Subject and verb relationship

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SoulSeeker
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Subject and verb relationship

Post by SoulSeeker »

Hi teacher Alan,

Please, what is the difference in meaning for two following sentences,
1) Nothing can explain or justify his rage.

2) Nothing can explain, justify his rage.

For number 1 sentence, the subject "Nothing" has two verbs "can explain" and "can justify". The subject have a choice of two predicates.

But for number 2, what is the verb "justify" modifying? Is it modifying the whole "Nothing can explain"? or just a subject "Nothing"? Or is the number 2 sentence gramatically wrong?

Alan, please explain with more details. I have noticed that your answers to others were too short that sometimes caused more questions. And then, the post get locked that nobody can do a follow-up question. Anyways, I appreciate your time and effort.
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Re: Subject and verb relationship

Post by Alan »

There is no difference between the two sentences, save that the second exemplifies a generally poetic/literary construction known as 'asyndetic', in which the normal coordinating conjunction (typically 'and', although here it is 'or') is omitted for reasons of style or brevity.

N.B. for your reference: Finite verbs do not 'modify'. The correct description of the relation between subject and verb is that the former GOVERNS the latter, while the verb (if transitive) governs its object.
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