Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > rec.puzzles > #27917 > unrolled thread

Sir A. Conan Doyle's influence has been so great ...

Back to article view | Back to rec.puzzles

Contents

  Sir A. Conan Doyle's influence has been so great ... "HenHanna" <HenHanna@Posting.from.CsiPh> - 2026-06-06 14:23 +0000
    Re: Sir A. Conan Doyle's influence has been so great ... James Dow Allen <user4353@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-06-06 20:37 +0000
      Re: Sir A. Conan Doyle's influence has been so great ... Rich Ulrich <rich.ulrich@comcast.net> - 2026-06-06 23:02 -0400
        Re: Sir A. Conan Doyle's influence has been so great ... James Dow Allen <user4353@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-06-07 09:18 +0000
          Re: Sir A. Conan Doyle's influence has been so great ... Rich Ulrich <rich.ulrich@comcast.net> - 2026-06-07 05:37 -0400
      Re: Sir A. Conan Doyle's influence has been so great ... Hibou <vpaereru-unmonitored@yahoo.com.invalid> - 2026-06-07 06:29 +0100

#27917 — Sir A. Conan Doyle's influence has been so great ...

  This is from a very famous Brit  academic journal in  the 1940's:

  
       >>>  Sir A. Conan Doyle's influence has been so great in
detective
writing alone that his successors to that realm must needs in
self-defence make light of an obligation they cannot wholly deny.

_______________


          I thought this contained   a  typo  or   typoes  !!!

          I had to have my teacher (AI)  parse and explain it   to me!

[toc] | [next] | [standalone]

#27918

"HenHanna" <HenHanna@Posting.from.CsiPh> posted:

> >>>  Sir A. Conan Doyle's influence has been so great in
> >>>  detective writing alone that his successors to that
> >>>  realm must needs in self-defence make light of an obligation
> >>>  they cannot wholly deny.
> 
> I thought this contained   a  typo  or   typoes  !!!
> 
> I had to have my teacher (AI)  parse and explain it   to me!

Parsing complex sentences was once one of my hobbies; this
sentence is a real dilly!

First dispose of "needs."  The suffix "-s" looks weird, but is NEITHER
a plural marker nor a verb inflection.  It is an ancient marker that
converts a noun to an adverb; it also occurs in "always."
(Sometimes the "-s" becomes "-ce" as in "once" or "thence.")

I'm not sure how best to treat "make light of."  Is it short for
"make light work of"?

The sentence in question has three clauses:
(1) (influence | has been | great (in | writing))
(2) (successors (to | realm) | (must (make light (of | obligation))))
(3) (they | (cannot deny))

There are TWO "that"s connecting clauses (1) and (2): One connects
the clauses' major predicates; the other connects "realm" back to "writing."
An implicit "that" connects obligation to the 3rd clause.

I think "to that realm" may be incorrect; I prefer "in that realm."

Objections?

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#27919

On Sat, 06 Jun 2026 20:37:35 GMT, James Dow Allen
<user4353@newsgrouper.org.invalid> wrote:


>I'm not sure how best to treat "make light of."  Is it short for
>"make light work of"?

"... make light of" an obligation to Doyle/Holmes is to treat it
as not very serious. (When do you have to deal with the debt
at all?)

On the other hand, I can't understand how "make light work of"
fits at all. 

-- 
Rich Ulrich 

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#27921

Rich Ulrich <rich.ulrich@comcast.net> posted:

> On Sat, 06 Jun 2026 20:37:35 GMT, James Dow Allen
> <user4353@newsgrouper.org.invalid> wrote:
> 
> >I'm not sure how best to treat "make light of."  Is it short for
> >"make light work of"?
> 
> "... make light of" an obligation to Doyle/Holmes is to treat it
> as not very serious. (When do you have to deal with the debt
> at all?)
> 
> On the other hand, I can't understand how "make light work of"
> fits at all. 

Yes.  I just wondered how the phrase should be diagrammed.  A transitive
verb is normally followed by a noun, not an adjective.  We can just
treat "make light" as a unitary verb, but what if we want to break it
down word by word?

FWIW, https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/make_light_of informs us with:
> ...
> Etymology
> From "Make light work of". 

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#27922

On Sun, 07 Jun 2026 09:18:39 GMT, James Dow Allen
<user4353@newsgrouper.org.invalid> wrote:

(After I explained Make light of but balked at Make light work of...]
>
>FWIW, https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/make_light_of informs us with:
>> ...
>> Etymology
>> From "Make light work of". 

Google tells me that 'make light of" dates back hundreds of years. 

A side note gives the Wiktionary comment -- to which my reaction
so far is that someone just made that up for Wiktionary. 

-- 
Rich Ulrich

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#27920

Le 06/06/2026 à 21:37, James Dow Allen a écrit :
> 
> "HenHanna" <HenHanna@Posting.from.CsiPh> posted:
> 
>>>>>   Sir A. Conan Doyle's influence has been so great in
>>>>>   detective writing alone that his successors to that
>>>>>   realm must needs in self-defence make light of an obligation
>>>>>   they cannot wholly deny.
>>
>> I thought this contained   a  typo  or   typoes  !!!
>>
>> I had to have my teacher (AI)  parse and explain it   to me!
> 
> Parsing complex sentences was once one of my hobbies; this
> sentence is a real dilly!
> 
> First dispose of "needs."  The suffix "-s" looks weird, but is NEITHER
> a plural marker nor a verb inflection.  It is an ancient marker that
> converts a noun to an adverb; it also occurs in "always."
> (Sometimes the "-s" becomes "-ce" as in "once" or "thence.")
> 
> I'm not sure how best to treat "make light of."  Is it short for
> "make light work of"?
> 
> The sentence in question has three clauses:
> (1) (influence | has been | great (in | writing))
> (2) (successors (to | realm) | (must (make light (of | obligation))))
> (3) (they | (cannot deny))
> 
> There are TWO "that"s connecting clauses (1) and (2): One connects
> the clauses' major predicates; the other connects "realm" back to "writing."
> An implicit "that" connects obligation to the 3rd clause.
> 
> I think "to that realm" may be incorrect; I prefer "in that realm."
> 
> Objections?


None. Rich has dealt with "make light of".

The sentence is overblown, and can be simplified without altering its 
structure:

<Blue pencil>
Sir A. Conan Doyle's influence has been so great in detective writing 
alone that his successors must in self-defence make light of an 
obligation they cannot deny.
</Blue pencil>

[toc] | [prev] | [standalone]

Back to top | Article view | rec.puzzles

csiph-web