-= A native/proficient speaker's help needed. =-

Does this sentence mean the same as:

The roof of the high-rise building rises above the whole town.

?

My opinion:

First, I would use "high-rise" with a dash, but otherwise...

In many contexts, these two will have the same meaning, but there's a stylistic difference. "overlooks", for me, creates the impression that someone standing on top of the roof would be able to see the whole town. There's a view.

"Rises", however, doesn't carry this shade of meaning. It just means that the roof of the building is higher than everything else - doesn't necessary mean that there's a nice view. It also creates a more dominant impression - the building is somehow superior to the others because of its height ("overlooks" is more passive). Also, I find that "the roof rises above" is a bit strange - though grammatically correct - as one would usually say "the building rises above" (who cares about the roof if it's the height that's important?).

What do you say to this sentence?
"The roof of the high-rise building commands a fine view of the city."
This is what they often teach in schools in Japan. You can find many examples that come from the Tanaka Corpus.
http://tatoeba.org/eng/sentence...rom=und&to=und
I'd like to know if there's something wrong with this wording.

It's not wrong, but it sounds a bit posh :-)

Most people would probably say "the roof has a great view of the city".

Thanks, Gene! To tell the truth, for me, that "roof" is the most confusing thing about this sentence. I wonder if there's a context where it would look natural. For example, that roof has some peculiarity, etc., so we're mentioning the roof, not just the building. Is it possible?
Btw, I've found a similar sentence on the 'net:

The Castle, though old and ruinous, overlooks the whole Town. (Daniel Defoe "A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain: Divided Into Circuits Or Journeys").

I agree with sharptoothed; "the top of this skyscraper" seems to me much more clear and comprehensible at first glance. "Top" and "roof" may be seen as synonymx in this sentences. A roof can has every possible form. Here for instance is the roof of the famous Chrysler Building http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildin...yscraper_1.jpg ☺
BUT I guess, speaking of a modern building, most of the people would rather imagine a flat roof — which can't be seen at all from the ground.

"The Castle, though old and ruinous, overlooks the whole Town." That's a fine and impressive sentence, because we can see and describe the castle as if it were a person, can't we?

"The roof overlooks..." is okay, IMO. It's just "the roof rises..." that's a bit odd. Although, like sharptoothed said, if the roof has some peculiarity, the sentence is still grammatically correct and could be used (perhaps as a linguistic experiment or with some artistic license, as well).

Actually, "the roof rises" is also a bit confusing, since this expression seems to be used most often when describing the slope of the roof, e.g.: The roof rises 7 inches for every 20 it runs, and therefore has a slope/pitch of 7/20.

2FeuDRenais
Thanks again, now things look more clear to me.

2al_ex_an_der
It's a pity that the nominal phrase maker who seeks an opinion of someone who has a level higher than B2 is no longer with us. :'(