parallelism doubt

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ankitdce: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 5; Joined: Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:18 pm; Location: india

by ankitdce » Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:47 pm

Hi

pls tell me whether the sentence below is grammatically correct or not:

As the boys approached the swamp, frogs could be heard croaking.

Thanks

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:47 pm

ankitdce: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 5; Joined: Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:18 pm; Location: india

by ankitdce » Thu Jun 18, 2009 3:53 am

pls reply.........

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vinayakdl: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 131; Joined: Wed May 06, 2009 1:01 pm; Location: Chicago; Thanked: 7 times

by vinayakdl » Thu Jun 18, 2009 5:24 am

if you could share the question that would help better. Just based on the one sentence below i don't think is grammatically correct, it does not mention who heard croaking?
i think this is more appropriate

As the boys approached the swamp, they could hear frogs croaking.

Vinayak

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ankitdce: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 5; Joined: Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:18 pm; Location: india

by ankitdce » Thu Jun 18, 2009 5:27 am

Hi vinayak,

you are correct

but can u pls explain to me as how did u decide it is correct.........is it related to parallelism........

thanks

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vinayakdl: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 131; Joined: Wed May 06, 2009 1:01 pm; Location: Chicago; Thanked: 7 times

by vinayakdl » Thu Jun 18, 2009 6:30 am

I don't think this is related to parallelism.

The Sentence
"As the boys approached the swamp, frogs could be heard croaking"

does not make sense, part 2 (after common) does not seem related to the first part of the sentence, there is no connection. This is kind of a run-on sentence. Also it is not clear who heard frogs croaking, it is implied that the boys heard croaking but the sentence is ambiguous.

Vinayak

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goelmohit2002: Legendary Member; Posts: 1799; Joined: Wed Dec 24, 2008 3:03 amFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 36 times

by goelmohit2002 » Thu Jun 18, 2009 7:36 am

vinayakdl wrote:if you could share the question that would help better. Just based on the one sentence below i don't think is grammatically correct, it does not mention who heard croaking?
i think this is more appropriate

As the boys approached the swamp, they could hear frogs croaking.

Vinayak

I second that....just based on sentence we can not say that sentence is correct in GMAT or not...

GMAT wants "best amongst the worst"....and not the perfect answer.

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ankitdce: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 5; Joined: Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:18 pm; Location: india

by ankitdce » Thu Jun 18, 2009 12:17 pm

hi vinayakdl,

are you sure that the sentence is erroneous due to Run - on error.....because here we are using "as" a conjuction......so how can we say that it has Run - on error

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commit.gmat: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 22; Joined: Tue May 19, 2009 8:01 pm; Thanked: 2 times; GMAT Score:740

by commit.gmat » Thu Jun 18, 2009 1:34 pm

ankitdce wrote:hi vinayakdl,

are you sure that the sentence is erroneous due to Run - on error.....because here we are using "as" a conjuction......so how can we say that it has Run - on error

I agree with you on the 'run-on' part. This sentence is not. first part of the sentence is a subordinate clause. 'As' is a subordinate conjunction.

But I agree with others that sentence is ambiguous as the second part doesn't make it clear who heard the frogs.

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goelmohit2002: Legendary Member; Posts: 1799; Joined: Wed Dec 24, 2008 3:03 amFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 36 times

by goelmohit2002 » Thu Jun 18, 2009 1:43 pm

commit.gmat wrote:
ankitdce wrote:hi vinayakdl,

are you sure that the sentence is erroneous due to Run - on error.....because here we are using "as" a conjuction......so how can we say that it has Run - on error
I agree with you on the 'run-on' part. This sentence is not. first part of the sentence is a subordinate clause. 'As' is a subordinate conjunction.

But I agree with others that sentence is ambiguous as the second part doesn't make it clear who heard the frogs.

Can you please help me understand why the second sentence is ambiguous ? Is there a Grammar rule that the person who is doing the action should be present in the same clause in which action is done...

Basically what I mean is that in the original sentence there was no body except boys who could hear...then why do we need to have "they" additionally in the second sentence.

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commit.gmat: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 22; Joined: Tue May 19, 2009 8:01 pm; Thanked: 2 times; GMAT Score:740

by commit.gmat » Thu Jun 18, 2009 2:07 pm

goelmohit2002 wrote:
commit.gmat wrote:
ankitdce wrote:hi vinayakdl,

are you sure that the sentence is erroneous due to Run - on error.....because here we are using "as" a conjuction......so how can we say that it has Run - on error
I agree with you on the 'run-on' part. This sentence is not. first part of the sentence is a subordinate clause. 'As' is a subordinate conjunction.

But I agree with others that sentence is ambiguous as the second part doesn't make it clear who heard the frogs.
Can you please help me understand why the second sentence is ambiguous ? Is there a Grammar rule that the person who is doing the action should be present in the same clause in which action is done...

Basically what I mean is that in the original sentence there was no body except boys who could hear...then why do we need to have "they" additionally in the second sentence.

The sentence is a little ambiguous. I don't think it is grammatically incorrect but the meaning is not clear. It is more of a meaning issue rather than a grammar issue.

It has a subject (frogs) and a verb and it is in passive voice. grammatically correct. If the object is not important, it is perfectly fine grammatically to leave it out.

As an example, consider the stand-alone sentence.

'The game was postponed'. The sentence is perfectly fine as it is. It is not important who postponed the game.

Let's put his as part of another sentence.

"As the players were tired, the game was postponed"

Did the players postpone the game or the Officials? Or as you said, can we argue that players are the only ones who can cancel the game since 'players' is the only noun in the sentence? I don't think so.

But if we don't care who cancelled the game OR if we don't care who heard the frogs, the sentence is fine as it is. But, If it is important who postponed the game or who heard the frogs, it should be stated to make the meaning clear.

As the boys approached the swamp, frogs could be heard croaking by them.

As the players were tired, the game was postponed by the officials.

HTH !!!

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ankitdce: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 5; Joined: Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:18 pm; Location: india

by ankitdce » Thu Jun 18, 2009 8:10 pm

thanks commit.gmat,

Actually this sentence has ben taken from Prentice-Hall handbook for writers‎......i just searched it in google books......i am pasting the link here:

https://books.google.com/books?q=As+the+ ... arch+Books

Also one plausible solution given by my friend is that here in the main clause i.e. "frogs could be heard croaking" subject is frogs which is rather incorrect as the stress should be on boys......Could it be the reason....

thanks

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