Jose Carillo's English Forum

English Grammar and Usage Problems => Use and Misuse => Topic started by: benedict on February 07, 2019, 11:53:54 AM

Title: Confusion with "As much"
Post by: benedict on February 07, 2019, 11:53:54 AM

Hi Everybody,

I read in a book the following sentence and had a hard time making sense of it.
"Half again as much teritory has been brought into subjection since Gaugamela as in all the prior campaigns"
Could anyone help me on this, please.

Many thanks!


Benedict

Title: Re: Confusion with "As much"
Post by: Joe Carillo on February 08, 2019, 09:34:14 AM

"Half again as much territory has been brought into subjection since Gaugamela as in all the prior campaigns."

That convoluted passive-voice sentence is indeed extremely tough to grasp. It might help to reconstruct it as follows: "Since the subjection of Gaugamela, again as much as half of Gauagemela's territory has been brought into subjection in addition to the territories brought into subjection by all previous campaigns." Even in this form, we really can't be sure if we have gotten the sense of the original statement correctly. A major problem is that it isn't clear who is doer of the subjection; it's also not clear if territories other than Gaugamela have been involved in the subjection.

The best thing you can do is to ask the author and publisher of that book to clarify that statement and its nebulous mathematics for the benefit of its readers. It would be great if you can share their response and revision with Forum readers.

Title: Re: Confusion with "As much"
Post by: benedict on February 08, 2019, 03:15:02 PM

I'll try to do that, Sir Joe.

Thank you very much.