1

I myself consider the sentence offset below to be correct; however, some of my associates regard it as being wrong. I would like your advice on it. The sentence is

  • Jane Austen published 4 novels, who was an English novelist.

While searching for some information that fits my needs, I came across this: enter image description here

I wonder if this rule of grammar can fit in my sentence. Thank you.

Improve this question
5
  • 2
    Jane Austen published 4 novels, who was an English novelist reads at first as if the novels were the novelists. Quick fix: Jane Austen, who published 4 novels, was an English novelist.
    – Yosef Baskin
    May 8 at 16:53
  • No. << Jane Austen published 4 novels, who was an English novelist. >> might occur in some very old folksong or Gilbert and Sullivan, but sounds so outlandish to modern Anglophones that it would lose you a mark in an English essay and have people looking at you strangely if you came out with it in conversation. Note that the verb arise in the example given has no object. I doubt that a relative clause is ever moved to the other side of any {[V] + [DO]} string in natural prose or speech. Often, the DO will be a NP outcompeting for the relative clause.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    May 8 at 16:53
  • -1 for including such a large tract of text as an image file - which means we can't cut&paste any of it for use in comments or answers. It's probably true, but I dont think it's relevant that "English prefers to have a verb as the second constituent of a sentence". What matters here is that native Anglophones don't like extended "parenthetical" text (such as that smaller animals or plants do not have to cope with, here) to come between the subject (All kinds of problems) and the verb (arise)
    – FumbleFingers
    May 8 at 17:52
  • 2
    Extraposition from NP doesn't work here, since the relative clause is non-restrictive. The original sentence is ungrammatical.
    – John Lawler
    May 8 at 21:51
  • In additionn to @jlawler's point, extraposition from NP usually occurs with intransitive verbs, not verbs that take direct objects.
    – Araucaria - Not here any more.
    May 9 at 14:35

0

Reset to default

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.