Strict adjacency principle

Question

He explained to her all the terrible problems that he had encountered.*He argued with her every point.Can anyone tell me what is the difference between those two sentences please?

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

anonymous Strict adjacency principle ...
Can anyone tell me ~~what is~~ the difference between those two sentences please?

With regard to your thread title, I suppose?

anonymous
He explained to her all the terrible problems that he had encountered.
*He argued with her every point.

The underlined portions show where the strict adjacency principle is violated. Such a violation is permitted in the first example but not in the second. This is usually explained in terms of "heavy" (i.e., long, wordy) constructions.

Had the adjacency principle not been violated, we would have seen these:

He explained all the terrible problems that he had encountered to her.
He argued every point with her.

In the first sentence there is a lot of syntax between 'explained' and 'to her' (including a relative clause). In other words, it's "heavy". Because of that, it's hard for us readers to know what "to her" is supposed to be associated with by the time we reach the end of the sentence. We may think "What is 'encountered to her' supposed to mean?" To rectify the situation, 'to her' is moved, even though that violates the adjacency principle.

The same situation does not occur in the second sentence, so the violation of the adjacency principle cannot be allowed there.

CJ

Strict adjacency principle

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