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Jooney Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

Relative clause

Hi,

All promotions now begin on the first day of the month in which they are scheduled to run and end on the last day of that same month.

Do we need the preposition in?
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This is some poster's thread that caught my eye yesterday.

This is what I think the sentence means:

All promotions now begin on the first day of a month. They are scheduled to run and end on the last day of the month.

But the way they are mingled into one tells a different story.

Here the relativised element is "a month", which is what the relative pronoun corresponds to, and the accompanying "in" is adjoined to it, making the whole phrase "in which".

So this is probably what it looked like before the relativisation took place:

All promotions now begin on the first day of a month. They are scheduled to run and end on the last day of the month in a month.


Do you see what I'm getting at?

Q1) I don't understand why the preposition "in a month" is neccesary for the relativisation. Could someone explain the whole process please?


Also, I have an easier version of the original.

My first final starts on the first day of the next month. My last one ends on the last day of the same month.

Q2) How do you combine these two into one sentence by using a relative construction?

I'd appreciate your help. Thank you.






  

Top answer

" To me, you need the "in which" because what is meant by this sentence is that the particular month is either unknown, of little importance, or applies to any or every month. The example, "My first final starts on the first day of the next month. " is not the same because you are specifying "next month" , thus, the month is known.

— KJinCali79

  • " To me, you need the "in which" because what is meant by this sentence is that the particular month is either unknown, of little importance, or applies to any or every month.
  • The example, "My first final starts on the first day of the next month.
  • " is not the same because you are specifying "next month" , thus, the month is known.
  • You're statement: "This is what I think the sentence means: All promotions now begin on the first day of a month.
  • " is not how I undestand the sentence.
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6 Answers
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Hi Jooney."All promotions now begin on the first day of the month in which they are scheduled to run and end on the last day of that same month." To me, you need the "in which" because what is meant by this sentence is that the particular month is either unknown, of little importance, or applies to any or every month. The example, "My first final starts on the first day of the next month. My las
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jooneyAll promotions now begin on the first day of the month in which they are scheduled to run and end on the last day of that same month.

Do we need the preposition in?
Yes. in the month. The promotion is scheduled to "run in a certain month" - not scheduled to "run that month". You "run a promotion", not "run a month".
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Thank you for your help, Anonymous. I see that my example is not equivalent to the original. Thank you for bringing that to my attention.
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Thank you for your reply, CJ.

I must confess my analysis went totally awry this time.Emotion: sad I don't know what I was thinking. It
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Not to worry. All's well that ends well. Emotion: smile

CJ
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Not to worry. All's well that ends well.

Thank you for the encouraging words.
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