这道题，大家来看看原因。

mjiehu

still, semantically speaking, it is also wrong to "make a language understandable", here, the "language" does not refer to a second language, the first language, such as, English to English native speakers, and Chinese to most of us.

mjiehu

in this sense, the "language" is already understandable to most of the native speakers, the only thing that remain mysterious is "the nature of language" which is unaware to native speakers.

i think i have made it clear, or, i will have to go to Sapier, Chomsky and Universal Grammar  stuff

i bet the sentence was taken out from a linguistic book or paper

gemj

以下是引用mjiehu在2003-10-22 11:05:00的发言：
the problem is that there is simply no "language" in the sentence, only "the nature of language" and an equivalent phrase "the processes that produce" there

你的意思是说IT不能指代
A of B
中的B吗？有例证或依据吗？万分感谢。

mjiehu

i am sorry, i cannot think of any examples, but according to my understanding, because the "it" appears after two chunks, or two constituents, "the nature of language" and "the processes that produce", it cannot jump into the fragment of either constituent.

gemj

如果这个句子如你所说的是：
Research during the past several decades on the nature of language and the processes that produce (the language) and make (the nature of language) understandable has revealed great complexity instead of underlying simplicity.
那么THAT后面的两个动作在说两件事情，意思上好象有点散啊。
当然，我不是说这样不可以。

gemj

以下是引用mjiehu在2003-10-22 11:09:00的发言：
still, semantically speaking, it is also wrong to "make a language understandable", here, the "language" does not refer to a second language, the first language, such as, English to English native speakers, and Chinese to most of us.

但如果是
make the language understandable
呢？
今天我算是又遇上高人mjiehu了。

mjiehu

"here, the "language" does not refer to a second language, BUT the first language"

let us simplify the sentence:
Research on A and B and C has revealed D
- there is nothing wrong with the structure
A= the nature of language
B= the processes that proce
C= make it (the nature of language) understandable
there is only one verb following "that"

mjiehu

Correction:
A= the nature of language
B= the processes that produce
C= the processes that make the nature of language understandable

B and C share "the processes that" to form two noun phrases

mjiehu

但如果是
make the language understandable
呢？
今天我算是又遇上高人mjiehu了。

i am sorry, i cannot be convinced that native speakers should make their mother tongue understandable to them, it's there already.

gemj

当然结构也可以这样理解，本质是一样的：

Research during the past several decades on (the nature of language) and (the processes that (produce) and (make it understandable)) has revealed great complexity instead of underlying simplicity.

[此贴子已经被作者于2003-10-22 11:54:26编辑过]