Adnominal relative adverb, relative pronoun

Question

Hi Englishpros,

* The woman is a TV reporter who is standing in the hotel elevator.

1. Someone suggests the sentence above should be wrong. Why?
_______________________________________________________

A stative verb, generally, cannot be made into a passive sentence. However, some stative verbs have "active" forms in which the verb has another meaning.

2. Is 'in which the verb has another meaning' an adjective clause which modifies the noun forms ?

3. Is 'which' a relative pronoun? Is the noun forms its antecedent?

4. Which word is the object or complement of the preposition in?
forms? or which? or both?

5. Can I replace 'in which' with 'where'? ( i.e. .......verbs have "active forms" where the verb ...)
_________________________________________________________

The place at which I work is a hospital.

6. Is which a relative pronoun? Is 'the place' its antecedent?

7. Which word(s) is the object or complement of the preposition at?
The place? or which? or both?

8. Can I replace 'at which' with 'where'? (i.e. The place where I work is a hospital.)

9. My dictionary considers 'where' as a relative pronoun, but someone suggests it should be an adnominal relative adverb in the situation in question. What difference does it make if there're any?

Casi · Accepted Answer

A. violates co-referencing. "who" refers back to "a TV reporter", which in turn refers back to "The woman". With copular structures, modification anchors directly onto the subject, not to its complement:

The woman who is standing in the hotel elevator is a TV reporter.

B. Try looking at it this way,

The verb has another meaning in active form.
In active form the verb has another meaning.

C. Try looking at it this way,

I work at a hospital. The place is a hospital. (noun)
The hospital that I work at is a place.

The place where I work is a hospital. (adverb)

Rhetor · Answer

The woman is a TV reporter who is standing in the hotel elevator.

There's nothing wrong with this sentence.

"Detective: I'm looking for two suspects: one is a man; the other, a woman. Here are their photos. Have you seen them?

Helpful Janitor: Sure. The man is an executive who is sitting in the lobby. The woman is a TV reporter who is standing in the hotel elevator."

Again, there is NOTHING wrong with your original sentence. It would be an awkward substitute for "The woman who is standing in the hotel elevator is a TV reporter"; but it is not, per se, incorrect.

A stative verb, generally, cannot be made into a passive sentence. However, some stative verbs have "active" forms in which the verb has another meaning.

2. Is 'in which the verb has another meaning' an adjective clause which modifies the noun forms ?

Personally, I don't like to look at phrases as if they had the same characteristics as individual parts of speech. However, many would say that the phrase "in which the verb has another meaning" answers the question "what kind of 'forms'?" Since adjectives often specify the kind of noun discussed, the phrase in question could be called "adjectival."

3. Is 'which' a relative pronoun? Is the noun forms its antecedent?

Yes to both questions.

4. Which word is the object or complement of the preposition in?
forms? or which? or both?

"Which" is a relative pronoun; it is the object of "in." The antecedent of "which" is "forms." "Forms" is the object of the verb "have," not of the preposition"in."

5. Can I replace 'in which' with 'where'? ( i.e. .......verbs have "active forms" where the verb ...)

No. You can, however, replace "in which" with "whose," a substitution made often in English.

"However, some stative verbs have active forms whose verb has another meaning."

"Whose" is the possessive case of "who" or "which" (the other relative pronouns -- what, that, as -- lack a possessive case). The possessive case performs a similar function of limiting the thing-possessed as an article. For example, we might say "The novels of Hemingway," but we drop the article when we say "Hemingway's novels." Limitation on the word "novels" is accomplished either by means of the article or the possessive, but not by both. For this reason, we drop the definite article "the" before "verb" in the problem sentence.

The place at which I work is a hospital.

6. Is which a relative pronoun? Is 'the place' its antecedent?

Yes to both questions.

7. Which word(s) is the object or complement of the preposition at?
The place? or which? or both?

The object of "at" is "which." The antecedent of "which" is "place."

8. Can I replace 'at which' with 'where'? (i.e. The place where I work is a hospital.)

Informally, there's nothing wrong with such a replacement.

9. My dictionary considers 'where' as a relative pronoun, but someone suggests it should be an adnominal relative adverb in the situation in question. What difference does it make if there're any?

"Where" generally indicates something to do with a place, making it (in most contexts) an adverb. Informally, "where" can sometimes function as a so-called "relative adverb." It can join clauses (or join a phrase to a clause) and has an antecedent. "The place where I took her was serene." In this example, we have two clauses:

Clause 1: "The place was serene.
Clause 2: "I took her where."

Like a relative pronoun, the relative adverb "where" is brought around to the front of clause 2 and used to join it to the head of clause 1. Usually, such connectives are brought as close as possible to their antecedent; here, "The place" and "where" are next to each other. Informally, the construction is used often. Formally, however, it doesn't stand up under analysis, because "where" must not only have an antecedent, but include within it the meaning of the preposition "to." The meaning of clause 2, after all, is "I took her TO the place." In general, therefore, it's not a good idea to substitute an adverb like "where" for a genuine relative pronoun -- who, which, what, that, as -- and the appropriate preposition.

Xavier · Answer

The woman (who is standing) in the hotel elevator is a TV reporter.
You only need to say "The woman in the elevator is a TV reporter" as there are rarely seats in elevators.

Meantolearn · Answer

Hi,

Thanks for all of your contributions. I'd like to especially thank rhetor for your detailed answers.

re. The woman is a TV reporter who is standing in the hotel elevator.

This was one of the questions on the topic of 'relative pronoun' in an English grammar study program. The answer was the same as Casi's: The woman who is standing in the hotel elevator is a TV reporter. I confirmed it with an English teacher and I was told the same answer.

It's interesting to know that this is not an apparent improper usage. The result of the 'standard answer' might be debatable. I believe rhetor is a native English speaker. How come his suggestion is the opposite of the standard??

Adnominal relative adverb, relative pronoun

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