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Anonymous Posted 12 years ago
Grammar
Complex sentence
Hi.
That's from a grammar-book paragraph describing complex sentences:
"The third type [of complex sentences] includes sentences in which one subordinate clause modifies an element in the main, and other subordinate clause modifies the sentence as a whole.
Example: If it rains tomorrow, /we won't be able to go on the picnic /that we've been planning so long."
What I've failed to grasp is the part of the author's reasoning referring to the notion that the "other subordinate clause modifies the sentence as a whole."
I understand that the clause that we've been planning so long is a subordinate one which modifies the object of the preposition, i.e. picnic. On the other hand, I've got some problems to recognize the clause If it rains tomorrow as the one which modifies the sentence as a whole.
Thank you.
That's from a grammar-book paragraph describing complex sentences:
"The third type [of complex sentences] includes sentences in which one subordinate clause modifies an element in the main, and other subordinate clause modifies the sentence as a whole.
Example: If it rains tomorrow, /we won't be able to go on the picnic /that we've been planning so long."
What I've failed to grasp is the part of the author's reasoning referring to the notion that the "other subordinate clause modifies the sentence as a whole."
I understand that the clause that we've been planning so long is a subordinate one which modifies the object of the preposition, i.e. picnic. On the other hand, I've got some problems to recognize the clause If it rains tomorrow as the one which modifies the sentence as a whole.
Thank you.
Top answer
Anonymous I've got some problems to recognize the clause If it rains tomorrow as the one which modifies the sentence as a whole. Sorry, but I don't see what bothers you about that. What else could that subordinate clause modify?
- Anonymous I've got some problems to recognize the clause If it rains tomorrow as the one which modifies the sentence as a whole.
- Sorry, but I don't see what bothers you about that.
- What else could that subordinate clause modify?
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4 Answers
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Anonymous I've got some problems to recognize the clause If it rains tomorrow as the one which modifies the sentence as a whole.Sorry, but I don't see what bothers you about that. What else could that subordinate clause modify?
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Thank you, MM, for your useful reply.
Indeed, I've got to rethink it once again. Maybe, I've been not able to see it as the whole-sentence modifier but as a part of the conditional structure and that could have fazed my understanding of that.
Indeed, I've got to rethink it once again. Maybe, I've been not able to see it as the whole-sentence modifier but as a part of the conditional structure and that could have fazed my understanding of that.
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Anonymousbut as a part of the conditional structureIt is still a dependent clause.
If the book teaches you that every clause must modify something, then the only choice you have for these sorts of clauses is "the entire sentence" since it cannot be associated with any individual word or phrase by itself.
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