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Anonymous Posted 16 years ago
Grammar
Reduction of relative clauses
Hi,
I have some questions about relative clauses for which reduction is not possible. In my grammar handout it says "it is not possible to reduce relative clauses all the time, especially when ther is confusion with time or the action doesn't show continuity or repetition. The below sentence is given as an example:
-"The Wrights spend a lot of time in their garden, which runs right down a river". It says we cannot reduce "which runs" to "running" in that sentence. I don't understand the reason?? +
Is it possible to make reduction in the following relative clauses. If no, why not???
a) The girl, who is tall, is my sister- The girl, tall, is my sister??
b) A dictionary is a book which gives the meanings of words- A dictionary is a book giving the meanings of words??
Thank a lot for your help..
Erdogan D.
I have some questions about relative clauses for which reduction is not possible. In my grammar handout it says "it is not possible to reduce relative clauses all the time, especially when ther is confusion with time or the action doesn't show continuity or repetition. The below sentence is given as an example:
-"The Wrights spend a lot of time in their garden, which runs right down a river". It says we cannot reduce "which runs" to "running" in that sentence. I don't understand the reason?? +
Is it possible to make reduction in the following relative clauses. If no, why not???
a) The girl, who is tall, is my sister- The girl, tall, is my sister??
b) A dictionary is a book which gives the meanings of words- A dictionary is a book giving the meanings of words??
Thank a lot for your help..
Erdogan D.
Top answer
Hi The Wrights sentence you cannot reduce because of confusion between the garden and the Wrights. ' The word 'which' in the original sentence helps to make it clear that the relative clause refers to one thing (the garden) not several (the Wrights) - if you take it out, it's ambiguous. a) is gramatically ok but with such a short sentence putting that word after the subject looks a bit odd - I'd expect it for a name, like 'The girl, Maria, is my sister' but 'The tall girl is my sister' or if you're essentially interrupting yourself with more information, maybe 'The girl - the tall one - is my sister'.
- Hi The Wrights sentence you cannot reduce because of confusion between the garden and the Wrights.
- ' The word 'which' in the original sentence helps to make it clear that the relative clause refers to one thing (the garden) not several (the Wrights) - if you take it out, it's ambiguous.
- a) is gramatically ok but with such a short sentence putting that word after the subject looks a bit odd - I'd expect it for a name, like 'The girl, Maria, is my sister' but 'The tall girl is my sister' or if you're essentially interrupting yourself with more information, maybe 'The girl - the tall one - is my sister'.
- b) is absolutely fine.
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3 Answers
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Hi
The Wrights sentence you cannot reduce because of confusion between the garden and the Wrights. So if you said 'The Wrights spend a lot of time in their garden, running right down to a river' you might mean 'The Wrights spend a lot of time in their garden and what they do when they are there is running down to the river.' The word 'which' in the original sentence helps to make it c
The Wrights sentence you cannot reduce because of confusion between the garden and the Wrights. So if you said 'The Wrights spend a lot of time in their garden, running right down to a river' you might mean 'The Wrights spend a lot of time in their garden and what they do when they are there is running down to the river.' The word 'which' in the original sentence helps to make it c
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Anonymousit is not possible to reduce relative clauses all the time, ... as an example:
-"The Wrights spend a lot of time in their garden, which runs right down a river".
It says we cannot reduce "which runs" to "running" in that sentence.That's true. When you have a sentence with "spend time", you add an -ing expression to indicate what was done during
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AnonymousIs it possible to make reduction in the following relative clauses. If no, why not???Once you reduce a clause to a single adjective, you almost always have to move it so it's before the noun.
a) The girl, who is tall, is my sister- The girl, tall, is my sister??
The girl, who is tall, is my sister. >
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