2

I have two questions regarding below sentence.

The idea that individuals are more than merely subjects of sovereign states grew rapidly after the collapse of communism and the bipolar world.

Does adverb 'merely' modify the noun 'subject'? Because if the 'merely' modifies the verb 'are', I think it should be placed before 'more than'. Is my assumption correct?

If my assumption is correct, can I change 'merely' to adjective 'mere' as given below?

The idea that individuals are more than mere subjects of sovereign states grew rapidly after the collapse of communism and the bipolar world.

Improve this question
1
  • Your second example ("more than mere subjects") is better. The construction "more than merely subjects" is a little odd. Another way would be to say "individuals are not merely subjects" which is very, very slightly different in connotation. The phrase "mere subjects" implies a little more distaste with the condition.
    – Epicedion
    Commented Jun 17, 2016 at 17:34

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
1

Clearly, as you said "merely" cannot modify a noun. Hence we should either change the adverb "merely" to its adjective "mere" or place the adverb "merely" after "are" to modify the adverb "more than" to make the sentence grammatically correct. If the word "individuals" refer to "subjects", then the first option is appropriate.

Improve this answer
0

The idea that individuals are more than mere subjects of sovereign states grew rapidly after the collapse of communism and the bipolar world---this sentence adds a more appropriate meaning rather than the first one..

Improve this answer
1
  • How do you think it is appropriate meaning. So what does first sentence mean?
    – ARYF
    Commented Jul 1, 2016 at 3:03

You must log in to answer this question.

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