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This question is about the emphasized sentence in the following paragraph from Proposed Roads to Freedom by Bertrand Russell:

Socialism as a power in Europe may be said to begin with Marx. It is true that before his time there were Socialist theories, both in England and in France. It is also true that in France, during the revolution of 1848, Socialism for a brief period acquired considerable influence in the State. But the Socialists who preceded Marx tended to indulge in Utopian dreams and failed to found any strong or stable political party. To Marx, in collaboration with Engels, are due both the formulation of a coherent body of Socialist doctrine, sufficiently true or plausible to dominate the minds of vast numbers of men, and the formation of the International Socialist movement, which has continued to grow in all European countries throughout the last fifty years.

This is the first time I have ever seen the structure 'To somebody are due X and Y'. Does the author mean both X and Y are due to (caused by) Marx, where X is 'the formulation of a coherent body of Socialist doctrine' and Y is 'the formation of the International Socialist movement'?

tchrist
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apadana
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    Does this answer your question? Can you explain the sentence structure 'In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit'? Why put the verb before the subject? Prepositional phrase fronting is usually in a literary or related flowery register. 'From the little acorn, the mighty oak did grow.' / 'Into the pot went the eye of newt.' / 'To these workers are due the highest regard.' – Edwin Ashworth Feb 25 '24 at 15:33
  • @EdwinAshworth, Thanks. I've seen many similar sentences with PP fronting. But this was confusing, possibly because unconsciously I understand 'due to Marx' as due to + Marx and not due + to Marx. – apadana Feb 25 '24 at 15:54
  • Imagine a non-fronted ordering: “Both the formulation* of a coherent body of Socialist doctrine sufficiently true or plausible to dominate the minds of vast numbers of men and the formation of the International Socialist movement, which has continued to grow in all European countries throughout the last fifty years, are due to Marx in collaboration with Engels.”* Now the central point that these two things are due to Marx and Engels risks getting buried at the end. That would result in a weaker statement lacking the focus provided by the fronting. – tchrist Feb 25 '24 at 16:48
  • Please make that 'is due the highest regard'; I had two possible sentences in mind and conflated them. 'To these workers are due the grateful thanks of all concerned'. – Edwin Ashworth Feb 25 '24 at 16:56
  • Keep in mind that the elevated register of yesteryear’s academic, literary, or critical prose allows for a far broader—and therefore more expressive—syntactic range than does the casual writing of today’s more pedestrian newspapers. There you might be more expected to read something more direct and simpler to parse such as: “Working with Engels, Marx created not only a Socialist doctrine plausible enough to dominate the minds of men but also a Socialist movement fertile enough to sustain continuous growth in every European country for the last fifty years.” – tchrist Feb 25 '24 at 16:57

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