Hoozan wrote:
isn't "less limited" redundant? The access to water was limited. We certainly do not say "access to water was more limited" So how does "less limited" make sense?
Here "limited" modifies "access" and makes it clear that there was a lack of access to water
Hello,
Hoozan. In the context of the sentence,
less limited is not redundant. There is a comparison drawn between two different Native American groups, the Monument Valley Anasazi and
other clans (whether those were Anasazi clans or part of some other larger tribe).
Less limited conveys that between these two groups, one had better access to water than the other, although both groups may have had to endure limited access to the resource. You could reinterpret the main clause in the following manner:
most of the Monument Valley Anasazi abandoned their homes to join other clans whose access to water was less limited than their ownNote that if you remove
less, you destroy the comparison and fundamentally alter the meaning of the sentence:
most of the Monument Valley Anasazi abandoned their homes to join other clans whose access to water was limitedThis second sentence begs the question,
Then why did the Monument Valley Anasazi join these other clans? That is, we understand from the part of the sentence I omitted that the Monument Valley Anasazi faced difficulties concerning water, but there is no compelling reason for them to have joined other clans who also had limited access to water. But if these clans had
less limited access, then presumably they had enough water to share with the displaced Monument Valley Anasazi. There are other instances in which comparatives are used in front of similar words to make a point—
less restricted, for example, which would suggest that rules are still in place, but perhaps not as strictly observed as before—but the only ones you can immediately disqualify, something that I have never seen on the GMAT™, are those with absolute words whose pairing creates a logical mismatch. An example I have seen from the GRE® is
less invulnerable. There are no degrees of
invulnerability: something is either
invulnerable or not, in which case it is
vulnerable.
I hope that helps. If you have further questions, feel free to ask. Good luck with your studies.
- Andrew