Ellipsis?

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Taka

#533639 Sat, 28 Jun 08 07:13 AM

In most animals, partial sensory deprivation can lead to hallucinations, and extreme deprivation to madness; the 'thoughts' of the monkey's brain may not have been meaningful or clear thoughts, but nerve cells firing randomely.

About the part in bold, is it:

(1) the 'thoughts' of the monkey's brain may have been nerve cells firing randomely.

(2) nerve cells may have been firing randomely

Taka

Joined on Tue, Sep 7 2004

Japan

Senior Member (2,351)

Yankee

#533645 Sat, 28 Jun 08 07:31 AM

Hi Taka

I'd interpret it this way:

not ... thoughts, but (rather) nerve cells firing randomly (i.e. but rather the random firing of nerve cells)

So, (1) would be closer to my interpretation.

Yankee

Joined on Sat, Apr 15 2006

Connecticut, USA

Senior Member (4,313)

Amy "You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." - Mark Twain

Ellipsis: a sudden leap from one topic to...

Taka

#533659 Sat, 28 Jun 08 08:10 AM

OK. Thank you, Amy!

Amy, your version, 'thoughts might have been the random firing' is easy to follow. But don't you think 'thoughts might have been nerves' sounds a bit awkward? Or does it sound perfectly natural to you?

Taka

Yankee

#533667 Sat, 28 Jun 08 09:32 AM

Hi Taka

The parallelism with 'the random firing of nerve cells' may be better, but I didn't have any trouble following the original wording. If I'd been reading the article with that sentence in it, I doubt I'd have given the sentence structure a second thought -- probably because it seems easy to equate 'meaningful/clear thought' with 'nerve cells that are not simply firing randomly'.

Yankee

Articles, Sentence Structures

Taka

#534231 Sun, 29 Jun 08 03:21 PM

OK. Thanks, Amy!

Taka