practical english

Question

In the following sentence, what is the main clause? I generally prefer chocolate ice cream , but vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce is just as good.) I generally prefer chocolate ice cream b) vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce is just as good c) both of above d) none of the above

Answer 1

Grammatically, both I generally prefer chocolate ice cream and but vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce is just as good are main clauses since these can both stand on their own as separate written sentences (despite the common prohibition against starting a sentence with But). So I would say "c) both of the above" is the correct answer to your question, i.e., this points to both "[a)] I generally prefer chocolate ice cream" and "b) vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce is just as good."

 

But because the second clause contains is just as good, there is an explicit comparison that would make little sense without a mention of the basis of the comparison, namely (plain) chocolate ice cream which is mentioned in the first clause. Thus in this sense, the second clause could be said to be semantically and/or pragmatically--but definitely not syntactically--subordinate to or dependent on the first.