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12 Sep 2021, 14:50
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Tanchat
Hello, Tanchat. You cannot look at an idiomatic construct in isolation to determine whether it is appropriate for a given sentence. If we look at the first half of the sentence with (E) inserted, we do not get a functional English sentence:
An inventory equal to 90 days sales is even so much that the strongest businesses carry...
For our purposes, we can focus on the idiom alone, so much that. Now, I can say something like He earns so much money that he could not spend it fast enough if he tried. But notice that within the embedded clause, we get a verb + object construct: spend + it. We could not say, He earns so much money that he could not spend fast enough... Even though the context suggests that the missing object is money, we still need to see it in the sentence either directly or indirectly (via a pronoun). The sentence above operates the same way. We cannot say that an inventory is so much that businesses carry without an object after the verb carry. (Even then, the meaning would be off, but at least the sentence would be grammatically functional.)
I hope that helps clarify the matter. I could speak more about (E), but I did not look any further than what I have outlined above.
- Andrew
02 Oct 2021, 23:55
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03 Oct 2021, 08:57
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Green2k1
Hello, Green2k1. To be honest, I would like to see the original source material, since 90 days is used to modify sales and should therefore indicate possession: 90 days' sales (i.e. the sales, in a manner of speaking, belong to those 90 days, since the sales occur within those days; consider other uses such as The Beatles' song "A Hard Day's Night" or a severance package that included four months' pay). Alternatively, the preposition of could be inserted to indicate the same possession: 90 days of sales. In any case, the sentence is conveying in the first half that even the most successful (I guess this is what is meant by strongest) businesses stock an inventory that would be equivalent to what they would sell in 90 days. The second part of the sentence, after the comma, further explains that these businesses do not employ this strategy readily, but more as a backup in case prices go up or shortages occur.
In terms of the sentence structure, its basic framework is independent clause + and + phrase. Within the independent clause, there is a comparison, X is as much as Y, between an inventory amount and what certain businesses carry (in terms of their inventory amount). Jump across the comma, and you get this strange-looking and then only as concession that comments on the verb carry and the amount of inventory. You are to understand that businesses carry a certain amount of inventory only as a way to X or Y. Remember, an infinitive—here, to anticipate and [to] ensure—functions as an adjective, an adverb, or a noun, not, confusingly enough, as a verb, so we cannot call the latter half of the sentence a clause.
I hope this information proves useful to you. Thank you for thinking to ask.
- Andrew
