How to understand the structure of this sentence.
Empathy is often spoken of as a character attribute that people have to varying degrees.
If Reduced like following, is it right:
Empathy is often spoken of as a character attribute to varying degrees.
I think my problem might be: 1) "attribute" as a vt or a noun ?
2)Why there is a "to" and why use "varING"
Search from various English teachers...
Answers · 5
3
I agree with Rue that the two sentences do not mean the same thing. In the second sentence, "to varying degrees" modifies "spoken of" -- with the result that the meaning is that some people speak of frequently of empathy as a character trait, some people speak occasionally of it as a character trait, and some people rarely speak of it.
"Attribute" in these sentences is a noun, not a verb. "To" functions as a preposition, and "varying" is an adjective meaning "different" that modifies "degrees," not a verb ending in -ing.
1
No those are saying different things. The original is saying different people have different amounts of empathy; some people have lots of empathy, others less. Your simplification is saying, empathy is described as a character trait to varying degrees; sometimes it's described as a character trait and sometimes not. : )
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