I have some grammar confusion about the sentences below.
In which ways are the following sentences correct?
Neither should we cut any trees nor burn them.
We should neither cut any trees nor burn them.
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Related: english.stackexchange.com/questions/186628/…– marcellothearcaneCommented Dec 27, 2017 at 17:51
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If you are interested in maintaining strict parallelism, you can say "Neither should we cut any trees nor should we burn them" in the first case and "We should neither cut any trees nor burn them" in the second. The rationale here is that in the first case the neither proposition (the content between neither and nor) comprehends "should we cut any trees," whereas in the second case the neither proposition comprehends "cut any trees." The parallel forms of these two propositions are, respectively, "should we burn them" and "burn them."– Sven YargsCommented Dec 28, 2017 at 0:23
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Also related: "Should either be" or "should be either".– Sven YargsCommented Dec 28, 2017 at 0:33
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1 Answer
The "neither...nor..." construction is used to conjoin (or connect) two alternatives. Both of those sentences are correct in that sense.
In casual speech, "We should neither cut any trees nor burn them" is more likely.
"Neither should we cut any trees nor burn them" sounds as though you are continuing on a conversation. For example,
A: We shouldn't sell trees.
B: Neither should we cut any trees nor burn them!
In formal writing, you might want to pay attention to parallelism. For example, notice that the construction looks like "neither X nor Y". Parallelism is simply making both X and Y of the same grammatical type. That is, in "We should neither cut any trees nor burn them", both cut any trees and burn them are verb phrases (verbs and their direct object). However, in "Neither should we cut any trees nor burn them", should we cut any trees is a clause (modal, subject, main verb, and object) and burn them is a simple verb phrase (without the modal or the subject). If we were to maintain parallelism, we might want to make the second conjunct (Y) a clause as well, as in "Neither should we cut any trees nor should we burn them".
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1I'd argue that 'We should not kill. Neither should we steal nor destroy.' is ungrammatical, requiring an 'or'. Commented Dec 27, 2017 at 9:35
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1Repeating the "should we" is pointless and does nothing to preserve parallel structure, which is the sole reason the ellipsis is possible.– KarlGCommented Dec 27, 2017 at 10:25
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When the neither is sentence-initial it is referring backwards to a previous sentence. When it is after the auxiliary verb, it refers forwards to two alternatives. Commented Dec 27, 2017 at 13:42
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@EdwinAshworth Interesting. How do you find the sentence "we should neither steal or destory"?– TerranceCommented Dec 28, 2017 at 9:56
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@KarlG Perhaps the avoidance of ellipsis is a person stylistic choice rather than a hard rule, as it appears to be framed in my answer. I concede that my regard towards parallelism has more to do with personal aesthetic than formal writing.– TerranceCommented Dec 28, 2017 at 9:59