"As if how we construct meaning were not actually a matter of personal, intentional choice, of conscious decision." In this sentence, is "a matter" the noun phrase connected with the prepositional ph

Войти

Зарегистрироваться

😷✊🏼🇭🇰

"As if how we construct meaning were not actually a matter of personal, intentional choice, of conscious decision." In this sentence, is "a matter" the noun phrase connected with the prepositional phrase "of conscious decision"? Why is it not written as "As if how we construct meaning were not actually a matter of personal, intentional choice, or of conscious decision" or "As if how we construct meaning were not actually a matter of personal, intentional choice, or a matter of conscious decision"?

9 янв. 2024 г., 22:11

Ответы · 7

Additionally, since an “intentional choice” and a “conscious decision” are essentially the same thing, it is not necessary to use “or” here, since that would imply that there was a significant difference between the two.

10 января 2024 г.

Either of the other ways you suggested could also work, but the author choose to use fewer words to make the style more terse and less wordy. To take it to an extreme, it could look more like this if the author made different style choices: As if how we construct meaning were not actually a matter of personal choice, nor a matter of intentional choice, nor a matter of conscious decision.

9 января 2024 г.