Hello, everyone,
“Pre-emption means that a strategy is designed to prevent a rival from starting some particular activity. In some case a pre-emptive move may simply be an announcement of some intent that might discourage rivals from doing the same. The idea of pre-emption implies that timing is sometimes very important — a decision or an action at one point in time might be much more rewarding than doing it at a different time point. Pre-emption may involve up-weighting advertising for a period before and during when a new entrant launches into a market. The intent is to make it more difficult for the new entrant’s advertising to make an impression on potential buyers. Product proliferation is another potential pre-emption strategy. The general idea is to launch a large variety of product variants so that there is very little in the way of consumer needs or wants that is not accommodated.“
About the underlined part above, I parse as follows;
- “In the way of consumer needs or wants” as a prepositional phrase is modifying the subject “very little”.
- The preceding noun for the relative “that” seems to be “very little”.
By the way, am I plausible;
1. if I rephrase the underlined part above “there is hardly <any of market demand> (in the way of market demand) [that is not accommodated]”, considering the pronoun “very little” means “hardly any of something”?
2. if I guess the exact preceding noun of “very little” in a strict sense would be “any of something, or any of market demand”, though the seemingly external one is “very little” ( like the fused relative “what” means “the thing which”)?
I would appreciate it, if you kindly give me valuable opinions.
* source; ‘Marketing Planning & Strategy: A Practical Introduction’ by John Dawes
deepcosmosthere is very little in the way of consumer needs or wants that is not accommodated.
“In the way of consumer needs or wants” as a prepositional phrase is modifying the subject “very little”.
in the way of ~ in terms of ~ from the point of view of
OK.
The preceding noun for the relative “that” seems to be “very little”.
Yes.
deepcosmosrephrase the underlined part above “there is hardly (in the way of market demand) [that is not accommodated]”, considering the pronoun “very little” means “hardly any of something”
No. 'hardly' on its own can't replace 'very little'. It would have to be
There is hardly anything in the way of market demand that is not accommodated.
deepcosmosthe exact preceding noun of “very little” in a strict sense would be “any of something, or anyofmarket demand”
Yes. That's why it's "There is hardly anything", and not just "There is hardly".
By the way, a person can't be plausible. "Am I plausible" should be "Is my reasoning plausible".
Also, it's "any market demand", not "any of market demand.
CJ
Hello, everyone,
I would really like to have the chance to learn about my inquiries below through your help with your valuable opinions.
A) there is very little in the way of market demand that is not accommodated.
B) there is hardly any market demand that is not accommodated.
When A) is paraphrased into B), the points of my question are to find out;
1. If some natives understand "very little in the way of" as the subject and some as a quantifier, which would be a dominant opinion in natives between two?
2. if the exact preceding noun of “that” would be "very little" or “market demand" in a strict sense?
3. if "little in the way of" in a set belongs to "complex quantifiers" such as "a lot of"?
The subject is "little" in A. Little is not accommodated.
That changed when you paraphrased. In A, the antecedent of "that" is "little". In B, the antecedent of "that" is "demand".
"Little" is a noun in A.
very little is a quantifier and a subject. in the way of doesn't enter into it.
You might say that semantically 'little' is a quantifier, and syntactically it's the subject.
It's hard to say without conducting a scientific poll on it.
I think you mean "antecedent" when you write "preceding noun".
The antecedent of 'that' is 'very little'. This is a syntactic analysis.
Your paraphrase makes 'hardly any market demand' the antecedent of 'that'. This is another syntactic analysis. (The paraphrase changed the syntax.)
It doesn't seem to me that both of those expressions belong to the same category, but this is the first time the question has come up for me, so I don't know what to say. There may be a way to argue that point. And there may be an academic paper somewhere that has a discussion of this very topic.
CJ