Relative pronoun+be

Question

The Sahara Desert is a place where only 250 mm of rain falls in a year. The temperature is terribly high in the daytime, but it can also fall below 0°C at night. However, it's an amazing place, full of excitement and wonder, where a variety of animals survive in their own way. Let's spend a day in the Sahara Desert.

ex1) it's an amazing place, (which is) full of excitement and wonder, where a variety of animals survive in their own way

In the sentence above, a relative pronoun 'which' and be 'is' are omitted

My question is why two commas ( , ) are used in the sentence

Is this sentence awkward?

ex2) it's an amazing place which is full of excitement and wonder where a variety of animals survive in their own way (without two commas)

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

HoonyIn the sentence above, a relative pronoun 'which' and be 'is' are omitted.

Yes. This used to be called "Whiz-Deletion", where the wh-word (which includes 'that') and a form of be, such as 'is' (pronounced iz), are deleted from a relative clause. The resulting clause is sometimes called a reduced relative clause.

HoonyMy question is why two commas ( , ) are used in the sentence.

Relative clauses can be restrictive or non-restrictive. Non-restrictive means, essentially, parenthetical. Non-restrictive clauses are set off by commas.

HoonyIs this sentence awkward? ...
It's an amazing place which is full of excitement and wonder where a variety of animals survive in their own way

It's not particularly awkward, but it shows that the writer is thinking of the reduced relative clause as restrictive, i.e., supplying information necessary for specifying which place is being referred to. That's a slightly odd way for the speaker to think of it, though, because we know nothing more about which place it is just because it is full of excitement and wonder. Many places are full of excitement and wonder. So the wonder we have as readers is why the writer omitted the commas.

CJ

BillJ · Answer

HoonyHowever, it's an amazing place, full of excitement and wonder, where a variety of animals survive in their own way. Let's spend a day in the Sahara Desert.ex1) it's an amazing place, (which is) full of excitement and wonder, where a variety of animals survive in their own way In the sentence above, a relative pronoun 'which' and be 'is' are omitted

No: nothing is omitted. The phrase "full of excitement and wonder" is simply a supplementary ascriptive AdjP. It can be expanded to "which is full of excitement and wonder", but that would be a different construction.

Note that a clause without a relativized element, either overt or covert, cannot be a relative clause.

HoonyMy question is why two commas ( , ) are used in the sentence

The commas mark the phrase as being a supplement rather than a dependent. As is typical with supplements, it would have a slight pause in speech.

Relative pronoun+be

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