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Discussion Groups / English Usage / February 2007Where is the subject
Please see the following sentence: As Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Texas Pacific Group tie up the world's largest ever private-equity deal with a $45 billion (including debt) takeover of TXU, a Texas energy firm, expect a little more. My question is: what is the subject of the verb expect? } Please see the following sentence: } As Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Texas Pacific Group tie up the world's } largest ever private-equity deal with a $45 billion (including debt) } takeover of TXU, a Texas energy firm, expect a little more. } } My question is: what is the subject of the verb expect? Probably [you], assuming it's imperative. The next sentence should nail it down.  Signaturerjv > Please see the following sentence: > As Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Texas Pacific Group tie up the world's > largest ever private-equity deal with a $45 billion (including debt) > takeover of TXU, a Texas energy firm, expect a little more. > > My question is: what is the subject of the verb expect? You, the reader. You are being given a financial warning or invitation to keep up with developing values. (I think TXU is the firm that has some contracts to build nuclear* power plants. They have flummoxed or compromised the environmental groups by promoting the idea of building 10 or 12 sites, and backing down to 5 sites. However, one prognosticator says that the financing will go into private pockets, and, if the contractors are lucky, _maybe_ 3 plants will be built. Anyway, the buyers will have some prior approval by some groups normally opposed to the expansion of this kind of power. * I didn't exactly "hear" nuclear power. It may have been "clean coal". > Please see the following sentence: > As Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Texas Pacific Group tie up the world's > largest ever private-equity deal with a $45 billion (including debt) > takeover of TXU, a Texas energy firm, expect a little more. > > My question is: what is the subject of the verb expect? Everything before "expect a little more" is an adverbial phrase. Surely you recognize the form of the main phrase as an independent sentence: "Expect a little more." What is the subject of the sentence "Go home"? > > Please see the following sentence: > > As Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Texas Pacific Group tie up the world's [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > you recognize the form of the main phrase as an independent sentence: > "Expect a little more." What is the subject of the sentence "Go home"? Yeah, but considering how long the adverbial qualifier is, and that there is a comma within the qualifier, don't you think the guy writing the above sentence should have accommodated his readers by putting a dash rather than a comma before 'expect'? > > > Please see the following sentence: > > > As Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Texas Pacific Group tie up the world's [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > the above sentence should have accommodated his readers by putting a > dash rather than a comma before 'expect'? It's a sentence of an article from Today's Economist. www.economist.com > > > Please see the following sentence: > > > As Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Texas Pacific Group tie up the world's [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > the above sentence should have accommodated his readers by putting a > dash rather than a comma before 'expect'? I agree that there is a problem and that the way the sentence is written invites confusion, but I don't think that putting a dash instead of a comma would fix it. The whole sentence needs to be reorganized. However, this is journalism, and the author was probably writing to a deadline. athel > > > > Please see the following sentence: > > > > As Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Texas Pacific Group tie up the world's [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] > > - Show quoted text - I agree that the dash is only a makeshift solution. But even deadlines are a poor excuse for the way some reporters overload clauses and sentences. The above should be recast in a minimum of two sentences, the second one including an amplification of just what the reporter would have us expect. >> > > Please see the following sentence: >> > > As Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Texas Pacific Group tie up the world's [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] >reorganized. However, this is journalism, and the author was probably >writing to a deadline. Yes, but some copy editor should at least have added "you can" or "we should" or "it's reasonable to" or something before "expect". Or, since the writer is evidently fond of premodifier pile-ups (albeit dodgily hyphenated ones), why not go the whole hog and get rid of the parenthesis explaining who TXU are, making the imperative "expect" a little easier to spot? Like this: As Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Texas Pacific Group tie up the world's largest ever private-equity deal with a $45 billion (including debt) takeover of Texas energy firm TXU, expect a little more. SignatureArchie Valparaiso Tunbridge Wells borough residents are the second best recyclers in Kent. > Yes, but some copy editor should at least have added "you can" or "we > should" or "it's reasonable to" or something before "expect". Or, > since the writer is evidently fond of premodifier pile-ups (albeit > dodgily hyphenated ones), Why this fondness? This is not the first time I've seen it actually. Lots of reporters do it and I've never understood the reason. Okay, granted that space-constraints are a factor; but you'll usually find that the increase in the number of characters by recasting into shorter sentences is usually very modest and well worth it, since it improves the clarity and readability no end >> Yes, but some copy editor should at least have added "you can" or "we >> should" or "it's reasonable to" or something before "expect". Or, [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] >Why this fondness? This is not the first time I've seen it actually. >Lots of reporters do it and I've never understood the reason. Such extreme premodification fondness is just a journo-typical characteristic, I suppose. I sometimes wonder whether they do it at home. "Morning, hon. During my early-morning pre-breakfast dog-walking excursion earlier today I noticed that the guy next door, recently divorced but, I can now reveal, soon to remarry prominent local Rotarian Peter Smith, 42, has been double-garage-door repainting." SignatureArchie Valparaiso Tunbridge Wells borough residents are the second best recyclers in Kent. > >> Yes, but some copy editor should at least have added "you can" or "we > >> should" or "it's reasonable to" or something before "expect". Or, [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > Tunbridge Wells borough residents are the > second best recyclers in Kent. Good one! Your only aberration from reality is that all the hyphens are in place and there are none where there shouldn't be. You are also missing some annoying dashes as in: "Morning, hon. During my early-morning pre-breakfast dog-walking excursion earlier today I noticed that the guy next door, recently divorced -- but I can now reveal, soon to remarry prominent local Rotarian Peter Smith, 42 -- has been double-garage-door repainting." But I guess you are talking about speech, not writing. But you can still factor in the dashes for an abrupt and excruciatingly annoying change of tone for the pointless aside. > > >> Yes, but some copy editor should at least have added "you can" or "we > > >> should" or "it's reasonable to" or something before "expect". Or, [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > > divorced but, I can now reveal, soon to remarry prominent local > > Rotarian Peter Smith, 42, has been double-garage-door repainting." [ ... ] > Good one! Your only aberration from reality is that all the hyphens > are in place... Most of them, anyway, but don't we need some in "soon-to-remarry" if we are to avoid the suggestion (deliberate?) of a same-sex marriage? Among the nice journalistic touches is the ", 42": I've often wondered why journalists are so anxious to tell us the ages of the people they are writing about, regardless of whether they have any relevance. athel > > > >> Yes, but some copy editor should at least have added "you can" or "we > > > >> should" or "it's reasonable to" or something before "expect". Or, [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] > why journalists are so anxious to tell us the ages of the people they > are writing about, regardless of whether they have any relevance. A goof in the attributions obscures the source of the specimen under our microscope, said source being the gent who currently calls himself Archie Valparaiso. I submit that what he wrote is susceptible of the interpretation that the guy next door will soon marry Peter Smith. (Try it yourselves, O skeptics.) I gather therefore that Peter Smith and his betrothed live in Spain, or maybe Massachusetts. I infer, further, that they're gay. NTTAWWBG. SignatureBob Lieblich Hey, don't blame me; he said it > > > > >> Yes, but some copy editor should at least have added "you can" or "we > > > > >> should" or "it's reasonable to" or something before "expect". Or, [quoted text clipped - 36 lines] > > - Show quoted text - I thought that was what he meant! Of course, plenty of gay people marry straight to keep up appearances(Lennox Lewis, for instance, who's way too close to his mother and never had a girlfriend till he was 37). So you can't infer that the guy's gay just because of his marriage; maybe he's just a fashion-designer trying to keep up appearances. >> > > > >> Yes, but some copy editor should at least have added "you can" or "we >> > > > >> should" or "it's reasonable to" or something before "expect". Or, [quoted text clipped - 43 lines] >marriage; maybe he's just a fashion-designer trying to keep up >appearances. ROTARIAN REFUTES GAY SLUR Leading local Rotarian and agricultural-accessories representative Peter Smith, 42, last night refuted all claims that any same-sex-relationship issues were behind the "literally heartbreaking" break-up of his marriage to well-known local pitbull breeder Loretta Smith (formerly Loretta Vicks-Vaporub), 78. "It's all a farrago of lies and cynical innuendo," said Smith, 41, a former all-England synchronised-swimming choreographer and currently honorary treasurer of the Weybridge and District Liza Minnelli Fan Club. SignatureArchie Valparaiso Tunbridge Wells borough residents are the second best recyclers in Kent. > >> > > > >> Yes, but some copy editor should at least have added "you can" or "we > >> > > > >> should" or "it's reasonable to" or something before "expect". Or, [quoted text clipped - 64 lines] > > - Show quoted text - Magnificent! Best one yet. That'll take some topping.(Love the discrepancy in the ages(42,41?) Lovely choices for Smith's professions too) The only flaw is that you haven't misspelled Minnelli. You should have left out an 'l' or an 'n' >> > Please see the following sentence: >> > As Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Texas Pacific Group tie up the [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > the above sentence should have accommodated his readers by putting a > dash rather than a comma before 'expect'? Considering the volume of reading that workers in the financial trades must perform on a daily or even hourly basis, [(I think that you must accept that) certain styles of reporting are designed to help them] get the info as quickly as possible. They don't really need to finish "scanning" the paragraph (or blurb) in order to understand it. The information in the paragraph is little more than a headline. It may be an expansion of a topic heading, or of a table of contents pr a "sideline", in which more detail is referred to in another section, or it may simply be providing some key words for the reader's eye to catch in subsequent issues or reports. If the reader is a broker, he can caution his clients that "something is developing and we don't know which way to jump, but we are getting ready". Think how much (or little) information was provided on the old "ticker tape". >>> Please see the following sentence: >>> As Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Texas Pacific Group tie up the world's [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > the above sentence should have accommodated his readers by putting a > dash rather than a comma before 'expect'? His question was "what is the subject of the verb expect?". It was not "could this sentence have been written better?". |
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