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Small grammatical features can add important meaning to a statement
GRAMMATICAL SUBTLETIES IN READING
It is a long time since the appearance of the last Guinlist post in the “Reading Obstacles” series (22. Reading Obstacles 10: Multiple Speakers in a Text). The primary reason for the wait has been that most of the topics I consider suitable for the series have been exhausted. Any that remain, moreover, have needed a long time for appropriate examples to be gathered. The topic of grammatical subtleties is certainly one of these, but happily its wait is now over.
What I mean by “subtleties” is very small grammatical features that convey important meanings. A rather obvious example, mentioned in this blog in the reading post 13. Hidden Negatives, is the fundamental negative word not, whose meaning changes the message of an entire utterance into its opposite. This post focuses on eight examples of a less obvious kind. Each is presented in a sentence alongside three suggested interpretations, of which only one is correct. The challenge is to find the correct interpretations, all of which are subsequently explained.
The aim of such an exercise is not primarily to highlight the grammatical points involved, but rather to enhance appreciation of the importance of trying to understand every part of a text, no matter how small its meaning contribution.
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INTERPRETATION EXERCISE
Each sentence to be interpreted is written in bold type below, and is followed immediately by the suggested interpretations, numbered (a), (b) and (c). The most correct interpretation is the truest paraphrase or implication of the bold-type sentence. It is identified and explained after the three choices.
1. Sport helps society like it does the individual.
(a) The individual is helped by both sport and society.
(b) Society and the individual are both helped by sport.
(c) Sport and the individual similarly help society.
ANSWER
The key here is the meaning of it does. It is a repetition of sport helps, the pronoun it repeating the noun sport, the verb does repeating the verb helps (see 212. Special Uses of DO 1, #1). This means sport gives help to two different things: society and the individual, as indicated by option (b).
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2. An alloy is a mixture of elements that has metallic properties.
(a) Alloys always have metallic properties.
(b) Alloy elements always have metallic properties.
(c) Element mixtures always have metallic properties.
ANSWER
The great grammatical variability of that (see 153. Conjunction Uses of “that”) places it firmly in the category of “multi-use” words, a common cause of misunderstanding in reading (see 3. Reading Obstacles 2). Here, that needs to be recognised as a relative pronoun (replaceable by which). It is thus repeating the meaning of a preceding noun and acting as the subject of the following verb has.
There are two preceding nouns separated by of (a mixture and elements). That refers to whichever is more grammatical and logical (see 28. Pronoun Errors, #3). Elements cannot be the noun repeated by that because its plural form would require plural have after that instead of singular has. Thus, a mixture (of elements) is what metallic properties are linked with , not elements themselves, ruling out (b) above.
Option (c) is also incorrect. It says all element mixtures have metallic properties, instead of only some. The idea of “some but not all mixtures” is conveyed in sentence 2 by that without a comma before it (see 34. Relative Pronouns and Commas). Since an alloy (= “all alloys”) is equated by is to this subgroup of element mixtures, possessor of metallic properties, (a) must be the correct answer.
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3. Two new questions, the future and the budget, were on the agenda.
(a) The agenda comprised two items.
(b) The agenda comprised three items.
(c) The agenda comprised four items.
ANSWER
Punctuation is the clue here, in particular the comma after budget. There is a rule that a comma should not normally separate a verb from its subject, yet the comma here is separating the verb were from budget, a part of its subject. The reason why this is possible is that the rule does exceptionally allow a separating comma when the verb subject ends with a parenthesis, i.e. two commas separating some of its constituent words (see 50. Right and Wrong Comma Places). Therefore, budget must be part of a parenthesis beginning with the comma after questions.
Parentheses comprising a noun (or a word group acting like a noun) usually follow directly after another noun or noun-like word group, and give further information about it – a situation technically called “apposition” (see 77. Pairing of Same-Meaning Nouns). Thus, the future and the budget is not an addition to the preceding idea of two new questions, but rather a clarification of it. Therefore, the agenda essentially comprised only two items, as stated by option (a).
For more about the confusability of parenthetical and list commas, see 233. Structures with a Double Meaning 3, #1.
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4. The army marched non-stop so that it could reach the river first.
(a) The army succeeded in reaching the river first.
(b) The army failed to reach the river first.
(c) The army may have reached the river first.
ANSWER
This is about the ability of so that to introduce either a purpose or a result. Purposes are plans for the future, with no guarantee of occurrence; results are actual occurrences. A purpose verb after so that must follow an auxiliary – can, may or will for present-time purposes; could, might or would for past-time ones. A result verb in this position will normally lack an auxiliary (see 32. Expressing Consequences).
The presence of could above allows a (past-time) purpose to be understood. Since purposes are not guaranteed occurrences, option (a) is not a justifiable conclusion. Option (b) is also ruled out, as non-occurrences are equally uncertain. This leaves (c) as the correct choice.
A result meaning is actually able to be understood above as well. It would involve could having not its purpose-showing meaning but its past-capability one, saying that the march of the army resulted in it having the capability of reaching the river first. Since capability is not a guarantee of achievement (see 246. Tricky Grammar Contrasts 2, #2), option (c) is again the right one.
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5. The ship was in trouble, when it reached the island.
(a) Reaching the island possibly caused the ship’s trouble
(b) Reaching the island probably ended the ship’s trouble.
(c) Reaching the island was irrelevant to the ship’s trouble.
ANSWER
The comma after trouble signals that when here means and then (see 271. Tricky Grammar Contrasts 3, #4). This means the ship reached the island after it suffered trouble, so that option (a) is incorrect (its meaning only becomes possible with no comma before when). Option (c) is also incorrect, the reason being that when after a comma strongly implies a link between the two events in its sentence. Option (b) is the answer.
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6. The red triangles and circles are the smallest visible shapes.
(a) The smallest visible shapes are all red.
(b) Triangles cannot be among the largest visible shapes.
(c) Circles cannot be among the largest visible shapes.
ANSWER
The starting the here means the statement is about particular shapes, not general ones, and visible shows which ones. The main question is what red describes.
Red describes both triangles and circles, even though it is not written before circles. This can be understood because the, needed before circles for the same reason that it is needed before triangles, is also absent. In order to prevent red describing circles, it would be necessary to say the red triangles and the circles, repeating the but not red (see the third part of 36. Words Left out to Avoid Repetition). Because red describes both triangles and circles, option (a) is the correct one.
Option (b) is incorrect because triangles within it is a larger group than the red triangles, able to include triangles of other colours (see 283. Lesser-Known Facts about Adjectives, #4). The main sentence does not exclude non-red triangles from the largest visible shapes. Option (c) is incorrect because of similar logic concerning circles and the red circles.
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7. The work starting next week will be completed in two weeks’ time.
(a) The work will last two weeks.
(b) The work will last less than two weeks.
(c) The work will last more than two weeks.
ANSWER
in two weeks’ time means “two weeks from now” (see 132. Tricky Word Contrasts 4, #7). Thus, if the work starts next week (= later than “now”), and finishes two weeks from now, it must last less than two weeks – option (b). To say, like (a), that the work will last two weeks, it is necessary to end …completed in two weeks. The meaning of (c) would need … completed in over two weeks.
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8. There is a noticeable development in the region.
(a) It is easy to see that the region is developing.
(b) The region contains a noticeable new feature.
(c) The region has changed in a noticeable way.
ANSWER
The crucial feature here is a before noticeable. Its usability only with countable nouns (see 110. Nouns without “the” or “a”) means that development, a noun with both countable and uncountable uses, is here countable. In some contexts, a development is a new occurrence, but linked with geographical regions it is usually something physically new, typically a building (see 201. Words with Complicated Grammar 1, #1). Only option (b), with the word feature, brings out this meaning.
Options (a) and (c) are incorrect because the idea in both of “change” reflects the uncountable use of development.
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