Question about the word order

Below is a sentence from a university entrance exam in Japan:

(A) Without languages such societies could hardly exist, neither could have human beings nor languages existed.

I wonder why the author wrote as "neither could have human beings nor languages existed", not "neither could human beings nor languages have existed".

(B) Without languages such societies could hardly exist, neither could human beings nor languages have existed.

In my understanding and feeling, the above word order is standard.


Thank you in advance.

round said:

Below is a sentence from a university entrance exam in Japan:

(A) Without languages such societies could hardly exist, neither could have human beings nor languages existed.

I wonder why the author wrote as "neither could have human beings nor languages existed", not "neither could human beings nor languages have existed".

(B) Without languages such societies could hardly exist, neither could human beings nor languages have existed.

In my understanding and feeling, the above word order is standard.

1, Is the word order of Sentence (A) also acceptable?
2, What is the reason the author wrote as Sentence (A), not as Sentence (B)?
3, Do these sentences make any difference?​

Thank you in advance.

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I agree with you, sentence B is definitely better. By the way, I think 'or' is better than 'nor' in the sentence but can't explain why.

Is the word order in sentence A acceptable? It's serviceable English but it sounds a little clumsy. Maybe give it a triangle rather than a circle or cross.

Why did the author use Sentence A rather than B? Possibly English written ability - it's a complicated sentence, getting to the limits of what many native speakers are capable of. If I'm right about 'or' rather than 'nor', it would be further evidence for this. The whole sentence strikes me as a bit odd, I would have imagined that humans existed before languages, but we're getting into deep water here. And without languages...languages could not have existed? Sounds like a tautology to me! I think your confusion is a reflection of the less than perfect English of the writer more than anything else.

Do the sentences make any difference (in meaning)? No