An odd sentence

pdh0224 · Post by **pdh0224** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 4:49 am

Dear teacher,

As psychologist Brad Bushman of Iowa State University puts it, kids who develop unrealistically high opinions of themselves can, when brought fact to face with a more realistic version of who they are, become "potentially dangerous."

Q : I think "it" should be not there, because "it" refers to the latter main clause. I belive the structure of the sentence is same with "As he said, you are not a good boy". It is like If it is "As he said it, you are not a good boy", that is also odd.

What do you think?

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 5:52 am

The possibility of using 'as' to form a sentential relative (as in as he says) as compared with that of forming a disjunct adverbial (as in as he puts it) generally depends on the particular verb used. In the case of 'say', 'it' is not used, while in the case of 'put it' (= express it), an 'it' is always required. I'm afraid that you need to learn these case by case.

pdh0224 · Post by **pdh0224** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 12:00 pm

You mean it depends on a verb used, Right? There is no reason why "it" is used behind of "put". Although "it" is not needed there, we should use "put it" because people used "put it" generally. I think it is one of unreasonable cases, but used.

As you said, The case like this have to be learned case by case.

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 12:09 am

I'm afraid so!