Korean Job Discussion Forums

marckot · Joined: 16 Jan 2007 Location: Mokpo

I am a little stuck on the following sentence. Some help would be appreciated.

"It is regrettable, but it is a fact, that children do not look upon their parents, or their relations belonging to another generation, with the same degree of affection as their parents, or relations, look upon them."

Is the grammar in this sentence sound?
What is the function of the "as" in the sentence?

Is the "as" in this sentence a relative pronoun?

dpl · Joined: 06 Nov 2007 Location: Ilsan

It's a regrettable fact that children do not look upon their parents or grandparents as they had once looked upon them.

"as" is a conjunction

JustJohn · Joined: 18 Oct 2007 Location: Your computer screen

To answer the original question, aside from terrible comma use I think it's okay.

marckot · Joined: 16 Jan 2007 Location: Mokpo

yeah someone went crazy with commas in this one.

I also thought it is a conjunction but the Korean teacher who showed me this thought it is a relative pronoun and wanted to add "with" at the end of the sentence after ".... look upon them."

............ look upon them with.

I had trouble following his train of thought. Can you explain why he thought this?

dpl · Joined: 06 Nov 2007 Location: Ilsan

It is definitely a conjunction. The Korean Teacher is wrong.

JustJohn · Joined: 18 Oct 2007 Location: Your computer screen

I don't know about fancy names, but I think with might be right when you have the pronoun again at the end. For example:

John does his homework with the same pencil as Mary does hers (with).

Could just be that everyone I know says it wrong, but it sounds funny without with in there.

Personally I'd just rewrite the sentence because it's getting a little ungainly:

It is a regrettable fact that children do not look upon their parents or relations from other generations with the same degree of affection as their parents or relations look upon them.

nobbyken · Joined: 07 Jun 2006 Location: Yongin ^^

I would second JustJohns sentence.

The original is clumsy and would probably be confusing to anybody who wasn't a native speaker.

mercury · Joined: 05 Dec 2004 Location: Pusan

as is a preposition and a conjunction

*This is called a parenthetical expression (which is just an explanation, or another fact).

It is regrettable, but it is also a fact, that children do not look upon their parents (or any other family members from past generations)with the same degree of affection which their parents (or other family members) give to them.