Tons of SC questions

silverturtle
Sat, 02 Jan 2010 13:34:55 +0000

However, the “merely”, i thought, modifies the word that should fill in the blank. So, “merely conclusive”, i thought, would mean unconclusive. No?



“merely” doesn’t negate the word that it modifies; it indicates that the word being modified describes the full extent of the situation. From Merriam-Wesbter on the definition of “mere”:



being nothing more than



“merely” is interchangeable with “just” in this context.