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Third World Clown Posted 13 years ago
Grammar
Transforming relative clauses into appositives
Hi,
I was recently helping a relative with a homework that required the students to transform relative clauses into appositives. There was one particular sentence that sounded odd to me, and hence stayed in my head. I would like to know your opinion about it:
Justin Bieber, whom many people love, is a singer.
If I am correct , whom many people love is the relative clause, but trying to turn it into an appositive made it sound odd to my ear:
Justin Bieber, loved by many people, is a singer.
What are your thoughts? Maybe you would have done it differently, or maybe I just wrongly identified the relative clause (I am a bit confused by the wording of the sentence, because I would have expected the relative clause to be written Justin Bieber is a singer whom many people love).
Thank you in advance
I was recently helping a relative with a homework that required the students to transform relative clauses into appositives. There was one particular sentence that sounded odd to me, and hence stayed in my head. I would like to know your opinion about it:
Justin Bieber, whom many people love, is a singer.
If I am correct , whom many people love is the relative clause, but trying to turn it into an appositive made it sound odd to my ear:
Justin Bieber, loved by many people, is a singer.
What are your thoughts? Maybe you would have done it differently, or maybe I just wrongly identified the relative clause (I am a bit confused by the wording of the sentence, because I would have expected the relative clause to be written Justin Bieber is a singer whom many people love).
Thank you in advance
Top answer
I suspect that the answer is supposed to be Justin Bieber is a singer loved by many people. The other way round doesn't quite work, somehow.
- I suspect that the answer is supposed to be Justin Bieber is a singer loved by many people.
- The other way round doesn't quite work, somehow.
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11 Answers
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I suspect that the answer is supposed to be
The other way round doesn't quite work, somehow.
Justin Bieber is a singer loved by many people.
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TWC;
Clive is right. An appositive is a noun.
"loved by many people" is a modifier, not a noun.
The instructions are confusing, because the whole sentence, not the clause, needs to be restructured.
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Clive is right. An appositive is a noun.
"loved by many people" is a modifier, not a noun.
The instructions are confusing, because the whole sentence, not the clause, needs to be restructured.
A-
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underline the noun(s) in this sentencce. While searching the cell, the offices found drugs underneath the mattress.
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Please start a new thread. This has nothing to do with what is being discussed here.
Thank you
Thank you
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If written correctly it would have read .... ' WHO many people love' ......... then it wouldn't have sounded odd to you. You are quite right to hear that WHOM as distinctly clunky.
JB - as the subject - is WHO. The object of a sentence deserves the WHOM. e.g. Who do many people love? He is loved by whom?
JB - as the subject - is WHO. The object of a sentence deserves the WHOM. e.g. Who do many people love? He is loved by whom?
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It is true that he is the subject of the sentence: JB (...) is a singer.
However, if we look at the appositive on its own, whom many people love, it seems to me that he is the object of their loving, i.e., they love him.
However, I might be dead wrong.
However, if we look at the appositive on its own, whom many people love, it seems to me that he is the object of their loving, i.e., they love him.
However, I might be dead wrong.
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The sentence has no object. 'the singer' is a complement, realized by a nominal phrase, and 'whom many people love' is a relative clause.
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It's a poor question, and the best I can offer is
Justin Bieber, a favourite of the people, is a singer.
And even this would only sound sensible in a context encouraging greater cohesiveness because there are really two sentences' worth of information:
_ Entertainers are not very popular these days, wouldn't you say?
_Well, Justin Bieber,
Justin Bieber, a favourite of the people, is a singer.
And even this would only sound sensible in a context encouraging greater cohesiveness because there are really two sentences' worth of information:
_ Entertainers are not very popular these days, wouldn't you say?
_Well, Justin Bieber,
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