You will find when the link clicked on the ‘such’ entry of the Longman English
Dictionary. In that entry, you will also find the sentence,
‘He lectured in such a way that many in the audience found him
impossible to understand.’
My take on the sentence is: Because he lectured like that, so that many
in the audience found him impossible to understand. In other words,
he lectured so bad that many in the audience found him impossible to understand.
Do I get it right?
Does the pronunciation support my undertanding also?
Yes, you have the right idea. In your first explanatory sentence, delete “so that” (it is redundant with “because”). In the second sentence, “bad” should be “badly”.
I’m afraid I do not understand your question about pronunciation.
The pronunciation referred to the oral representation of the sentence, which you can hear
when clicking on the speaker icon placed before the example sentence.
Right, I realise that you are referring to the pronunciation guide on the website. However, I do not understand how the pronunciation of the word or sentence can “support your understanding” or otherwise. This is because the points you mention do not seem to have anything to do with pronunciation.
I thought that the flow or tone, if you will, of the sentence
of ‘He lectured in such a way…’ should agree with that of ‘He lectured so badly…’
not only in writing but also in audibility, if you will, 8).
When you click on the above link, you will find a sentence:
‘I tried to tell her in such a way that she wouldn’t be offended.’
What do you make of it?
My take would have to be: A determiner, such a way, pointing forward to the appositional clause led by ‘that’ explaining
the propositional or main clause, so that action X of the main clause is further explained by Y, the subordinate clause,
so that ‘I tried to tell her in such a way that…’ is little different in sense from ‘I tried to tell her in a way that she wouldn’t be offended.’
If this proposition is validified, ‘I interpret this telegram in such a way that he is coming today, not tomorrow’ would be correct
grammatically, for this is the same as the Cambridge example syntactically.
Then a question arises: How do you tell one from the other in the two patterns of ‘in such a way that’ usage. One tentative way
would be to decide if the formula of the Y is the result of the action X is applicable to a sentence, although precarious in practice.
It’s just the same as in the message I linked to: “do X in such a way that Y” means that Y is an outcome or result of doing X.
“I tried to tell her in such a way that she wouldn’t be offended” means that you didn’t want her to be offended as an outcome or result of telling her, and you tried to tell her in a way that ensured she wasn’t offended.
Then, you wouldn’t make difference between ‘He lectured in such a way
that many in the audience found him impossible to understand’
and ‘He lectured in a way that many in the audience found it impossible to understand’, would you?
Concomitantly, you have to recant your assertion that the sentence
of ‘I interpret this telegram in such a way that he is coming today, not tomorrow’
is faulty grammatically, for that he is coming today, not tomorrow
is also an outcome of the action x, namely ‘interpret’, haven’t you?
Your formula of “do X in such a way that Y” means that Y is an outcome or result of doing X is so versatile or all purpose that it could negate every possible different
patterns of usage of ‘in such a way that’. Most of all, it negatives the difference
between the manner clause proper and the manner clause of modal result.
Your logic seems so simple: First come is action and second come is its result.
Nature is such. So much of analysis.
The word “it” should be removed from the second sentence. Once that is fixed there is little difference in meaning between the two. However, the grammatical structures are different.
I did not say that it was faulty grammatically.
The point I made earlier, which I thought you agreed with at the time, is that his coming today rather that tomorrow is not an outcome of the interpretation.
The message you linked to with your forumula of “do X in such a way that Y” means that Y is an outcome or result of doing X is: ‘He lectured in such a way that many
in the audience found him impossible to understand,’ which I took as ‘Because he lectured like that many in the audience found him impossible to understand’.
Which you endorsed. But it doesn’t follow in the case of ‘I tried to tell her in such a way that she wouldn’t be offended’ that ‘Because I tried to tell her like that she wouldn’t be offended’. If anything, you took it to mean roughly ‘I tried to tell her in a way that she wouldn’t be offended.’ Are there quite two different versions to be made in the usage of ‘in such a way that’? If so, what will be a differentiating factor?
The point I made earlier, which I thought you agreed with at the time, is that his coming today rather that tomorrow is not an outcome of the interpretation.
[/quote]
Why not? They are associated with each other in terms of reason and result somehow.
There is little difference in meaning between the two. However, the grammatical structures are different.
The construction of the latter corresponds essentially with the structure of the sentence of ‘I tried to tell her in such a way that she wouldn’t be offended’, dosen’t it?
What should I do to distinguish between the two grammatically different versions
of one grammatical form of ‘in such a way that’? It depends on context?
‘He lectured in such a way that many in the audience found him impossible to understand.’ – “that” is a conjunction. “many in the audience found him impossible to understand” is a self-contained clause.
‘He lectured in a way that many in the audience found impossible to understand.’ – “that” is a relative pronoun. “(that) many in the audience found impossible to understand” modifies “way”. It is not a self-contained clause.
‘He lectured in a way that many in the audience found it/him impossible to understand.’ – This is a poorly formed sentence.
[quote=“Lifeliner”]
Then, you wouldn’t make difference between ‘He lectured in such a way
that many in the audience found him impossible to understand’
and ‘He lectured in a way that many in the audience found it impossible to understand’, would you?
User interface here seems not so friendly to users in terms of editing in contrast to Usenet for one. Anyway, it seems that we are getting nowhere. In other words, it seems we are back at square one. Le’t leave it at that for the time being. It seems we don’t understand each other well. In other words, it seems we don’t know what we are talking about. We may have to take it from the top.
Isn’t it true? The thread has become so cluttered as well as confusing.
