Sentence Correction

During the past decade, the labor market in France has not been operating according to free market principles, but instead stifling functioning through its various government regulations restricting the hiring and firing of workers.

principles, but instead stifling functioning through its various government regulations restricting the hiring and firing of workers

principles, instead it has been functioning in a stifled manner as a result of various government regulations that restrict the hiring and firing of workers

principles, rather functioning despite being stifled as a result of government regulations that variously restrict worker hiring and firing

principles; the hiring and firing of workers is restricted there by various government regulations, its functioning being stifled

principles; instead, its functioning has been stifled by various government regulations restricting the hiring and firing of workers

Is it B ?

IMO E.

I chose E because I believe the second clause is a complete sentence on its own and should be set apart with a semicolon and "its" in the second part of D is ambiguous. Thus E, was left.

Could you please confirm the OA?

I hope this helps.

Thanks,

Jared

I will also go with E.

As the subject in the first clause is labor market, "its" in the second clause will refer to labor market. "Has been" seems suitable as it is still going on.

Thanks,
Viju

I prefer B over E.

In E, using "Instead" after a semicolon doesn't show continuity in argument/thought. Using comma, as in B is much better.
Also,option B is more parallel, "instead it has been functioning in a stifled manner" is parallel to "labor market in France has not been operating" in the preceding clause.

Viju is Right on.

Putting a take-away from Stacey's post :

When there are two independent clauses (as in choice E) and the second one contains a pronoun as part of the subject, the structural expectation is that the pronoun refers to the subject of the first clause.

https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/sc- ... t5227.html

What's wrong with option B? Is it wrong because it contains "as a result of" which I think is wrong or is there any other reason also to eliminate B?

apex231 wrote:What's wrong with option B? Is it wrong because it contains "as a result of" which I think is wrong or is there any other reason also to eliminate B?

B is a run-on sentence. Pasting explanation from MGMAT thread(refer thread in my prev post),

(B) has a grammatical problem. This sentence comprises two clauses.

During the past decade, the labor market in France has not been operating according to free market principles

AND

instead it has been functioning in a stifled manner as a result of various government regulations that restrict the hiring and firing of workers.


These two clauses will have to be grammatically connected by a conjunction such as and, but, yet, etc. (Remember "instead" is an adverb so cannot act as a conjunction.) In (B), since the two clauses are not connected by a conjunction, the sentence becomes a "run-on" sentence. Thus (B) cannot be correct. (E) corrects this error by using the ";", signifying the equality of the clauses. The conjunction isn't required here.

Thus (E) is grammatically correct.

Very nice explanation Sumanth .

Thanks,
Viju

OA is E as explained by sumanr84

In E :

; instead, its functioning has been stifled by various government regulations restricting the hiring and firing of workers

I am not clear how it is a independent clause.

because of word 'instead', this clause is not looking an independent clause.

paes wrote:In E :

; instead, its functioning has been stifled by various government regulations restricting the hiring and firing of workers

I am not clear how it is a independent clause.

because of word 'instead', this clause is not looking an independent clause.

While I followed my intuition and chose option E (....;instead,....), after reading your post I think you're bringing up a valid point: each of the phrases, before and after the semicolon, needs to be complete on its own; however, that was not the case in option E.
I too would appreciate an explanation on this.

paes wrote:In E :

; instead, its functioning has been stifled by various government regulations restricting the hiring and firing of workers

I am not clear how it is a independent clause.

because of word 'instead', this clause is not looking an independent clause.

As MGMAT SC says:
The semicolon may follow a conjunctive Adverb or other transition expression, such as however, therefore, or in addition.
Instead also falls in this category.
A similar example:
Ancient tribes used to fight a lot; therefore, they became history.

tnaim wrote:

paes wrote:In E :

; instead, its functioning has been stifled by various government regulations restricting the hiring and firing of workers

I am not clear how it is a independent clause.

because of word 'instead', this clause is not looking an independent clause.

While I followed my intuition and chose option E (....;instead,....), after reading your post I think you're bringing up a valid point: each of the phrases, before and after the semicolon, needs to be complete on its own; however, that was not the case in option E.
I too would appreciate an explanation on this.

Even I thought the same and chose B. But the sentence uses "instead" and not "instead of". As many have already explained, "Instead" is a conjunctive adverb and the correct punctuation for conjunctive adverbs is to place a semicolon/period before the conjunctive adverb and a comma after it. If the second clause contained "instead of" then it would have been wrong. So option E is correct.

Thanks Apex