|
|
 #2 (permalink) Fri Jun 19, 2009 3:41 am I'm puzzled over 'the main course that they are teachers to offer' |
|
|
| Ksguo wrote: |
| Is this pattern correct grammatically？ |
It does not appear to be correct.
| Ksguo wrote: |
| What meaning are they intended to convey？ |
Who knows? One can only guess.
_________________
con·text - The part of a text or statement that surrounds a particular word or passage and determines its meaning. |
|
 Milanya
I'm here quite often ;-)
Joined: 29 Dec 2008
Posts: 923
Location: Texas, USA (at present)
|
|
| #3 (permalink) Fri Jun 19, 2009 9:35 am I'm puzzled over 'the main course that they are teachers to offer' |
|
|
| So it appears that this question is still unresolved. |
|
Ksguo
You can meet me at english-test.net
Joined: 27 May 2009
Posts: 81
|
 |
| #4 (permalink) Fri Jun 19, 2009 9:39 am I'm puzzled over 'the main course that they are teachers to offer' |
|
|
| But it seems to me the pattern does not go against any English grammatical rules as far as I know. |
|
Ksguo
You can meet me at english-test.net
Joined: 27 May 2009
Posts: 81
|
|
| #5 (permalink) Fri Jun 19, 2009 14:26 pm I'm puzzled over 'the main course that they are teachers to offer' |
|
|
Neither
| Quote: |
| what they are commands to do |
nor
| Quote: |
| that they are teachers to offer |
looks like correct English to me.
Ksguo, where did you get this sentences from?
_________________
con·text - The part of a text or statement that surrounds a particular word or passage and determines its meaning. |
|
Milanya
I'm here quite often ;-)
Joined: 29 Dec 2008
Posts: 923
Location: Texas, USA (at present)
|
|
| #6 (permalink) Fri Jun 19, 2009 16:20 pm I'm puzzled over 'the main course that they are teachers to offer' |
|
|
Hello Ksguo,
As I see it, there is basically nothing wrong with the grammar in the first sentence. However, additional context would probably make it a bit easier to understand. The sentence seems to be philosophizing about what a command is.
| Quote: |
| 1.Commands purport to give reasons for acting which not only exclude deliberation of their subject, but also function in a way (that is) independent of what they are commands to do. |
All of these patterns are quite normal:
- a command to do something
- a request to do something
- an order to do something
In sentence 1, "what" is basically equivalent to "something" in the phrases above.
In sentence 1, you could replace the word "what" with the words "that which". Doing that might make things easier to understand: The word "that" would be the object of the preposition "of", and the word "which" would introduce a relative clause and would refer to "that" -- i.e. "they are commands to do (that)".
Look at definition 3a here: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/what
| Quote: |
| 2.In this primary school, English is the main course that they are teachers to offer. |
I'd say sentence 2 is simply incorrectly written. Perhaps it is simply a case of "cut and paste" editing gone horribly wrong.
_____________________
“I'm not dumb. I just have a command of thoroughly useless information.” ~ Bill Watterson |
|
Esl_Expert
I'm here quite often ;-)
Joined: 26 Dec 2008
Posts: 977
Location: USA
|
|
| #7 (permalink) Sat Jun 20, 2009 0:11 am I'm puzzled over 'the main course that they are teachers to offer' |
|
|
Hi,Milanya,
I got these sentences from a Web based English learning forum in China.Maybe they contain some typos or "cut and paste" editing errors as Esl Expert suspect.Anyway ，thank you all very much！ |
|
Ksguo
You can meet me at english-test.net
Joined: 27 May 2009
Posts: 81
|
|
|
| Phrase "the meek rarely inherit the earth" | What is a modal verb? |
