2

Do you think some of these factors you mention, like attention paid to copyright law, might seem like rather small problems for such an extreme, potentially expensive solution?

Actually, I think the real extreme and the real expense problem is what’s going on now.

What does the sentence in bold mean? I think that "the real extreme and the real expense problem" should be "the real extreme and expensive problem". I don't know how to parse it.

The article is from:enter link description here

2
  • It would be helpful if you tried to find out what you don't understand and you should indicate this. Right now, one can only guess what your problem is.
    – rogermue
    Feb 24, 2014 at 7:08
  • Without reading the article (tl;dr), I can understand "the real extreme and the real expense problem" as one of two possibilities: It's [the real extreme and it's the really expensive problem] that is what's going on; or It's the real extreme [problem which is also the real expense] problem is what's going on.. Feb 24, 2014 at 12:23

1 Answer 1

1

It's phrased in an odd way that would confuse me too. It's simply using two descriptions to refer to the same thing. In this case, it's using "extreme" as a noun, and not an adjective as it's usually used. We might also say, "The real problem and cause for concern is the budget/expense problem....".

Something like this could be used to address and contradict 2 separate descriptions of what a group of people are trying to identify as the "main problem". For instance, one person might argue that the extreme problem is problem A, and someone else might argue, that, no, we ought to focus on B. Then a third person could stand up and say...."No, I think the extreme problem and focus of our attention really should be C!" That would sound appropriate in that context when contradicting two previous claims.

You must log in to answer this question.

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