"were" instead of "functioned by"
In 1978, Jaak Panksepp, a luminary in the field of affective neuroscience, hypothesized that social attachments functioned by piggybacking onto the physical pain system and did so through opioid processes.
Reference: Social: Why Our Brains are Wired to Connect
Hello,
I want to know whether "functioned by" in the above sentence could be replaced by "were". (Maybe it's not a great justification, but by replacing "functioned by" with "were" I will be more confident about my interpretation that the author has just used the idiom "piggybacking on/onto something" and did not want to convey anything more than this. If my presumption is true, I would be so thankful if you explain why the author has preferred "functioned by" and what does it exactly add to the meaning of the sentence.
Thank you so much.
Top answer
e. how they operate or work. "were" does not convey this idea, at least not explicitly.
- e.
- how they operate or work.
- "were" does not convey this idea, at least not explicitly.
- With "were", we may gather anyway that "how they work" is broadly what is meant, but it is not so clearly or specifically expressed.
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The hypothesis is about how social attachments in general "function", i.e. how they operate or work. "were" does not convey this idea, at least not explicitly. With "were", we may gather anyway that "how they work" is broadly what is meant, but it is not so clearly or specifically expressed.
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