noun modifier

[kedieez967]

Following sentence is from Manhattan Sentence Correction.

Although progress is still difficult to measure, the researchers have found that the benefit of applying interdisciplinary approaches and of fostering cooperation across multiple teams and divisions outweigh any potential cost.

The sentence comes from page-194 in my PDF file, or you can use the key word "interdisciplinary" to find it.

Explanations in the book:
The sentence is incorrect, because "benefit" is singular, so "outweighs" is needed in the sentence.

But I have a little confusion about the problem.

Although progress is still difficult to measure, the researchers have found that the benefit of applying interdisciplinary approaches and (benefit) of fostering cooperation across multiple teams and divisions outweigh any potential cost.

another "benefit" is omitted in front of the second "of", so the sensible structure is that "benefit and benefit outweigh ... ", that is, the "outweigh" should be plural.

are there something wrong here? Many thanks for clarification.

[Chelsey Cooley]

Fantastic question!

Your example is actually correct with the singular "outweighs", but I absolutely understand why you'd be tempted to use the plural. What you're actually dealing with here is a situation where there are two modifiers that apply to a single noun. The noun is the singular noun "benefit", and the two modifiers are the two phrases that start with "of" and are joined with the conjunction "and". Grammatically, since we use a singular noun, we also have to use a singular verb - you always ignore modifiers when figuring out subject verb agreement.

And logically, in this case, it's just fine to use a singular noun. "Benefit" is a pretty abstract concept , so we can talk interchangeably about the "benefits" or the "benefit" of doing something (or multiple things) without really changing the meaning. You can have one "benefit" from doing multiple things, multiple "benefits" from doing one thing, etc. Worrying about whether this sentence is logically talking about just one benefit, or multiple different benefits, is a rabbit hole you don't want to go down. In this case, focus on the grammar as given.

[kedieez967]

Nice explanation! thank you very much! i got it.

i misthink that the second propositional phrase modifies another noun, which is omitted. But how can i figure out whether the two modifiers just refer to same noun or there is a another noun that is omitted?

i think it is a little weird that two propositional modifiers refer to a noun. Maybe two relative clauses will better?

Have a nice day!

[tim]

First, don't ever concern yourself with what would be "better" in a SC problem. It's just a waste of time. All you are doing is looking for mistakes, and if something is not a clear mistake, don't eliminate the answer choice.

As for figuring out what things modify, this is critical to understanding what a sentence is about. If you are fooling yourself and pretending that you don't know what a modifier modifies (I see this most frequently with pronouns but it does happen with modifiers as well), just take off the blinders and be honest with yourself! If you are truly having difficulty figuring out what a modifier is modifying, you will need to work on your general level of comfort with the English language and with reading comprehension in particular. A good start to this process would be to ask yourself questions to match the modifier with what's being modified: if you see the phrase "on the couch", ask yourself who or what is on the couch. That's your answer to what's being modified!

[christopher.yh.chan]

I have an issue with this SV-agreement question on singular vs. plural (outweighs vs. outweigh).

I can say either:
1. This dog outweighs this cat (singular)
2. These dogs outweigh this cat (plural)

But when I use it this way:
1. I outweighs that child (singular) -- This one sounds wrong
2. We outweigh that child (plural)

Any special rules here or am I using the 2nd example correctly?

[RonPurewal]

that's not how verbs work with "I".

...but, remember, NO gmat SC sentence will EVER use "I", "we", or "you".
so, this whole issue is completely irrelevant to the exam.

(if you're curious about this, then, you could inquire further on one of the internet's many forums for English learners. however, this question has no utility on a GMAT forum.)