CAT 5: Language communication sentence correction

[tkulkarn]

According to anthropologists, the use of human language covers a wide spectrum from practical communication between people engaged in the same task to establishing hierarchy within a social group.
practical communication between people engaged in the same task to establishing hierarchy
communicating practically between people engaging in the same task to the establishment of hierarchy
practical communication between people engaged in the same task to the establishing of hierarchy
communicating practically between people engaging in the same task to hierarchy established
practical communication between people engaged in the same task to the establishment of hierarchy

_____________________
I went with C because it corrects communication and "establishing of". In the answer E, the "establishment of" sounds tricky; because establishment has somewhat different meaning. He rebelled against establishment, for example, can not be replaced by he rebelled against the establishing of.
But the correct answer is E. Please explain (the explanation provided misses of after establishing in choice C).

[sharma16.ash]

I have another question on this SC.
Is the use of "between" correct here?
Should it not be "communication among people" instead of "communication between people"?

[tim]

Although both "establishment" and "establishing" can be used as nouns, you don't want to put a "the" in front of "establishing". Do you ever talk about "the swimming" or "the walking"? :) "Communication" here is properly parallel to "establishment" as they are both non-participle nouns. Your example about rebelling is a red herring, because is does not use "establishment" in the same way as it is used in E. To answer the other person's question, it all depends on who is doing the communicating. We can talk about communication between people if we assume that the typical communication occurs between two people rather than among three or more. Either "between" or "among" could be correct depending on the intent of the writer, although they convey different meanings.

[gmatwork]

According to anthropologists, the use of human language covers a wide spectrum from practical communication between people engaged in the same task to establishing hierarchy within a social group.

a) practical communication between people engaged in the same task to establishing hierarchy

b) communicating practically between people engaging in the same task to the establishment of hierarchy

c) practical communication between people engaged in the same task to the establishing of hierarchy

d) communicating practically between people engaging in the same task to hierarchy established

e) practical communication between people engaged in the same task to the establishment of hierarchy


CAT explanations tell that an action noun - communication - cannot be made parallel to simple gerund phrase - establishing......

BUT then it also says that an action noun - communication - can be made parallel to another action noun - establishment - as used in (e) AND also to another complex gerund phrase such as in choice (d)

What is the difference between a complex and simple gerund phrase and how to identify them?

[tim]

This information is explained in our sentence correction book. Please refer to that section, and then we’ll be happy to answer questions about any issues that didn’t make sense to you in the book..

[divineacclivity]

I'm super confused here. Please help me understand.

I'm studying from Manhattan verbal guides and the SC book says that action nouns are parallel to complex gerund and as I understand, "the establishing of hierarchy" is a complex gerund. So, I chose option C.
I also considered option E because in option E, both are action nouns and probably they exhibit a better example of parallelism but "the" in "the establishment" put me a little off as I probably thought it is talking about a particular establishment.
Please explain. thank you.

[tim]

it sounds like your biggest concern was "the establishment" versus "the establishing", which i have already explained above. if my explanation didn't make sense, or if you're asking a different question, please write again and let us know in more detail what your concerns are..

[divineacclivity]

Although both "establishment" and "establishing" can be used as nouns, you don't want to put a "the" in front of "establishing". Do you ever talk about "the swimming" or "the walking"? :) "Communication" here is properly parallel to "establishment" as they are both non-participle nouns. Your example about rebelling is a red herring, because is does not use "establishment" in the same way as it is used in E. To answer the other person's question, it all depends on who is doing the communicating. We can talk about communication between people if we assume that the typical communication occurs between two people rather than among three or more. Either "between" or "among" could be correct depending on the intent of the writer, although they convey different meanings.

Hi Tim,

I'd clearly form my question. I still don't understand why the correct answer is E and not C.
My confusion here is action noun (i.e. "establishment ..") is || to complex gerund (i.e. "the establishing of .."); so, option C should be good but it is not, so, what's that I'm missing or assuming wrong here?
Also, on option E, "practical communication" doesn't sound parallel to "the establishment of hierarchy" because of "the" before establishment; "the" should either be in front of both the clauses e.g. the practical communication ... and the establishment of hierarchy ...
Please help me understand where I lack. Thank you very much in advance.

Here are the options C & E for your reference:
C) establishment of hierarchy
practical communication between people engaged in the same task to the establishing of hierarchy
D) practical communication between people engaged in the same task to the establishment of hierarchy

[tim]

i'm terribly sorry, i still totally don't understand what you're asking about C i guess. if i am reading your post correctly, you think C should be okay, but i've already told you that "the establishing" is wrong. that's why C is wrong! do you disagree with my explanation? if so, please tell me where you think i am wrong. if not, please understand that C is wrong for precisely the reason i gave you..

as for E, there is nothing about parallelism that says you have to have a "the" in front of the other piece if one piece has a "the". in fact, you can (and should) pretty much ignore adjectives in front of nouns in parallelism situations if it's clear that the nouns are what are supposed to be parallel..

one more piece of advice: please stop worrying about things like "complex gerunds" and focus instead on what makes sense as far as correct sentence construction goes. you'll find it is far more effective to limit as much as possible the number of distinct categories you use for parts of speech. i.e. don't worry about gerunds versus complex gerunds - they are all gerunds. don't worry about past participles versus present participles - they are all participles..