英文文法分析: Asia’s Trading Nation
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Asia’s trading nations say that they cannot afford to sit on their hands and wait for Doha to revive. Better, they argue, to loosen up trade with simpler deals between a couple of countries or, if you are truly ambitious, a handful.
分析一下语法，特别是句首句尾 Better, they argue, to loosen up trade with simpler deals between a couple of countries or, if you are truly ambitious, a handful.
Comments:
This is how I analyze the sentence.
To understand the grammatical structure of this sentence “Better, they argue, to loosen up trade with simpler deals between a couple of countries or, if you are truly ambitious, a handful”, let me rewrite it a bit differently as follows (the words that are italic and underlined are the additional words):
“They argue that it’s better to loosen up trade with simpler deals between a couple of countries, or that it’s also better to loosen up trade between a handful of countries if you are truly ambitious.”
1. Subject and Predicate
The Subject is just one word - “They”, and the rest is the Predicate.
2. Predicate
In the Predicate, there is an intransitive verb “argue” followed by two Adverbial Phrases that modify the verb “argue”: (a) that it’s better to loosen up trade with simpler deals between a couple of countries (b) that it’s also better to loosen up trade between a handful of countries if you are truly ambitious.
The two Adverbial Phrases are linked by the conjunction “or”.
The second Adverbial Phrase is a bit complicated. The adjective “better” is modified by an Adverbial Phrase in the form of an Infinitive Phrase: “to loosen up trade between a handful of countries”. That Adverbial Phrase is in turn modified by another Adverbial Phrase “if you are truly ambitious”.
3. Abbreviation and Rearrange Adverbial Phase
In English, some words are often abbreviated to keep the sentence crisp.
For example, look at this sentence: “I will go to school, and I will study very hard.” The two underlined words “I will” are always abbreviated so that the sentence you normally see becomes “I will go to school and study very hard.”
The writer did two things to the sentence I suggest: (a) abbreviated the words that are underlined and italic, and (b) moved part of the first Adverbial Phrase “better” to the top of the sentence.
I have no problem moving part of the Adverbial Phrase to the top because grammatically you can move adverbs and adverbial phrases around in a sentence.
I also have no problem abbreviating most of those underlined and italic words, except in my opinion, the writer should not abbreviate the word “it’s”. It’s just not grammatical without the subject “it” and the tensed verb “is” if my sentence reads: “They argue better to loosen up trade…”, and it should be “They argue it’s better to loosen up trade…”.
The sentence should read: “It’s better, they argue, to loosen up trade with simpler deals between a couple of countries or, if you are truly ambitious, a handful”, or “That it’s better, they argue, to loosen up trade with simpler deals between a couple of countries or, if you are truly ambitious, a handful”
4. Why “it’s”
This part is rather technical.
The Adverbial Phrase embedding the word “better” starts with the “Subordinating Conjunction” – “that”. Grammatically that Adverbial Phrase is an Adverbial Clause. A “clause” by definition must consist of a Subject and Predicate (a predicate must contain a “Tensed Verb”). Therefore without the “it’s” composing of the Subject “it” and Tensed Verb “is”, the Adverbial Clause cannot be a “Clause” and therefore it is ungrammatical.
.
Asia’s trading nations say that they cannot afford to sit on their hands and wait for Doha to revive. Better, they argue, to loosen up trade with simpler deals between a couple of countries or, if you are truly ambitious, a handful.
分析一下语法，特别是句首句尾 Better, they argue, to loosen up trade with simpler deals between a couple of countries or, if you are truly ambitious, a handful.
Comments:
This is how I analyze the sentence.
To understand the grammatical structure of this sentence “Better, they argue, to loosen up trade with simpler deals between a couple of countries or, if you are truly ambitious, a handful”, let me rewrite it a bit differently as follows (the words that are italic and underlined are the additional words):
“They argue that it’s better to loosen up trade with simpler deals between a couple of countries, or that it’s also better to loosen up trade between a handful of countries if you are truly ambitious.”
1. Subject and Predicate
The Subject is just one word - “They”, and the rest is the Predicate.
2. Predicate
In the Predicate, there is an intransitive verb “argue” followed by two Adverbial Phrases that modify the verb “argue”: (a) that it’s better to loosen up trade with simpler deals between a couple of countries (b) that it’s also better to loosen up trade between a handful of countries if you are truly ambitious.
The two Adverbial Phrases are linked by the conjunction “or”.
The second Adverbial Phrase is a bit complicated. The adjective “better” is modified by an Adverbial Phrase in the form of an Infinitive Phrase: “to loosen up trade between a handful of countries”. That Adverbial Phrase is in turn modified by another Adverbial Phrase “if you are truly ambitious”.
3. Abbreviation and Rearrange Adverbial Phase
In English, some words are often abbreviated to keep the sentence crisp.
For example, look at this sentence: “I will go to school, and I will study very hard.” The two underlined words “I will” are always abbreviated so that the sentence you normally see becomes “I will go to school and study very hard.”
The writer did two things to the sentence I suggest: (a) abbreviated the words that are underlined and italic, and (b) moved part of the first Adverbial Phrase “better” to the top of the sentence.
I have no problem moving part of the Adverbial Phrase to the top because grammatically you can move adverbs and adverbial phrases around in a sentence.
I also have no problem abbreviating most of those underlined and italic words, except in my opinion, the writer should not abbreviate the word “it’s”. It’s just not grammatical without the subject “it” and the tensed verb “is” if my sentence reads: “They argue better to loosen up trade…”, and it should be “They argue it’s better to loosen up trade…”.
The sentence should read: “It’s better, they argue, to loosen up trade with simpler deals between a couple of countries or, if you are truly ambitious, a handful”, or “That it’s better, they argue, to loosen up trade with simpler deals between a couple of countries or, if you are truly ambitious, a handful”
4. Why “it’s”
This part is rather technical.
The Adverbial Phrase embedding the word “better” starts with the “Subordinating Conjunction” – “that”. Grammatically that Adverbial Phrase is an Adverbial Clause. A “clause” by definition must consist of a Subject and Predicate (a predicate must contain a “Tensed Verb”). Therefore without the “it’s” composing of the Subject “it” and Tensed Verb “is”, the Adverbial Clause cannot be a “Clause” and therefore it is ungrammatical.
.
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