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nor is there/there is

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by Chinn_asama » Thu Feb 21, 2013 10:40 am
Hi there

Is the below sentence correct? ....If the 'there' and 'is' trade places, would the new sentence still make sense and convey the same meaning?

";nor is there a system to ensure that the interception of information is logged."

Regards
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Source: — Sentence Correction |

by Jim@StratusPrep » Thu Feb 21, 2013 10:46 am
Yes, the sentence is correct as is, and no it would not be grammatically correct. I am guessing a bit here, but the clue is in the parallelism with the remainder of the sentence. Whatever comes after 'neither' must be in parallel to what comes after 'nor'.
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by ceilidh.erickson » Fri Feb 22, 2013 1:14 pm
This is an idiomatic rule with "nor" when it's used to connect two independent clauses. We could say:

There is no food. Also, there is no water.

Alternatively, we could connect these with "nor":

There is no food; nor is there water.

For whatever reason, the subject and verb are inverted in this construction (much like they would be in a question). It would not be correct to use normal subject-verb order here.

Jim is incorrect about the use of "neither," though. In such a construction, when "nor" follows a semicolon, there is no "neither" in the preceding clause. We could (arcanely) say:

Neither is there food nor is there water.

In that case, though, we would not use a semicolon.
Ceilidh Erickson
EdM in Mind, Brain, and Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education
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