In discharging their usual responsibilities of description and commentary, reporters’ accounts...

[emsr2d2]

There's an old saying. It's so old that it can be called a cliche.
That is Sport is the toy department of the news media.
This saying is still used in a mocking or dismissive way towards sports journalists.

I've never heard that in my life!

 

[Barque]

I haven't either.

 

[GoldfishLord]

Is the part in question analyzed in the following way: / with the old saying (now reaching the status of cliché) that sport is the ‘toy department of the news media’ / still readily to hand as a dismissal of the worth of what sports journalists do./?

 

[emsr2d2]

I haven't either.

???? You were the one who told us about it in post #20!

 

[Barque]

???? You were the one who told us about it in post #20!

No. I paraphrased the original wording that GoldfishLord asked about in #19.

 

[Barque]

Is the part in question analyzed in the following way: / with the old saying (now reaching the status of cliché) that sport is the ‘toy department of the news media’ / still readily to hand as a dismissal of the worth of what sports journalists do./?

Read the entire sentence. Don't just parse bits of it.

Yet sports journalists do not have a standing in their profession that corresponds to the size of their readerships or of their pay packets, with the old saying (now reaching the status of cliché) that sport is the ‘toy department of the news media’ still readily to hand as a dismissal of the worth of what sports journalists do.

Yet sports journalists do not have a standing ... that corresponds to the size of their readerships or of their pay packets = Sports journalists aren't as respected as you'd expect them to be, though a lot of people read their work and they're often paid well.
with the old saying = and the old saying
that sport is the toy department of the news media still readily to hand = that sport is the toy department ... is still often used
as a dismissal of the worth of what sports journalists do = is used as a way of dismissing the work of sports journalists.

 

[Barque]

Do you follow what "toy department of the news media" is supposed to mean, GoldfishLord?

 

[GoldfishLord]

Read the entire sentence. Don't just parse bits of it.

I don't completely agree with you.
I agree with you to some extent.

 

[Barque]

I don't completely agree with you.

So you don't completely agree that you should read the entire sentence?

 

[Tarheel]

@GoldfishLord It is a complex sentence in grammar terms. However, it is easy to understand. (I realize that "easy to understand" is a relative term.) Having said that, something that is easy to understand can be hard to explain. Barque has done a good job of it. He has done a very good job of it.

 

[GoldfishLord]

His English is very good.

 

[GoldfishLord]

So you don't completely agree that you should read the entire sentence?

I intended to say that parsing is sometimes needed for learners.

 

[Tarheel]

@GoldfishLord If you understand what the article is about then should you understand the meanings of the individual sentences. You can parse all you want, but you have to put the sentence back together at some point. Can you say in general terms what the article is about?

 

[5jj]

His English is very good.

The English of native speakers usually is.