of the paragraph, the thick-red part of this sentence is hard to comprehend.
"There are things which must cause you to lose your reason or you have none to lose."
Let me give you my understanding.
It seems in front of the thick-red part "in which" is omitted.
I mean : "There are things which must cause you to lose your reason or (in which) you have none to lose."
So I figure out the meaning like this,
there are such situations...
#1 that you lose your reason
#2 you have none to lose in the situations.
Am I right?
If it's OK, ONE MORE question.
Does this ELLIPSE of "in which" happen often? And can you give me one other example of this?
Thanks a lot.
Top answer
You are right in you meaning, the person hasn't a reason to lose. In which really isn't required in the sentence so I wouldn't really class it as an ellipses.
- You are right in you meaning, the person hasn't a reason to lose.
- In which really isn't required in the sentence so I wouldn't really class it as an ellipses.
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2 Answers
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You are right in you meaning, the person hasn't a reason to lose.
In which really isn't required in the sentence so I wouldn't really class it as an ellipses.
In which really isn't required in the sentence so I wouldn't really class it as an ellipses.
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This is the way I understand this - you're right this is difficult to comprehend. This seems to be specifically in the context of insanity. An insane person who strips naked and stands screaming on the street corner is in an abnormal situation. Yet he does not react abnormally - a normal person who found himself standing naked and screaming on the street would literally go berserk, because he
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