terrible sentence

[JiriLindovsky]

Good evening,

I have found this sentence:
...Yet neither at school nor at university is emphasis placed on principles or practice of speaking or negotiating - we all appear to have to learn by doing. ...

1)the word order?
I would say: Yet neither at school nor at university,emphasis is placed on...
2)what does "appear" mean here?

Thank you in advance for explanation,
J.L.

[Naamplao]

Originally Posted by JiriLindovsky

Good evening,

I have found this sentence:
...Yet neither at school nor at university is emphasis placed on principles or practice of speaking or negotiating - we all appear to have to learn by doing. ...

1)the word order?
I would say: Yet neither at school nor at university,emphasis is placed on...
2)what does "appear" mean here?

Thank you in advance for explanation,
J.L.

It would have been useful if you had given the previous sentence as well. But as a sentence goes this is not a bad sentence.

The way you have rephrased the sentence sounds a bit awkward to my ears but I am having difficulty saying why. I think it has to do with the beginning "Yet neither at school nor at university". This is not the subject of the sentence, of course, but it is a focus.

As far as "appear" goes it means "seem" in this case.

[riverkid]

Originally Posted by JiriLindovsky

Good evening,

I have found this sentence:
...Yet neither at school nor at university is emphasis placed on principles or practice of speaking or negotiating - we all appear to have to learn by doing. ...

1)the word order?
I would say: Yet neither at school nor at university,emphasis is placed on...


Thank you in advance for explanation,
J.L.

With the negation placed prior to the subject "emphasis", we have S-V inversion.

Emphasis is not placed on principles or practice of speaking or negotiating either at school or at university.

*Yet neither at school nor at university [is] emphasis is placed on principles or practice of speaking or negotiating ... [* denotes ungrammatical]

As to why, I can't rightly say, 'cause I don' rightly know.