Recently physicians have determined that stomach ulcers are not caused by stress, alcohol, or rich foods, but a bacterium that dwells in the mucous lining of the stomach. (A) not caused by stress, alcohol, or rich foods, but (B) not caused by stress, alcohol, or rich foods, but are by (C) caused not by stress, alcohol, or rich foods, but by (D) caused not by stress, alcohol, and rich foods, but (E) caused not by stress, alcohol, and rich foods, but are by Parallelism; Diction The formula used in this sentence not this but that requires parallel elements following not and but . This means that not by stress, alcohol, or rich foods must be balanced by but by a bacterium. . . . There is no need to repeat the verb are caused , or even the auxiliary verb are , because the verb precedes the not by ... but by ... formula. The substitution of the conjunction and for the conjunction or changes the meaning of the sentence: Stress, alcohol and rich foods identifies the combination of these three factors as a suggested cause of stomach ulcers, whereas stress, alcohol, or rich foods offers three individual possibilities. There is no way to tell which one of these is the intended meaning of the sentence. (A) To preserve parallelism, but should be followed by by . (B) There is no reason to repeat the auxiliary verb are . (C) Correct . This sentence correctly uses the not by ... but by ... formula. (D) To preserve parallelism, but should be followed by by . (E) To preserve parallelism, but should be followed by by .

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Recently physicians have determined that stomach ulcers are not caused

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GMATNinja

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11 Sep 2021, 06:15

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PRNDL

Is it okay to write

" not caused by stress, alcohol, or rich foods, but by "

I think that the missing "caused" after "but" should be an error

You're on the right track! In this case, whatever follows "not" should be parallel to whatever follows "but." In your example, "caused" is not parallel to "by," so that construction would not be correct.

In (C), you can see a properly parallel construction: "stomach ulcers are caused not by stress, alcohol, or rich foods, but by a bacterium that dwells in the mucous lining of the stomach."

I hope that helps!

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freetheking

Recently physicians have determined that stomach ulcers are not caused by stress, alcohol, or rich foods, but a bacterium that dwells in the mucous lining of the stomach.

(A) not caused by stress, alcohol, or rich foods, but
by in the end would provide the right meaning therefore out

(B) not caused by stress, alcohol, or rich foods, but are by
are introduction is unncessary and is not conveying the right meaning therefore out

(C) caused not by stress, alcohol, or rich foods, but by
The parallelism and the meaning is perfect therefore let us hang on to it

(D) caused not by stress, alcohol, and rich foods, but
Similar reasoning as A

(E) caused not by stress, alcohol, and rich foods, but are by
Similar reasoning as B

Therefore IMO C

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31 Oct 2022, 20:54

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Hi,
When I read this sentence in option A & B, it seemed fine to me.

"Recently physicians have determined that stomach ulcers are not caused by stress ...."

However, when I read this, it sounded wrong and incorrect:

"Recently physicians have determined that stomach ulcers are caused not by stress ..."

I'm a non-native speaker. Could someone please clarify if both are ok and why?

Greetings,
Kevin

EducationAisle

iMyself

But, my question is: WHY not B. B makes parallelism to me!
B. NOT (tag)+CAUSED (verb)+by+something....................BUT (tag)+ARE (verb)+by+Something
Indicate parallelism to each other.

Hi iMyself, the short answer is that caused is not used as a verb here, but as a participle.

An easier way would be to do a XYZ Analysis (as per our book Sentence Correction Nirvana). With B, the structure would be:

Recently physicians have determined that stomach ulcers are not caused by stress, alcohol, or rich foods, but are by a bacterium that dwells in the mucous lining of the stomach.

So, the structure is: C Not X but Y, where C is the structure of the sentence outside the XY deconstruct.

C: Recently physicians have determined that stomach ulcers are
X: caused by stress, alcohol, or rich foods
Y: are by a bacterium that dwells in the mucous lining of the stomach

Since C is outside the XY deconstruct, C must make sense with both X and Y.

i) Is C making sense with X?

Recently physicians have determined that stomach ulcers are caused by stress, alcohol, or rich foods. - Seems fine.

ii) Is C making sense with Y?

Recently physicians have determined that stomach ulcers are are by a bacterium that dwells in the mucous lining of the stomach - Clearly not correct (are is repeated twice).

Since C is not making sense with Y, B is incorrect.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses the framework of XYZ deconstruct, its application and examples in significant detail. If someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.

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31 Oct 2022, 22:57

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kevsaf95

The purpose of saying "caused not" is to set up a larger structure: "not by X but by Y." That whole piece modifies "caused." If we didn't have all that structure, then putting "not" after the verb would sound like the English of a past era: "Fear not!" "Nuns fret not at their convent's narrow room!" We certainly don't talk that way these days!

If we started with "not caused," then we'd need to complete the structure with something like "but rather caused by . . . " In other words, by putting the verb ("caused") after NOT, we'd end up having to repeat it for parallelism. That's not ideal.

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01 Nov 2022, 00:27

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Hey kevsaf95

Happy to help!

To add to what DmitryFarber has said, I completely understand why you find the incorrect version better than the correct one. This is because, in spoken English, we seldom apply the strict rules of parallelism.

A few more cases in point:

a. Peter not only lost his bag but also his wallet. (Incorrect)
b. John is criticized for either being too slow or too fast. (Incorrect)

The takeaway from this is that we're dealing with a special category of connectors called "Correlative Conjunctions". The name is not important. What're important are that this connector has two parts and that the words that follow each part must be parallel. So, the correct versions of the two examples above are:

c. Peter lost not only his bag but also his wallet.
d. John is criticized for being either too slow or too fast.

Here is a list of correlative connectors for future reference:

1. If, then;
2. not only, but (also);
3. both, and;
4. not, but;
5. either, or;
6. neither, nor;
7. no sooner, than;
8. hardly, when;
9. scarcely, when;
10. though, yet;
11. although, yet; etc.

(The last two entities are growing increasingly archaic day by day. This is why we often find 'though' and 'although' being used without a 'yet' in the same sentence.)

Finally, coming to the question at hand:

Recently physicians have determined that stomach ulcers are caused not by stress, alcohol, or rich foods, but by a bacterium that dwells in the mucous lining of the stomach.

As you can see, we're dealing with the connector 'not, but' in this question. This is why choice C is the best of the given choices.

For us to place 'not' before 'caused', we would have to repeat 'caused' after 'but'. And we'd get:

e. ... stomach ulcers are not caused by x, y, or z, but caused by p.

Needless to say, this is a rather awkward sentence with unnecessary repetition.

I hope this helps improve your understanding.

Happy Learning!

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09 Dec 2023, 17:45

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