Whereas – is a comparison marker that usually compares two clauses, or to be more precise, the
subject of the first clause with the
subject of the second clause. Accordingly, subjects of both clauses must be parallel to one another. Since
American dialects is the subject of the first clause in the non-underlined part of the sentence, the subject of the second clause must be
European dialects.
Structure: Whereas American dialects (subjet) adopt..., European dialects (subject) tend...The above is the correct structure comparing parallel subjects. With that in mind, let’ analyze the below answer choices.
A. Whereas American dialects of the English language often adopt words from other languages, those of European dialects tend...The green parts above are parallel to one another but
whereas is not comparing them, because
European dialects is not the subject but the object of the second clause.
Whereas can’t compare the subject to the object. What
whereas is incorrectly comparing here are
American dialects and
those.
Those may refer to
languages,
words, or
American dialects. In any case the comparison becomes nonsensical:
Whereas American dialects adopt…, languages of European dialects tend… here
dialects is not parallel to
languagesWhereas American dialects adopt…, words of European dialects tend… here
dialects is not parallel to
wordsWhereas American dialects adopt…, American dialects of European dialects tend… nonsensical and not-intended meaning.
B. Whereas American dialects of the English language often adopt words from other languages, that of European dialects tends...Like A, B incorrectly tries to compare the subject of the first clause with the object of the second clause. What
whereas is incorrectly comparing here are
American dialects and
that. The only singular noun
that may refer to is
English language:
Whereas American dialects adopt…, English language of European dialects tends… here
dialects is not parallel to
English language, so the comparison is nonsensical.
C. Whereas American dialects of the language of English often adopts words from other languages, that of European dialects tends...Like A and B, C incorrectly tries to compare the subject of the first clause to the object of the second clause. As in B, what
whereas is incorrectly comparing here are
American dialects and
that. The only singular noun
that may refer to is
language of English:
Whereas American dialects adopts…, language of English of European dialects tends… here
dialects is not parallel to
language of English, so the comparison is nonsensical.
Additionally,
American dialects adopts is a subject-verb disagreement.
D. Whereas American dialects of the English language often adopts words from other languages, European dialects tend...Finally, the sentence has a correct parallelism. However, as in C,
American dialects adopts is a subject-verb disagreement.
E. Whereas American dialects of the English language often adopt words from other languages, European dialects tend...Whereas correctly compares
American dialects with
European dialects. There is no subject-verb disagreement. E is a correct sentence.
Hence
E _________________