ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: ellipsis?

Taka — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 14:21:00 GMT

OK. Thanks, Amy!

Re: ellipsis?

Yankee — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 08:32:21 GMT

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'.

Re: ellipsis?

Taka — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 07:10:48 GMT

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?

Re: ellipsis?

Yankee — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 06:31:38 GMT

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.

ellipsis?

Taka — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 06:13:42 GMT

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