Position of only”
Which is the correct sentence in the English language?
- What does a microscope do for mosquito larvae?
- (B) Mosquito larvae can be seen only through a microscope.
- (C) Mosquito larvae can be seen only through a microscope.
If you’re in a hurry and want to change your blog or blog post, please share it in the comments.
I am willing, I guess, to be the foil to John Lawler and his sagacious answer and add a few not-so-sage sentences. In turn, I’m going to become the foil to them.
With the advanced photographic technology available to us today, we can see mosquito larvae quite nicely, thank you, in pictures. Is option (C) the same as option B2? What
is a Microscopical image. The Microscopical image is taken by a PAXcam camera with fluorescence microscopy.” : “Posquito larvae can only be seen through a microscope or in a picture taken via the fluorescence microscopy used in cell biology studies. Can
mosquito larvae be seen
through a microscope or in a picture taken by a PAXcam digital camera? u00bb rp 1. ”
As for options (A) and (B), each is likely to be heard today coming from folks who lack a certain, uh, preciseness in their speaking, writing and writing. Let me be quick to point out, however, imprecision does not necessarily equate with incorrectness. When you understand what a person is saying, who cares if they say it in a less-than-precise way? If you have any misplaced objects, then drawing attention to them will leave you only feeling embarrassed (or does that leave you feeling only embarrassed)? Why can’t you leave yourself feeling
embarrassed?
(E) Mosquito larvae can only be seen through a microscope.
(B) Mosquito larvae can be seen only through a microscope.
(C) Mosquito larvae can be seen only through a microscope.
In this answer I’m only focused on one other constituent of a sentence, which is usually stressed, and controls where only can appear in the sentence.
“User” must appear either directly before its
focus
-
or immediately before any
constituent -
that contains its focus. ((We”)
(A) is unexpected, but not incorrect. If (A) and (C) are allowed, they are both fine. The one symbol means neither a microscope has the focus of the other. What
- are different possibilities to focus, viz. C = either through a microscope be the focus of only or.
- (B) means either the verb seen or the verb phrase seen through a microscope.
A focus on seen is unusual, unless it is contrastively stressed to mean (e.g. g) ‘not heard’) - (A) means that any of the above constituents can be concentrate.
Some people wouldn’t like (B) because the normal place for operators like negatives and only is after the first auxiliary verb and (B) places only after the second one. This is a real problem for a system which doesn’t see (B) in it’s history. However, auxiliaries are elided and contracted so often in English that the difference isn’t really important or even perceptible, especially since is much more complex than a simple negative like not.
I am willing, I guess, to be the foil to John Lawler and his sagacious answer and add a few not-so-sage sentences. In turn, I’m going to become the foil to them.
With the advanced photographic technology available to us today, we can see mosquito larvae quite nicely, thank you, in pictures. Is option (C) the same as option B2? What
is a Microscopical image. The Microscopical image is taken by a PAXcam camera with fluorescence microscopy.” : “Posquito larvae can only be seen through a microscope or in a picture taken via the fluorescence microscopy used in cell biology studies. Can
mosquito larvae be seen
through a microscope or in a picture taken by a PAXcam digital camera? u00bb rp 1. ”
As for options (A) and (B), each is likely to be heard today coming from folks who lack a certain, uh, preciseness in their speaking, writing and writing. Let me be quick to point out, however, imprecision does not necessarily equate with incorrectness. When you understand what a person is saying, who cares if they say it in a less-than-precise way? If you have any misplaced objects, then drawing attention to them will leave you only feeling embarrassed (or does that leave you feeling only embarrassed)? Why can’t you leave yourself feeling
embarrassed?