Hi Experts,

I know i am asking a very silly question, but seriously i want to clear my doubt on this one.

The following sentence is from chapter no. 4 and on page no. 60 of SC-4th edition.

15. Dr. Crock's claims have been not corroborated by other scientists or published in a prestigious journal but have nonetheless garnered a great deal of attention from public.

Answer is on page no. 61:-

Dr. Crock's claims have not been corroborated by other scientists or published in a prestigious journal but have nonetheless garnered a great deal of attention from public.


The right parallel structure is Not X but Y, but in this sentence the structure is different. It says:-

have not been corroborated but have nonetheless
not X but Y

X and Y should be parallel. So, i believe sentence should be:-

Dr. Crock's claims not have been corroborated by other scientists or published in a prestigious journal but have nonetheless garnered a great deal of attention from public.

Please correct me if i am wrong.

I will be waiting for your reply.

Thanks & Regards
Saurabh Kamal
saurabhkamal2003@yahoo.com

Great question!

I am also interested in an explanation for this. Someone please reply.

Hi Saurabh,

You ask an interesting question (not a silly one), but the answer is that the correction on pg. 61 is accurate.

To begin with, the parallel verb in both clauses is "have," so beginning with "have" both times is essential.

Another example:

I have been to Paris, but I have not eaten snails.

Additionally, the word "not" never precedes the main verb. We say "I have not," "I do not," etc., and never "I not have" or "I not do." If not precedes these words, it is because it is modifying a preceding verb:

I do not have time to eat lunch.
I do not do yoga.

The "not x but y" structure you mentioned is used in many contexts, but is not generally used to compare main verbs. Here are a few examples:

The drug is not helpful, but harmful.

It's not what you say, but what you do that matters.
(Note that here "not" precedes "what," which is a pronoun.)

The best course of action is not to wait for someone else to make a change, but to make that change yourself.
(Note that "not" can precede an infinitive. The main verb here is "is," and the infinitives are used to describe two contrasting courses of action.)

_________________
Dmitry Farber
Manhattan GMAT Instructor

Hi Dmitry,

Thank you so much. Your explanation has cleared my doubt, but if this is the case then my question was definitely not silly. Sometimes these small things become so important that you cannot ignore them.
Anyway thank you so much once again. I really appreciate for your help.

Thanks & Regards
Saurabh

Thank you everyone!

_________________
Jamie Nelson
ManhattanGMAT Instructor

Dr. Crock's claims have not been corroborated by other scientists or published in a prestigious journal but have nonetheless garnered a great deal of attention from public.

I have broken the sentence into 3 parts to check the structure of parallelism.

Dr. Crock's claims have not been corroborated by other scientists

Dr. Crock's claims have not been Published in a prestigious Journal

Dr. Crock's claims have nonetheless garnered a great deal of attention from public.

Is all the above structures correct?

They are indeed all correct! :-)

_________________
Jamie Nelson
ManhattanGMAT Instructor