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Souroin Posted 21 years ago
Grammar
When + verb (a subject abbreviated form)
Hello everyone,
Quote: "It is important to appreciate the fact that, when discovered incidentally, these diseases are asymptomatic and generally at an extremely early stage."
I know, in the given sentence, that 'when discovered' suggests the hidden subject 'these disease are' as this subclause talks about the same subject from the main clause, but what I found confusing is that the omitted part can be taken as 'are discovered' or 'discovered'. With this case, I understood the sentence from just a common sence as it is quite odd if the sentense carries an intention to say 'when diseases discovered' and also perhaps the tense in the main clause is written in present tense - so unmistakable, but if the main clause says 'the physician should examine the patient thoroughly...' the subclause actually in full says 'when a physician discovered'... or in this sense the verb should be 'discovers'? Also, what if the verb or sentence is equivocal, can be taken in both ways - active and passive tense? How do you tell difference? Or, I have a very fundamental misunderstanding...? By the way, is this 'omission' style usable when both sentence in main and subclause take the same subject?
Thanks for everyone tried reading this.
Regards,
Souroin,
Quote: "It is important to appreciate the fact that, when discovered incidentally, these diseases are asymptomatic and generally at an extremely early stage."
I know, in the given sentence, that 'when discovered' suggests the hidden subject 'these disease are' as this subclause talks about the same subject from the main clause, but what I found confusing is that the omitted part can be taken as 'are discovered' or 'discovered'. With this case, I understood the sentence from just a common sence as it is quite odd if the sentense carries an intention to say 'when diseases discovered' and also perhaps the tense in the main clause is written in present tense - so unmistakable, but if the main clause says 'the physician should examine the patient thoroughly...' the subclause actually in full says 'when a physician discovered'... or in this sense the verb should be 'discovers'? Also, what if the verb or sentence is equivocal, can be taken in both ways - active and passive tense? How do you tell difference? Or, I have a very fundamental misunderstanding...? By the way, is this 'omission' style usable when both sentence in main and subclause take the same subject?
Thanks for everyone tried reading this.
Regards,
Souroin,
Top answer
' Hello Souroin The sentence above would indeed cause problems. As it stands, the 'discovered' appears to relate to the physician, as the listener will usually assume that the subject of the 'when' subclause is the same as the subject of the main clause. So it implies that the physician should examine the patient after he, the physician, has been incidentally discovered.
- ' Hello Souroin The sentence above would indeed cause problems.
- As it stands, the 'discovered' appears to relate to the physician, as the listener will usually assume that the subject of the 'when' subclause is the same as the subject of the main clause.
- So it implies that the physician should examine the patient after he, the physician, has been incidentally discovered.
- ' In this structure, the verb is the subclause is always reduced to a participle,and always has the function of an adjective.
- So you would never find 'when discovers'.
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1 Answers
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'It is important to appreciate the fact that, when discovered incidentally, the physician should examine the patient thoroughly...'
Hello Souroin
The sentence above would indeed cause problems. As it stands, the 'discovered' appears to relate to the physician, as the listener will usually assume that the subject of the 'when' subclause is the same as the subject of the main cl
Hello Souroin
The sentence above would indeed cause problems. As it stands, the 'discovered' appears to relate to the physician, as the listener will usually assume that the subject of the 'when' subclause is the same as the subject of the main cl
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