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I saw the below sentence from LSAT and I can't parse out the grammar of the first clause.
Fur color is in large measure hereditary, for black cats are more likely than others to have black kittens.
According to the MW dictionary, "hereditary" is an adjective; how come an adjective can follow a noun and modifies it at the same time?
Please help explain this sentence.
Let's divide this sentence up a little.
Fur colour is hereditary
This is the same as saying
The cat is black
We can add an adverb in front of an adjective:
Fur colour is usually hereditary
We can make an adverb phrase in various ways: one way is to start with a preposition
under normal circumstances
to some extent
from my perspective
in large measure
So, we can put this adverb phrase into your sentence
Fur colour is in large measure hereditary
in large measure is an adverbal phrase of degree, and is a somewhat formal way of saying to a great extent... similar to mostly.
Check the examples in the Cambridge Dictionary for measure with the noun meaning amount.
