Douglas Adams
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Editor: Douglas Adams |
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Group one adjective clauses are often found in their passive reduced and fronted forms. Take the following sentence for example. Established by James Smithsonian in 1846, the Smithsonian Institution has become the premier repository of the nation's treasures. This sentence originally began its life as a Subject-Object adjective clause. The Smithsonian Institute, which James Smithsonian established in 1846, has become the premier repository of the nation's treasures. The obvious question is how do we get from the sentence above to its reduced and fronted forms. We begin by identifying the adjective clause and making it passive. Reducing & Fronting Subject-Object Sentences: Step One: [Passive adjective clause] The Smithsonian Institute, which was established by James Smithsonian in 1848, has become the premier repository of the nation's treasures. The next step involves deleting the be verb and the relative pronoun to arrive at the reduced form. Step Two: [Reduced] The Smithsonian Institute, established by James Smithsonian in 1848, has become the premier repository of the nation's treasures. We can then go one step further and front the reduced adjective clause by moving it to the beginning of the sentence. Step Three: [Fronted] Established by James Smithsonian in 1846, the Smithsonian Institution has become the premier repository of the nation's treasures. Reduced clauses do not have to be fronted. In fact, some sentences sound better in their reduced form. I often like to ask my advanced-level students which form sounds better to them as a way to gauge their level of native intuition with the language. Note: It's often helpful to advise students to underline the adjective clause at each step as this makes it easier to identify which elements of the sentence to move to the front in step three. Question: What happens when the passive form does not yield a be verb such as in the perfect tense/aspect? To answer this question, let's look at the following fronted example in the active form. Having played a pivotal role in the Battle of Britain, the development of radar went on to revolutionize the worlds of transportation and meteorology. This sentence began it's life as... The development of radar, which had played a pivotal role in the Battle of Britain, went on to revolutionize the worlds of transportation and meteorology. Step One: [Our goal is to end up with the p.p. form of the verb.] This involves deleting the relative pronoun and changing "have" into its present participle form to arrive at the reduced form Step One: [Reduced] The development of radar, having played a pivotal role in the Battle of Britain, went on to revolutionize the worlds of transportation and meteorology. Step One: [Fronted] Having played a pivotal role in the Battle of Britain, The development of radar went on to revolutionize the worlds of transportation and meteorology. The same basic pattern can be used for a passive adjective clause as well as can be seen with a slight modification to our first example... Having been Established by James Smithsonian in 1846, the Smithsonian Institution has become the premier repository of the nation's treasures. This sentence originally began its life as ... The Smithsonian Institute, which James Smithsonian had established in 1846, has become the premier repository of the nation's treasures. |
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