Unique among the Romance languages, Portuguese features days that are

Hi Ziko,

Your thinking is correct. Heritage can be used for languages. see https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/heritage

the meaning "A tradition; something that can be passed down from preceding generations."
can be used for a language.

Vercules

@ Ziko as I said before the expression mercantile heritage was odd enough to eliminate the option in the first go but good to know that heritage can also be used wrt a language

@ Vercules Thanks for the link

Unique among the Romance languages, Portuguese features days that are not named but numbered, evidence of their strong mercantile heritage.

A. features days that are not named but numbered, evidence of their strong mercantile heritage - Portuguese as a Language is Singular, thus ITS must be used.
B. features days that are not named but numbered, evidence of its strong mercantile heritage - Free of any error. Correct placement of STRONG etc
C. has numbered rather than named its days, evidence of its strong mercantile heritage- This option means that the Language (Portuguese) did the numbering on its own, and thus distorts the original meaning
D. numbered rather than named its days, out of its strong mercantile heritage- This option means that the Language (Portuguese) did the numbering on its own, and thus distorts the original meaning
E. features days that are not named but numbered, evidence of the strong Portuguese mercantile heritage - Adjective STRONG is used at a wrong place (before Portuguese). The use would mean that language is strong rather than heritage.

So, IMO, the answer has to be B.

Fame

You have to repeat Portuguese because it does not make sense to refer to it with "its". In the beginning of the sentence, "Portuguese" refers to the language whereas the "its" in the second part refers to "Portugal" (the mercantile heritage of the language Portuguese does not make sense) therefore you can't use this pronoun. Answer E corrects this issue by adding the adjective "Portuguese"


I don't think that is a problem, "strong" modifies the whole clause "Portuguese mercantile heritage"

Here is the discussion on the same problem
portuguese-heritage-145927.html

Unique among the Romance languages, Portuguese features days that are not named but numbered, evidence of their strong mercantile heritage.

b. features days that are not named but numbered, evidence of its strong mercantile heritage


e. features days that are not named but numbered, evidence of the strong Portuguese mercantile heritage

I was confused between b. and e. as well.

It makes more sense for it to read:
Unique among the Romance languages, Portuguese features days that are not named but numbered, evidence of Portuguese's strong mercantile heritage
(provided here Portuguese's is the heritage not the language). But since it is the language in this context it makes no sense.

Unique among the Romance languages, Portuguese features days that are not named but numbered, evidence of Portugual's strong mercantile heritage


eg: Just like You can't say Chinese (as a language) strong mercantile heritage. You can say China's strong mercantile heritage.

Therefore, E was the better option for me.

Hope that helps

I choose B over E. I dont quite get the heritage hangup. Its quite difficult to be certain mercantile heritage cant be applied to a language. I do however, see in retrospect a parallelism problem with B ' features days that are not named but (are) numbered'. Does this make sense?

Portuguese is not a noun it is an proper adjective. Proper adjectives are formed from proper nouns such as Japan. The point is adjective can't be the antecedent of any pronoun. Everything gets killed only E remains.

Hi Experts,

In this question
Only B and E stands out but to be honest I don't know why its doesn't have clear antecedent. I feel "its" clearly refers to portuguese.

Of course, option E is more clear but then what should be the basis for eliminating B.

a. their...Portuguese is shown as language. so their is incorrect.
b. its seems awkward. The first Purtugese is represented as language. what is language's heritage.
c. its days...awkward
d. its days...
e. The second Portuguese is Portuguese heritage and the first one is language...seems correct.

Experts ,

In my opinion,
phrase "days that are not named but numbered" talks about specific kind of days only which are numbered.
But logically this doesn't make sence.

Whereas option C has structured same in better and logical manner, keeping aside modifier "evidence of .......".

Someone pls suggest , how all other options excepts C make better sense with "that" modifier.

egmat

Your take, please.

I choose B, because in E, "strong Portuguese mercantile heritage", means strong language mercantile heritage.
In B, "evidence of its strong mercantile heritage", means language's strong mercantile heritage.

I really don't think that there is any pronoun error, as a possessive pronoun can perfectly refer to Portuguese.

E is actually trying to mention the heritage of "portugal" or "portuguese people" rather than the heritage of the language whereas B says that the language has a strong mercantile heritage. I think it makes sense for people or a country to have a heritage related to trade, commerce,etc as opposed to a language. You might argue that the language was/is used mostly for trade but then might distort the overall meaning.

I am no expert, but I hope this helps.

Brian123

I agree with you somehow, but doubt remains the same,
first thing, we have to retain the meaning of the original sentence.
The second thing, Portuguese refer to language, so how- "evidence of the strong Portuguese mercantile heritage" refers to Portuguese people?

I agree we are talking about the language, I may not have made that point well but to me "strong portuguese mercantile heritage" refers to the heritage of portugal in general. It seems a good reason for the language of a country to be a certain way due to the country's heritage. On the other hand, in option B, a language having a trade related heritage sounds a little odd. Though, I totally understand your point as well and hopefully an expert can give more clarity.

Cheers!

When a sentence mentions 'Portugese heritage', it does not mean 'heritage of the Portugese language'.

It means the heritage of the Portuguese people or the heritage of Portugal as a country.

If an author wants to discuss the heritage of the Portugese language, it will be better (clearer) to say just that: "heritage of the Portuguse language" or even "Portugese language heritage"

Posted from my mobile device

vv65

Ok ok, I get that point as you said "When a sentence mentions 'Portuguese heritage', it does not mean 'heritage of the Portuguese language'.

It means the heritage of the Portuguese people or the heritage of Portugal as a country."

But regarding your second point- "If an author wants to discuss the heritage of the Portugese language, it will be better (clearer) to say just that: "heritage of the Portuguse language" or even "Portugese language heritage"

Doesn't B option say exactly the same what you have in your second point