1

If reviving traditional music is facilitated, one is seemed to use the results to understand traditional arts as much as possible, since all arts are traced back into cultural and traditions of the same nation.

I have written all of these by myself. Would you please show me if the bold parts mean the same thing? And, whether or not the sentence above is correct grammatically and semantically?

it seems that one can use the results to understand traditional arts as much as possible,

By the results I mean: the consequences of if reviving traditional music is facilitated.

Any comment would greatly be appreciated

1 Answer 1

2

If reviving traditional music is facilitated, one is seemed to use the results to understand traditional arts as much as possible, since all arts are traced back into cultural and traditions of the same nation.

There are three major errors in this sentence:

  • ... into cultural and traditions of the same nation. Cultural is an adjective, not a noun, so it cannot act as the complement of the preposition into. Perhaps you mean

    ... into the culture and traditions of the same nation.

  • ... to understand traditional arts as much as possible ... Adverbial phrases like as much as possible, as far as we can, to the extent the situation permits are usually employed in a negative, 'hedging' sense: they imply that the speaker is qualifying the action modified as unlikely to be complete, or completely successful. For instance:

    I will help you as much as possible implies that I cannot help you as much as you or I would like.

    But what I think you intend here is a positive sense: that the result of reviving traditional music will be the greatest possible understanding of traditional arts.

  • ... one is seemed to use ... Seem cannot be used this way. Only transitive verbs can be cast in the passive voice, the construction which employs BE + past participle. But seem is neither transitive nor intransitive: it is a copula, a verb which attributes a quality, identity or action to its Subject. It is used (like the more or less synonymous verbs appear and look) to put forward something less than a definite assertion.

    He seems happy = He gives the appearance of being happy, but may in fact be angry or sad.

    As a straightforward copula, seem takes adjective phrases, noun phrases, and marked infinitive clauses as complements.

    He seems happy.
    He seems a happy fellow.
    He seems to be a happy fellow. He seems to work hard.

    Seem also enters into an 'impersonal' construction which employs 1) the 'dummy' subject it + an active tensed form with SEEM, followed by 2) a that clause (sometimes called a 'content' clause) which expresses the assertion which is hedged or qualified.

    It seems that he is happy (but he may not be).
    It seemed that he was a happy fellow (but he wasn't).
    It will seem that he is working hard (but he will in fact be spending his time answering questions on ELL instead of working).

Your uses of facilitating and use the results and since are also problematic; but these seem to be matters of content rather than form, so I will not address them here. I suspect what you mean is something more like

Encouraging traditional music seems likely to result in a much better understanding of all the traditional arts, for they all spring from the same cultural tradition.

1
  • Thank you so much. However, I am to raise another question closely related to this question soon.
    – nima
    Commented May 12, 2015 at 19:56

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .