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Kenkenken9876 Posted 11 years ago
Grammar
Question about the word order
Below is a sentence from a university entrance exam in Japan:
(A) Without languages such societies could hardly exist, neither could have human beings nor languages existed.
I wonder why the author wrote as "neither could have human beings nor languages existed", not "neither could human beings nor languages have existed".
(B) Without languages such societies could hardly exist, neither could human beings nor languages have existed.
In my understanding and feeling, the above word order is standard.
1, Is the word order of Sentence (A) also acceptable?
2, What is the reason the author wrote as Sentence (A), not as Sentence (B)?
3, Do these sentences make any difference?
Thank you in advance.
(A) Without languages such societies could hardly exist, neither could have human beings nor languages existed.
I wonder why the author wrote as "neither could have human beings nor languages existed", not "neither could human beings nor languages have existed".
(B) Without languages such societies could hardly exist, neither could human beings nor languages have existed.
In my understanding and feeling, the above word order is standard.
1, Is the word order of Sentence (A) also acceptable?
2, What is the reason the author wrote as Sentence (A), not as Sentence (B)?
3, Do these sentences make any difference?
Thank you in advance.
Top answer
(A) is very awkward to me. (B) reads better, but it is not clear to me whether the change in tense ("could" to "could ... have") is really needed or intended.
- (A) is very awkward to me.
- (B) reads better, but it is not clear to me whether the change in tense ("could" to "could ...
- have") is really needed or intended.
- A further glaring problem is that the sentence claims that "Without languages, languages could not have existed", which makes no sense.
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1 Answers
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(A) is very awkward to me. (B) reads better, but it is not clear to me whether the change in tense ("could" to "could ... have") is really needed or intended. A further glaring problem is that the sentence claims that "Without languages, languages could not have existed", which makes no sense.
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