Understanding Sentence Improvement and Parallelism

The question asks us to find the most appropriate way to improve the underlined part of the sentence: "His tone was neither of anger nor sorrow." The underlined part is "nor sorrow". We need to examine the sentence structure, specifically how the correlative conjunctions "neither... nor" are used.

Analysing Parallel Structure with Neither... Nor

Correlative conjunctions like "neither... nor" work in pairs and require parallel structure. This means the grammatical form following "neither" must be the same as the grammatical form following "nor". Look at the parts of the sentence following the conjunctions:

• After "neither": "of anger" (a prepositional phrase)
• After "nor": "sorrow" (a noun)

Here, the structure after "neither" (a prepositional phrase) does not match the structure after "nor" (a simple noun). To achieve parallelism, the part after "nor" should also be a prepositional phrase starting with "of".

Evaluating the Improvement Options

Let's look at the given options for improving the underlined segment "nor sorrow":

1. or sorrow: This option uses "or" instead of "nor". The conjunction "neither" pairs with "nor", not "or". Therefore, this option is grammatically incorrect in the context of "neither".
2. no improvement required: As analysed above, the original sentence lacks parallelism between "of anger" and "sorrow". Thus, improvement is required.
3. or of sorrow: This option again uses "or" instead of "nor". "Neither" must be paired with "nor". This option is grammatically incorrect.
4. nor of sorrow: This option uses "nor" and follows it with the prepositional phrase "of sorrow". This creates a parallel structure with "of anger", which follows "neither". The sentence becomes "His tone was neither of anger nor of sorrow." Both parts following the conjunctions are now prepositional phrases ("of anger" and "of sorrow"). This maintains parallelism.

Choosing the Best Improvement

Based on the principle of parallelism with correlative conjunctions, the structure following "neither" must match the structure following "nor". The original sentence had "neither of anger" (prepositional phrase) and "nor sorrow" (noun). Option 4, "nor of sorrow", correctly provides a prepositional phrase ("of sorrow") to parallel "of anger".

The improved sentence would be: "His tone was neither of anger nor of sorrow."

Revision Table: Parallelism with Correlative Conjunctions

Additional Information: Correlative Conjunctions in Grammar

Correlative conjunctions are pairs of conjunctions that work together to join phrases or clauses in a sentence. They always come in pairs. The most common ones are:

• neither... nor
• either... or
• not only... but also
• both... and
• whether... or

A key rule when using these pairs is to ensure that the words, phrases, or clauses that follow each part of the conjunction are grammatically parallel. This means they should have the same structure (e.g., noun + noun, verb + verb, prepositional phrase + prepositional phrase, clause + clause).

Maintaining parallelism makes sentences clear, balanced, and easy to read.