inversion

Question

Researchers studied two mobile phone companies trying to solve a technological problem. One company developed what it called a ‘technology shelf,’ created by a small group of engineers, on which were placed possible technical solutions that other teams might use in the future.

1. which = a ‘technology shelf
2. Possible techinical solutions were placed on a ‘technology shelf.'

Q1) Are #1 and #2 correct?

Q2) Is the original in the passage above for #2 inverted because of the location preposition "on" or just to draw attention?

Q3) Is no inverted version also okay? I.e. (sentences below)

3. "One company ..., on which possible technical soultions that other teams might use in the future were placed."
4. "One company ..., on which possible technical soultions were placed that other teams might use in the future."

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

moon72961. which = a ‘technology shelf 2. Possible techinical solutions were placed on a ‘technology shelf.'Q1) Are #1 and #2 correct?

Yes.

moon7296Q2) Is the original in the passage above for #2 inverted because of the location preposition "on" or just to draw attention?

I don't think either; it is for clarity (the juxtaposition of 'solutions' with its defining clause.

moon7296Q3) Is no inverted version also okay? I.e. (sentences below)3. "One company ..., on which possible technical soultions that other teams might use in the future were placed."4. "One company ..., on which possible technical soultions were placed that other teams might use in the future."

Yes, but they are not so clear.

CalifJim · Answer

moon7296Q1) Are #1 and #2 correct?

Yes.

moon7296Q2) Is the original in the passage above for #2 inverted because of the location preposition "on" or just to draw attention?

The inversion was made because of the "heavy clauses". A heavy clause is a long clause which can cause problems of understanding if placed where it would usually occur in a grammatical structure.

moon7296on which possible technical solutions [that other teams might use in the future] were placed

This is the standard uninverted form, i.e., the canonical word order. If you see the bracketed element as a heavy clause, you will move it so that it does not interrupt "solutions were placed". This gives your other version:

moon7296on which possible technical solutions were placed [that other teams might use in the future]

But now the heavy clause is not next to the noun it goes with, and "solutions that other teams ..." is interrupted by "were placed". So "were placed" is moved again:

on which were placed possible technical solutions that other teams might use in the future

All of this juggling of phrases is meant to make the sentence as clear as possible even though it is rather complex because of the amount of information it contains.

So I would not say that anything was done "to draw attention". On the contrary, this was done so as not to draw attention (to the complexity). It was done to make the sentence more readable, more easily understood.

Further, the uninverted version is OK only from the viewpoint of following word order rules very strictly, but strictly following the rules sometimes leads to awkward sentences, so clauses should be moved to make the meaning more clear even if inversion is required to do that. In short, in my opinion the uninverted version is OK grammatically, but not stylistically.

CJ

inversion

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