"Life that is"

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paco2004

#224069 Tue, 09 May 06 10:46 PM

Hello guys

I'm in trouble with a sentence in Washington Post's article "A Passage to Harvard".

The sentence is :
"Life that is, in this case, more engaging, more nuanced and ultimately more disturbing than art."
How should I interpret this "life that is"? Is the "that" a relative? Or should I interpret the phrase is made by fronting "life" in "that is life"? I would to like hear your opinions.

paco

paco2004

Joined on Wed, Nov 17 2004

Senior Member (4,095)

In Japan today even dogs are learning how to bow-wow in English.

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Marius Hancu

#224071 Tue, 09 May 06 11:56 PM

Life which is more engaging, more nuanced, etc

Marius Hancu

Joined on Wed, Apr 26 2006

Montreal, Canada

Veteran Member (11,673)

paco2004

#224074 Wed, 10 May 06 12:04 AM

Marius Hancu wrote:
Life which is more engaging, more nuanced, etc

Hi, Marius

Thanks for the quick reply. Do you mean this sentence is made up of only a single noun modified by a clause?

paco

paco2004

Clauses, Nouns

MrPedantic

#224081 Wed, 10 May 06 12:34 AM

...weeping inconsolably and trying to look at life ahead.

Life that is, in this case, more engaging, more nuanced and ultimately more disturbing than art. And Viswanathan, perhaps, has learned a lesson that the admissions industrial complex does its best to obscure: There are more things to cry about than not getting into Harvard.

I would read "Life" as a restatement of the preceding "life", and "that" as a defining relative pronoun:

"...weeping inconsolably and trying to look at life ahead – life that is more engaging, more nuanced and ultimately more disturbing than art, in this case."

MrP

MrPedantic

Joined on Tue, Oct 12 2004

Veteran Member (12,047)

...opella forensis / adducit febris...

Nouns, Pronouns, Relative pronouns

paco2004

#224087 Wed, 10 May 06 01:26 AM

MrPedantic wrote:
I would read "Life" as a restatement of the preceding "life", and "that" as a defining relative pronoun:
"...weeping inconsolably and trying to look at life ahead – life that is more engaging, more nuanced and ultimately more disturbing than art, in this case."

Hello　MrP

Thank you for the opinion. So I feel the writing style here is of abnormally elaborate rhetoric. Am I right?

paco

paco2004

Nouns, Pronouns, Relative pronouns, Writing styles

MrPedantic

#224090 Wed, 10 May 06 01:42 AM

Well, it does seem to be a fairly common trick, in some kinds of journalism: putting your relative pronoun in one paragraph, and its referent in another.

MrP

MrPedantic

Nouns, Paragraphs, Pronouns, Relative pronouns

paco2004

#224092 Wed, 10 May 06 01:46 AM

MrPedantic wrote:

Well, it does seem to be a fairly common trick, in some kinds of journalism: putting your relative pronoun in one paragraph, and its referent in another.

MrP

Thank you, again! I see.

paco

paco2004

Nouns, Paragraphs, Pronouns, Relative pronouns