Nonessential clause? What kind?
Hello everyone! Many thanks for all of the help you've given me before! Here's the sentence that I came across:
"Whenever he started to get discouraged, he reminded himself that what he was doing, as uncomfortable as it was at the moment, was in reality much better than staying in the Cheeseless situation."
It's set off with commas so I know that it must be a nonessential element of some kind. It seems to be adding additional information to the noun clause "what he was doing." I'm just not sure what it is exactly. It's not a relative clause, is it? Thanks in advance!
Top answer
Whenever he started to get discouraged, he reminded himself that what he was doing, as uncomfortable as it was at the moment , was in reality much better than staying in the Cheeseless situation. No, it's not a relative clause, but you are right that it is a non-essential element. It is probably best analysed as a supplementary comparative/concessive adjunct, where it can be understood to mean something like 'although it was very uncomfortable'.
- Whenever he started to get discouraged, he reminded himself that what he was doing, as uncomfortable as it was at the moment , was in reality much better than staying in the Cheeseless situation.
- No, it's not a relative clause, but you are right that it is a non-essential element.
- It is probably best analysed as a supplementary comparative/concessive adjunct, where it can be understood to mean something like 'although it was very uncomfortable'.
- It is idiomatic, of course, and has the form of a preposition phrase headed by the prep "as", with a further embedded PP as its complement.
- Incidentally, I would suggest that you drop the term 'noun clause'.
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Whenever he started to get discouraged, he reminded himself that what he was doing, as uncomfortable as it was at the moment, was in reality much better than staying in the Cheeseless situation.
No, it's not a relative clause, but you are right that it is a non-essential element. It is probably best analysed as a supplementary comparative/concessive adjunct, where it c
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