"It turns out that the relation between the two works can’t be said to be THAT OF adapting."

[englishlearner777]

"It turns out that the relation between the two works can’t be said to be THAT OF adapting."​

Is the sentence in the title correct? I am at a loss on how to formulate the sentence so that it includes the "one cannot say that..." part. I used "that of" but I do not know if I used it correctly in this case. I would appreciate some alternatives to my phrasing.

 

[jutfrank]

It's okay, grammatically speaking. The pronoun that refers to 'the relation', so the last part reads as: ... can't be said to be the relation of adapting.

I'm not sure you've best expressed what you mean, though. Why use that instead of one? What does adapting mean? What is a 'relation of adapting'? Do you mean 'adaptation'? Please explain what you mean, otherwise it's hard to help.

 

[englishlearner777]

It's okay, grammatically speaking. The pronoun that refers to 'the relation', so the last part reads as: ... can't be said to be the relation of adapting.

I'm not sure you've best expressed what you mean, though. Why use that instead of one? What does adapting mean? What is a 'relation of adapting'? Do you mean 'adaptation'? Please explain what you mean, otherwise it's hard to help.

Yes, I think I can see now why I was so confused. What I mean is that one work cannot be said to be the adaptation of another. I think what I was going for was "It turns out that the relation between the two works can't be said to be that of a source text and its adaptation." Would that be correct?

 

[jutfrank]

That's much clearer, yes.

 

[Tdol]

Or X is not an adaption of source text Y.