Dear Sir / Madam
[FONT="]I am confused by the underlined phrase in this newspaper clip "The 2,000 to 3,000 police that were deployed and the barriers that kept people at least 200 metres from the vice-premier were as should be expected" [/FONT]
To my knowledge, as is a preposition followed by adverb, adj, noun, or pronoun. Could anyone explain this usage to me??
NOTICE: NOT A TEACHER
(1) My teachers told me that the best way to parse (analyze) a sentence is to simplify it as much as possible.
(2) Thus your sentence is basicially:
The police and the barriers were
as should be expected.
(a) IMHO, the verb "were" in your sentence is not a linking verb. That is, it is not
similar to "They were hungry." In your sentence, "were" is a real verb. It refers to the
existence of something. In your sentence, I feel that "were" refers to the existence/
stationing/placement of those police officers and barriers.
(b) That little two-letter word "as" causes all kinds of headache. In your sentence,
as the first poster told you, it is a conjunction. Some books prefer "relative adverb."
Whatever you call it, it = (in the way) (in which). It answers the question: How?
(c) "As should be expected" is an example of ellipsis. That is, some words have been
deleted (erased) so that people can speak faster or can save space on paper.
(d) In my opinion only, the complete sentence is something like: The police and the
barriers were as [they] should be expected [to be].
(i) Here are some more examples of ellipsis with "as":
They did the work as ordered. = They did the work as they were ordered to do it.
You must do as seems best. = You must do as it seems best to do it.
The performance will be given as advertised. = The performance will be given as it was advertised to be given.
(Credit for those three sentences go to
English Review Grammar by Walter Kay Smart.)
