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Maymhight Posted 20 years ago
Grammar

what does this "must" mean?

Hi!

Would someone help me to understand what "must" underlined below means in the following text?

Quote

So the process of learning is a fairly ubiquitous activity, and is not necessarily dependent on some other person consciously adopting the role of teacher, nor on the learner setting out to master some skill or acquire some knowledge. This is not to say that the presence of a teacher may not exert a profound influence on the direction and intensity of a learner’s progress, nor that conscious intent to learn may not increase the learner’s success rate; but these must remain issues open to question at this stage.

Unquote

Does above "must" express "obligation" or strong "likelihood?"

Regards,
  

Top answer

This "must" belongs to the realm of obligations. It may be unusual that the subject is not animate, but the paraphrase below shows that it is the reader, not the issues, who has the obligation. We are obliged to leave these issues open to question at this time.

  • This "must" belongs to the realm of obligations.
  • It may be unusual that the subject is not animate, but the paraphrase below shows that it is the reader, not the issues, who has the obligation.
  • We are obliged to leave these issues open to question at this time.
  • CJ
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2 Answers
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This "must" belongs to the realm of obligations. It may be unusual that the subject is not animate, but the paraphrase below shows that it is the reader, not the issues, who has the obligation.

We are obliged to leave these issues open to question at this time.

CJ
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Thanks a lot for your comment.

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