Kibbitzer 75 |
The question remains |
This sentence is taken from the dissertation of a Korean student of Business Studies. In the previous paragraph the writer had summarised the remarkable growth of Korean GNP over the past 40 years:
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Original
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Revisions
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There is a question of how Korea has achieved the outstanding economic success over the decades with its scarcity of natural resources and advanced technologies.
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The question remains of how Korea has achieved this outstanding economic success over the decades with its scarcity of natural resources and advanced technology.
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The question remains: how has Korea achieved this outstanding economic success over the decades with its scarcity of natural resources and advanced technology?
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A quick discussion with the student showed that by "There is a question of ..." he wanted to signal that although other questions had been answered, this one had not. I suggested the expression "the
question remains ...": a quick concordance showed the sorts of contexts in which the expression occurs:
- The expression is usually sentence-initial, often after the conjunction 'but'.
- In a small proportion of cases (eg citations 1 & 2), the question is defined by means of a Noun Phrase. In such cases, "the question" is often evaluated: fooor example as "great" (1), "central" (2), "decisive" etc.
- In many cases (eg citations 3 - 5) the question is defined by means of a direct question. This context seems to be rather more common in newspaper texts than in academic texts.
- In many other cases (eg citations 6 - 10) the question is defined by neans of an indirect question, the main conjunctions employed being "whether" (6 & 7, 9) and "why" (8 & 10). In a few cases the conjunction is preceded by "of": "the question of whether" (9) and "the question of of why" (10).
1 es not. The great question remains the single currency. The German public doesn't want it, it
2 . But the central question remains the provision of proper amounts of convenient land for app
3 meetings. But the question remains: are there any political prisoners in Georgia? To answer i
4 1917. But the key question remains: is cheating acceptable in school exams? The answer: only
5 . But the crucial question remains. Can IT improve the basic skills of the children who curre
6 ing systems". The question remains whether these technologies will be of any use. Edward Feat
7 oard, the crucial question remains whether the new watchdog can actually deliver its promised
8 ssing person. The question remains why so many should slip through in the first place. For so
9 om the slump. The question remains, however, of whether recovery would have been faster had t
10 ome hope, but the question remains of why they are not more widespread. Perception is part of
In the light of such data, I suggested two revisions of the original, the first using an indirect question structure with "of", and the second the rather more informal direct question structure. The student chose the former.
| 31st August 2000. |
Consultant: Tim Johns |
Back to Tim Johns EAP page