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Conclusion: > Money can buy many, if not most, if not all of the things that make people happy, and if it doesn’t, then the fault is ours. Is that a grammatic
by albert_e 3y ago
Conclusion:
> Money can buy many, if not most, if not all of the things that make people happy, and if it doesn’t, then the fault is ours.
Is that a grammatically sound sentence?
- neogodless 3y agoListen, it sounds like what you hear here is, possibly, not what they mean here, but what can you say?
- 082349872349872 3y agoDiagram it and find out
- 082349872349872 3y agoNow you all have nerd sniped me. The question of whether a sentence be grammatical equivales the existence of a parse tree which, when linearised, yields the original sentence. Because the sentence is finite, it has a finite number of components, and hence a finite number of possible parse trees, so we could enumerate them all until we find one that works. Exercise: what is the maximum number of parse trees a sentence of length N might have? However (being an english speaker and using wetware as an oracle) a suitable witness can be found by inspection: and ├─can buy │ ├─Money │ └─of │ ├─if not │ │ ├─if not │ │ │ ├─many │ │ │ └─most │ │ └─all │ └─that │ ├─the things │ └─make │ ├─people │ └─happy └─if/then ├─doesn't [buy] │ ├─it │ └─[them] └─is ├─the fault └─ours QEF
- doublerabbit 3y agoQEF? Don't you mean QED?
- 082349872349872 3y agoHaving constructed a specific witness (sufficient for existences) rather than a general argument (necessary for universals), I thought "faciendum" more appropriate than "demonstrandum".
- doublerabbit 3y agoAh, fair enough. I've herd of QED but never QEF. You learn something new everyday.
- CharlesW 3y agoThe structure is complex, but I believe it is.
- throw0101d 3y ago> if not most, if not all The second "if not" is a bit awkward, but the entire thing is sound.
- itishappy 3y agoIt's pretty deeply nested, which may be technically correct but is not recommended. It also may be missing a second comma? Not sure... > Money can buy many, if not most, if not all, of the things that make people happy, and if it doesn’t, then the fault is ours. Maybe a parenthetical clause? > Money can buy many (if not most, if not all) of the things that make people happy, and if it doesn’t, then the fault is ours.
- n0taHack3r 3y agoWhat about Money can buy most, if not all of the things that make … ?
- itishappy 3y agoAgree it's an improvement. I still think a trailing comma is required... > Money can buy most, if not all of the things that make... > Money can buy most, if not all, of the things that make...
- trilbyglens 3y agoI believe the intended effect is that the writer is reconsidering their statements after they are written, giving the text a more spoken quality. You are all a bunch of unrepentant nerds :D
- itishappy 3y agoGuilty as charged!
- Scarblac 3y agoSeems it's two sentences that have been unnecessarily merged with ", and".
- 082349872349872 3y agosee also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentence_clause_structure#Compound_sentences https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentence_clause_structure#Comp... eg "Jack fell down ... and Jill came tumbling after"
- loco5niner 3y ago> Money can buy many of the things, and if it doesn’t, then the fault is ours. Yes. Get rid of some of the fluff, and it is more plainly correct. However, that second comma is extraneous.