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Editor: Douglas Adams |
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Special problems arise when we attempt to reduce and front where & when clauses. Let's look at an example: [Where] The restaurant where Tom eats has two-for-one burgers. In reducing a Subject-Object sentence like the one above, our first step is to make the adjective clause passive. The restaurant where is eaten by Tom has two-for-one burgers. Obviously, this does not sound like a good sentence to a native speaker. Lacking such native-speaker intuition though, a second language learner will need to be told about an extra step involved in reducing where & when clauses. We must first change the relative pronoun where to which or that plus a preposition. The restaurant which is eaten at by Tom has two-for-one burgers. After this small change, the rest of the process is the same as with the other relative pronouns. *Note: In where & when clauses, where & when are always objects of a preposition since they tell us location and time. Thus, the example above has no direct object in the adjective clause, but what happens when we add in a direct object? Let's look at another example: The restaurant where Tom met Jessica has two-for-one burgers. In this sentence, Jessica is the direct object of the adjective clause. We don't encounter any problems when we make the adjective clause passive [even without changing the relative pronoun and adding a preposition]: The restaurant which Jessica was met at by Tom has two-for-one burgers. But what happens when we try to reduce? As usual, we would delete the relative pronoun and be verb: The restaurant Jessica met at by Tom has two for one burgers. At this point we run into a problem that can't be solved. When making a clause passive, the direct object always comes before the verb, and as such, is in the way. met at by Tom would be the normal reduced form. However, we can't simply delete the direct object without changing the meaning of the sentence. *Note: Though each example above is with a Subject-Object sentence, the same problems hold true for Object-Object as well. [When] *Note: With only a few exceptions, reduced/fronted sentences with when almost always sound strange, and as such, aren't really worth teaching to our students. [These exceptions often involve the use of a specific time/date.] September 2nd, when Tom arrived, was a bad day for Jessica. [Make the adjective clause passive & replace when with which/that + a preposition.] September 2nd, which was arrived on by Tom, was a bad day for Jessica. [Reduce and Front.] Arrived on by Tom, September 2nd was a bad day for Jessica. I usually show students a "good" example and then a "bad" one, let them know that when isn't usually reduced/fronted, and leave it at that. |
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