in the department known as Boyer

Moderator:JackFrost

artart
Posts:96
Joined:2018-03-25, 6:06
in the department known as Boyer

Postby artart » 2022-05-28, 7:44

a. I talked to the man known around here as 'Tall Bobby' who is the mayor of the town.

If there is only one man known around here as 'Tall Bobby', don't we have to have a comma before 'who'?


b. I was in the department known as Boyer that has a flourishing mining industry.


Do we need to replace that with 'which' and have a comma before 'which'?


c. I was in the department that has a flourishing mining industry known as Boyer.

Could this sentence be used if the department is known as Boyer?


This is a question regarding restrictive and non-restrictive clauses. If there is only one 'Tall Bobby', then the clause following it should be non-restrictive. We are giving more information about a person that has already been identified. But since things are clear, is the comma absolutely necessary?

Same question about (b). One could maybe consider (b) as a transformation of (c).

As for (c), I'd say that the sentence work. Nobody would think that the 'flourishing mining industry' is know as Boyer. But maybe that is the only way the sentence can be read according to the rules of grammar. I don't think so.

User avatar
linguoboy
Posts:25540
Joined:2009-08-25, 15:11
Real Name:Da
Location:Chicago
Country:USUnited States (United States)

Re: in the department known as Boyer

Postby linguoboy » 2022-06-01, 17:33

artart wrote:a. I talked to the man known around here as 'Tall Bobby' who is the mayor of the town.

If there is only one man known around here as 'Tall Bobby', don't we have to have a comma before 'who'?

That's the prescriptive standard but not everyone follows it.

artart wrote:b. I was in the department known as Boyer that has a flourishing mining industry.

Do we need to replace that with 'which' and have a comma before 'which'?

Again, that would be the prescriptive standard for formal writing.

artart wrote:c. I was in the department that has a flourishing mining industry known as Boyer.

Could this sentence be used if the department is known as Boyer?

It could but it's considered poor style. "known as Boyer" constitutes what's known as a misplaced modifier in this instance, since it's ambiguous whether it applies to "department" or "industry".

artart wrote:As for (c), I'd say that the sentence work. Nobody would think that the 'flourishing mining industry' is know as Boyer. But maybe that is the only way the sentence can be read according to the rules of grammar.

I disagree. I can easily see someone taking "Boyer" as the name of the chief (or even sole) mining concern in the area.
"Richmond is a real scholar; Owen just learns languages because he can't bear not to know what other people are saying."--Margaret Lattimore on her two sons


Return to “English”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 12 guests