How are you, everyone?
I have following two questions;
1. As far as I understand, we don't use THE with possessives or demonstratives;
* Is this Mary's car? (NOT ... the Mary's car?)
* This is my uncle. (NOT ... the my uncle.)
Then, how do they use THE in the following sentence in BBC news, "Addressing Parliament for the second time in less than three months, the Queen said the priority for her government was to deliver Brexit on 31 January, but
ministers also had an 'ambitious programme of domestic reform that delivers on the people's priorities'.
Of the more than 30 bills announced in the Queen's Speech, seven were on Brexit."
2.
1) He has a lot of friends. Some of them are from Europe. (o)
?2) He has a lot of friends, some of whom are from Europe. (o)
?3) He has a lot of friends, some of them being from Europe. (x)
4) He has a lot of friends, some of them from Europe. (x)
5) His friends, some of them being from Europe, are quite interested in Korean history. (o)
I learned that this "absolute construction" option is available only with medial, not final, relative clauses (and only if the grammatical ?subject of the medial clause is the same as that of the main clause. Whereas a medial relative clause provides background ?information, a sentence-final relative clause provides major information--information that should not be reduced.
While above 3) and 4) aren't correct ones by above rule, however, I see frequently those kind of absolute construction with "some of them, most of them, all of them, both of them, few of them".
Eagerly waiting for your clear explanation together with the difference between 3) and 4),
Best RGDS
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