Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[mark.pearl]

I came across the following sentence and can't get its meaning exactly do help me to figure it out .here comes the sentence:
�The central assertion of this book is that the
world of humankind constitutes a manifold,
a totality of interconnected processes, and
inquiries that disassemble this totality into
bits and then fail to reassemble it falsify
reality.�
What's that mean ? what's its grammartical function?
Thanks!
mark

[lotus]

Hi mark.pearl,

Welcome to this forum!

I would edit it like so:

The central assertion of this book is that the
world of humankind constitutes a manifold,
a totality of interconnected processes and
inquiries that disassemble this totality into
bits, and then fail to reassemble it -- falsifying
reality.

What it means is that the book asserts that humankind (human beings) are made of many thoughts and processes that define who we are, what we are, and what we perceive ourselves to be. But, in the process of analyzing and breaking down (disassemble) the components which define who we are, we fail to put the pieces back to together correctly -- thereby, distorting our own vision of ourselves.

One way to look at this is through history. The events of history are real. However, there are many experiences of history. For any one major event, there are different experiences and interpretations. When we compile that history, we reassemble the events and experiences. Then, we might write the details of the events and even add interpretations in a textbook. However, history books are notorious for looking at events the wrong way. They're usually too general or too politically correct. They don't always tell the true story behind the event -- and it depends on who tells the story and when. So, reality has been distorted or falsified.

History is only one example. There are other examples of how we, as human beings, distort our own reality.

This is a cynical view, but perhaps an all too realistic perception of the human condition.


--lotus
_________________
War does not make one great --Yoda

[mark.pearl]

Hi Lotus,
Thank you for answer but will you please tell me what's the function of the word "that" between inquires and disamble and analyse it's sentence structure in detail.
mark

[lotus]

Hi mark.pearl,

Now that I've edited and given you the general meaning of the sentence, you should attempt to make out its structure (if that's your goal). You should start by making sure you understand the meaning of each word. Once you understand the definitions, re-read the sentence and see if it correlates with what I've translated (others might translate it differently). When you have made an attempt to understand the sentence structure (you might want to start with a sentence diagram), then you can ask questions on whether or not the structure is correct.

To get you started, "that" is a relative pronoun which sets off a relative clause.


--lotus
_________________
War does not make one great --Yoda

[mark.pearl]

Hi Lotus,
Thank you for your answer. It do help me.
mark