evaluation (displayed) between

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

Lazypierrot - 10 Feb 2010 22:54 GMT

Hi everyone! Would you tell me if the following sentences are
grammatical?

a) The rich Americans' investments have greatly influenced evaluations
of creativity between Americans and the Japanese in the past.

b) The rich Americans' investments have greatly influenced evaluations
of creativity displayed between Americans and the Japanese in the
past.

1. I wonder how to interpret the phrase 'between Amerincans and the
Japanese' because usually the preposition 'between' follows certain
words such as 'relationship' or 'distinguish', while there is no word
that seems to have some collocational relationship with 'between' in
the above sentences.

2. Is it correct to say that 'in the past' in the both sentences
qualifies the phrase 'have greatly influences'?

I would appreciate your help.

LP

Reply to this Message

Athel Cornish-Bowden - 11 Feb 2010 16:09 GMT

> Hi everyone! Would you tell me if the following sentences are
> grammatical?
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> of creativity displayed between Americans and the Japanese in the
> past.

They don't seem to break any grammatical laws, but it's far from clear
to me what either is supposed to mean. In particular, "displayed" in
the second version seems to serve no purpose other than to make an
already clumsy and obscure sentence more so.

> 1. I wonder how to interpret the phrase 'between Amerincans and the
> Japanese' because usually the preposition 'between' follows certain
> words such as 'relationship' or 'distinguish', while there is no word
> that seems to have some collocational relationship with 'between' in
> the above sentences.

I agree with your objection to "between" because it mplies a comparison
that isn't explicit. In addition, "between Americans and the Japanese"
implies comparisons between certain Americans treated as individuals
and the Japanese people as a whole. If that's what is meant then OK;
otherwise "between Americans and Japanese" or "between the Americans
and the Japanese".

> 2. Is it correct to say that 'in the past' in the both sentences
> qualifies the phrase 'have greatly influences'?

Probably, but impossible to say without knowing more about what the
author is trying to say.

Signature

athel

Reply to this Message

Lazypierrot - 12 Feb 2010 09:08 GMT

> > Hi everyone! Would you tell me if the following sentences are
> > grammatical?
[quoted text clipped - 32 lines]
> --
> athel

Thanks a lot for your kind comment!

LP

Reply to this Message

Ian Jackson - 12 Feb 2010 17:05 GMT

>> Hi everyone! Would you tell me if the following sentences are
>> grammatical?
[quoted text clipped - 27 lines]
>Probably, but impossible to say without knowing more about what the
>author is trying to say.

This may not really answer your questions about these actual sentences.
However, whatever you are writing, I feel that it is better if you do
not suddenly add a 'qualifier' (an 'afterthought'?) to the end of a
sentence. In these sentences, I am referring to "in the past".

Whenever possible, I like to 'set the scene' at the beginning of a
sentence. In both of your sentences, I would have started with:

"In the past, the rich Americans' investments..."

Signature

IOan

Reply to this Message

Discussion Groups / English Usage / February 2010

evaluation (displayed) between