[Grammar] What this sensence would be if it was a normal sentence?

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kolooko

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Fossil Find Sheds Light on 'Early Evolutionary Steps'

This is a title of a report.
What this sensence would be if it was a normal sentence?
 

tedtmc

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Fossil Find Sheds Light on 'Early Evolutionary Steps'

This is a title of a report.
What [STRIKE]this sensence would[/STRIKE]should this sentence be if it was a normal sentence?

I think the 'steps' should be omitted and the inverted commas are not required.

not a teacher
 

2006

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No, you can't say "Fossil Find Sheds Light on 'Early Evolutionary'.

(The)(This) fossil find sheds light on (the)(man's) early evolutionary steps.

What would this sentence be if it were a normal sentence? :tick:
 

sarat_106

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Fossil Find Sheds Light on 'Early Evolutionary Steps'

This is a title of a report.
What this sensence would be if it was a normal sentence?

The report seems to be about a new discovery on early evolution of mankind. So the title can be expressed in a complete sentence as:

A Fossil recently found by scientists sheds light on early evolutionary steps of mankind.
 

kolooko

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I had a grammar mistake in the question. I'm dissapointed.

Anyway, the report really exists, which was not written by me.

I didn't think this is a grammatical sentence(?), so I wondered about its meaning.

I should have called it a headline?
 

kolooko

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The report seems to be about a new discovery on early evolution of mankind. So the title can be expressed in a complete sentence as:

A Fossil recently found by scientists sheds light on early evolutionary steps of mankind.


Probably I wanted to know this kind of thing.

In this sentence, "find" isn't verb, is it? Shed(s) is verb, right?
 

sarat_106

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Probably I wanted to know this kind of thing.

In this sentence, "find" isn't verb, is it? Shed(s) is verb, right?

shed’ is the verb of the sentence. ‘Find’ is also a verb but in the sentence, its past participle form (found) is used as an adjective to modify the noun ‘Fossil’, Its position in the headline acts as a hinting word.
 

kolooko

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Find's position means it is used as an adjective, which would be in past participle form. I see.

Thank you very much!
 

tedtmc

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Find's position means it is used as an adjective, which would be in past participle form. I see.

Thank you very much!

No, 'find' is used as as noun which means a discovery, as in 'archeological find'.
 
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tedtmc

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No, you can't say "Fossil Find Sheds Light on 'Early Evolutionary'.



I meant the word 'step' is not a good term to use when you talk about evolution. Evolution is a very gradual process over a long period of time. It is not a step-by-step process. Of course you can't take away 'steps' and leave the two words dangling.
 

2006

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The report seems to be about a new discovery on early evolution of mankind. So the title can be expressed in a complete sentence as:

A Fossil recently found by scientists sheds light on early evolutionary steps of mankind.

Why would you want to significantly and unnecessarily change the grammar of the sentence?
Your sentence is not the full-sentence equivalent of the headline?

The headline doesn't say the find was made by scientists. In fact, I understand the find was actually made by a boy.
But the main point is that you cannot change the meaning of the headline.
 
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tedtmc

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Why would you want to significantly and unnecessarily change the grammar of the sentence?
Your sentence is not the full-sentence equivalent of the headline?

Yes, it is not meant to be a sentence. It is a headline.
 

kolooko

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No, you can't say "Fossil Find Sheds Light on 'Early Evolutionary'.

(The)(This) fossil find sheds light on (the)(man's) early evolutionary steps.

What would this sentence be if it were a normal sentence? :tick:

I looked up "find" in the dictionary just now, and there's a noun. I had thought find was a verb, but finding was a noun, and so I was very confused.
 

2006

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No, you can't say "Fossil Find Sheds Light on 'Early Evolutionary'.



I meant the word 'step' is not a good term to use when you talk about evolution. Evolution is a very gradual process over a long period of time. It is not a step-by-step process. Of course you can't take away 'steps' and leave the two words dangling.

Yes, evolution is very gradual. But there still are steps, such as moving from mostly living in trees to living on the ground. Of course these steps are taken over very long periods of time.
 

tedtmc

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Yes, evolution is very gradual. But there still are steps, such as moving from mostly living in trees to living on the ground. Of course these steps are taken over very long periods of time.

That's true but 'steps' has the connotation of being clear and discrete which, in the case of evolution, is far from it. I prefer words like phases or stages.
 

2006

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That's true but 'steps' has the connotation of being clear and discrete which, in the case of evolution, is far from it. I prefer words like phases or stages.
Yes, steps are clear and discrete. But don't you think that things like using fire and becoming farmers rather than just being hunter-gatherers are discrete changes? It doesn't matter how long those steps take!
:roll:
 

tedtmc

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Yes, steps are clear and discrete. But don't you think that things like using fire and becoming farmers rather than just being hunter-gatherers are discrete changes? It doesn't matter how long those steps take!
:roll:

No, they are not. Again, I can imagine it is a gradual transition from beng hunter-gatherers to farmers. They would be doing all three at the same time to varying extent during the transition stage before one activity got totally replaced by another. What 'step' do you call that then?
 

cashernandes

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Newspaper headlines can be particularly difficult to read, as English verbs can easily turn into nouns. You need some getting-used-to.

I'm going to write the headline with synonyms:

Fossil Find Sheds Light on 'Early Evolutionary Steps' >

Fossil Discovery Provides an Explanation for 'Early Evolutionary Steps' OR

Fossil Discovery Makes 'Early Evolutionary Steps' Easier to Understand.

I hope it's helped. :)

 
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tedtmc

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'Early Evolutionary ' is wrong.

The original title is fine or this:
Fossil find sheds light on early evolution (theory of early evolution, this is).
Headlines should be short, remember?

I don't understand why inverted commas were used 'early evolution steps', though.
 
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