Anyalyzing a Forbes sentence

Question

Can anyone kindly enlighten me with the use of however in the following line, an exerpt from Forbes:

"One thing was different however, each had the stoic look of money, not the I’m better than you look, but the comfortable look of a wealth steward." (The topic is about the Tiger 21 network - assumedly the world's wealthiest networking group, from the link  https://www.forbes.com/sites/markfidelman/2014/01/07/tiger-21-meet-the-wealthiest-most-powerful-social-networking-group-in-the-world/ ).

One more folow up questions
"not the I'm better than you look but the...steward" - does it act as an absolute modifier?

KyleWiddison · Answer

The 'however' in the sentence is used to create a distinction between what the author observed in general, found in an earlier sentence. There are some sentences in between, so the connection is easy to lose. When you put them together, the 'however' makes more sense.

"I was expecting a group of Gordon Geckos but instead met a bunch of good natured, fun, regular people – a mix you’d find in any social situation. .... One thing was different however, each had the stoic look of money, not the I’m better than you look, but the comfortable look of a wealth steward."

I'm not sure I understand your follow up question. Absolute modifiers are words that are "absolute" and shouldn't be modified, such as unique and perfect. Perhaps you are asking if it's an absolute phrase? That portion of the sentence is a modifier to describe the "stoic look of money".

KW

sgangs · Answer

Kyle,

Thanks for your reply. A good explanation & about "absolute", well I was talking of "absolute phrase"; whether the sentence is an absolute phrase or not

KyleWiddison · Answer

No, that portion of the sentence is not an absolute phrase. Absolute phrases will modify the entire preceding (or following) clause and can be dropped from the sentence with no impact on meaning. In this sentence: One thing was different however, each had the stoic look of money, not the I’m better than you look, but the comfortable look of a wealth steward, the underlined portion modifies "the stoic look of money". We don't really know what that stoic look is until the underlined portion provides additional information.

The absolute phrase would look like this: Standing with their arms folded, each had the stoic look of money. Here the underlined section is a modifier, but it modifies the entire clause, providing context for the overall situation and it could be easily dropped from the sentence.

Does that make sense?

KW

The absolute phrase would look like this:  Standing with their arms folded , each had the stoic look of money. Here the underlined section is a modifier, but it modifies the entire clause, providing context for the overall situation and it could be easily dropped from the sentence.

Does that make sense?

KW

sgangs · Answer

Thanks Kyle... It was a nice explanation.

Anyalyzing a Forbes sentence

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