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.
Subject and verb relationship
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Re: Subject and verb relationship
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.
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.