Ramneet Singh wrote:According to scholars , the earliest writing was probably not a direct rendering of speech , but was more likely to begin as a seperate and distinct symbolic system of communication,and only later merged with spoken language.

A)was more likely to begin as
B)more than likely began as
C)more than likely beginning from
D)it was more than likely begun from
E)it was more likely that it began
you can append "as " to the last answer choice.

Can someone please explain why in choices D and E ,the presence of " it "make the clause after "but" a main clause and cause the removal of the COMMA after communication.

Maybe I did not get your question, but I am giving a general view on this issue:

See the skeleton of the sentence:

The earliest writing was not a rendering, but was more likely to begin as X, and only later merged ...

--> The bold face portion is underlined, so we are to deal with this part only. Since COMMA + and only later merged... is not underlined, we are not required to bother about that part.
Fine?

The issues:

1. COMMA + FANBOYS (For, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) needs a clause if the following is not true:

1.1. IC + COMMA + Modifier+COMMA+ FANBOYS + Verb is the structure and the verb retains the subject of the first independent clause (here, IC).

In our sentence the structure is IC + COMMA + FANBOYS, so we need a clause after FANBOYS. Here, "was" is not a verb of the subject of the first clause. If "was" were the verb of the subject in the first clause, then COMMA before "but" would not be used.

So, we are left with the conclusion that in this case "FANBOYS" needs a clause.

Now, look for the options.
A, B, and C are not correct because they don't have clause after 'but'.

2. The following two constructions are correct:

Likely to + verb
Likely that

Just memorize these two. Very often "likely to" is used in GMAT, and sometimes "likely that" is used.

This kills D.

Answer is E.


Note: I think you have got the idea why we need "it" in the option E. here, without "it" we would have only "was". Since a clause must have a subject and a verb, without "it" the sentence would be "sentence fragment"--a grammar error when a sentence does not have a subject or a verb.

I would request you to read on the following issues:

1. Run on sentence.
2. Sentence fragment.
3. Clause
4. how to join two clauses--there are five ways two clauses can be joined.
5. Punctuations specially semicolon, comma, colon, dash. double dashes.

Thanks.

hi gmat_perfect,Thanks for the effort oyu put.In although it wasnt easy for me to swim through all the dense stuff.However,the aanswer is B.

@GMAT_perfect :

In our sentence the structure is IC + COMMA + FANBOYS, so we need a clause after FANBOYS. Here, "was" is not a verb of the subject of the first clause. If "was" were the verb of the subject in the first clause, then COMMA before "but" would not be used.

What is the source of this information ? This is not an absolute rule. Moreover, the book "The Elements of Style" contradicts te point. Your point ,i believe, is correct for "And" but not for "BUT" .

Would be good to have some expert comments for A and B .