a more common occurrence than any one would think who only knew me through your memoirs

Question

Quote:

“Because I made a blunder, my dear Watson—which is, I am afraid, a more common occurrence than any one would think who only knew me through your memoirs. The fact is that I could not believe it possible that the most remarkable horse in England could long remain concealed, especially in so sparsely inhabited a place as the north of Dartmoor. From hour to hour yesterday I expected to hear that he had been found, and that his abductor was the murderer of John Straker. When, however, another morning had come, and I found that beyond the arrest of young Fitzroy Simpson nothing had been done, I felt that it was time for me to take action. Yet in some ways I feel that yesterday has not been wasted.”

Question：

"A more common occurence than any one would think" means:

A. something more common than everyone thought happened

or

B. something very rare happened

According to the context i guess the answer should be B. But i do feel confused with such expression.

Anyone who doesn't know Sherlock Holmes, but has read what Dr Watson has written about him, would think that he never makes a mistake. In fact, Holmes says, it's quite common for him to make a mistake. — Kate Bunting, Nov 16 '21 at 17:56
Does this answer your question? The sentence with the most prepositions at its end -- does it really work? This is about postposition of relative clauses. — Edwin Ashworth, Nov 16 '21 at 19:14
Also covered at Delayed relative clause. 'In this chapter, the fundamental physiological principles will be presented that underlie the mathematical models and simulations of the subsequent chapters.' But Position of a relative clause before/after a verb is the one I've been looking for. 'Extraposition from NP.' — Edwin Ashworth, Nov 16 '21 at 19:27
This is an example of the rule of Extraposition from NP, which moves a heavy clause from an internal position to the end of the sentence, where it's easier to parse. — John Lawler, Nov 16 '21 at 20:22

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 16 '21 at 19:08

The confusion is because "any one" is modified by a phrase that comes after "would think." The syntax could be rearranged:

[My blunders are] a more common occurrence than any one who only knew me through your memoirs would think.

Regarding your proposed paraphrases, this means "something happened that people think is very rare, but is more common than they think."

a more common occurrence than any one would think who only knew me through your memoirs

1 Answers1