grammar

[jiang]

Dear Teachers,

I came across the following sentence:

The Second World War, as did the earlier one of 1914, prompted public concern about the physical and intellectual well-being of the country's human resources.

My question is why 'as did the earlier one of 1914' is inverted? Here did refers to 'prompted'. Can I say 'as the earlier one of 1914 did'? If I can't does it mean a sentence beginning with as which is followed by a verb that expresses the same act before should be inverted?

Thanks!

Jiang

 

[Red5]

One would normally invert a phrase to add emphasis, IMO. ;-)

 

[Tdol]

The Second World War, as did the earlier one of 1914, prompted public concern about the physical and intellectual well-being of the country's human resources.

My question is why 'as did the earlier one of 1914' is inverted? Here did refers to 'prompted'. Can I say 'as the earlier one of 1914 did'? If I can't does it mean a sentence beginning with as which is followed by a verb that expresses the same act before should be inverted?

Thanks!

Jiang

You can, though that would be morelikely if the phrase came after the verb 'prompted'. However, the inverted word order sounds more natural, just as we say 'so did I' and 'neither did I'. ;-)