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Silak12 Posted 11 years ago
Grammar

Proportionately?

Hi! everyone.
Could you tell me whether these sentences are correct?
In the drama virtue is not rewarded proportionately.(I want to know especially about this one.) What does this sentence imply? Does this imply what the following sentence does?
In the drama virtue is not rewarded deservedly.
In the drama virtue is not rewarded as deserved.
Which of them are correct?
Thanks!
  

Top answer

"Proportionately" means in the same ratio. Your sentence isn't quite complete as it doesn't explicitly say what scale is used to measure virtue and its reward. But it's a fair inference that both are measured on some intuitively-understandable goodness scale, so that we would expect that one virtuous act that's twice as virtuous as a second act would garner twice the reward.

— Deadrat

  • "Proportionately" means in the same ratio.
  • Your sentence isn't quite complete as it doesn't explicitly say what scale is used to measure virtue and its reward.
  • But it's a fair inference that both are measured on some intuitively-understandable goodness scale, so that we would expect that one virtuous act that's twice as virtuous as a second act would garner twice the reward.
  • But in the drama, virtue is not rewarded proportionately, so that the character of exemplary virtue may receive the same or even less of a reward than the character of slight virtue.
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3 Answers
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"Proportionately" means in the same ratio. Your sentence isn't quite complete as it doesn't explicitly say what scale is used to measure virtue and its reward. But it's a fair inference that both are measured on some intuitively-understandable goodness scale, so that we would expect that one virtuous act that's twice as virtuous as a second act would garner twice the reward.

But in the
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Thanks for answering.
What do you think about this one?
In the drama virtue is not rewarded proportionately to what it deserves.
Are they correct?
In the drama virtue is not rewarded deservedly.
In the drama virtue is not rewarded as deserved.
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They're correct, although they strike my ear as slightly clumsy. You might consider the word "deserts," which in this context means "what is deserved. The word is little seen outside the phrase "just deserts," but you could say

"In the drama virtue does not receive its just [or proper] deserts."

This is slightly different from "not proportionately," which implies that virtue ge
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