"Relative clauses" with no relativized element

[Giuliana Fiorentino]

Hi Tom,
clauses like:

The importance of being Earnest
the fact of being late
the fact that you are late
the idea that world is round
etcetera

are not relative clauses but can be considered among syntactic strategies in order to nominalise events after a generic noun (working as a classifier for nominalised events).

Giuliana

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Thomas E. Payne 
  To: FUNKNET 
  Sent: Friday, September 10, 2010 4:16 PM
  Subject: [FUNKNET] "Relative clauses" with no relativized element


  Can anyone help me name the following structure in English, and maybe point
  me to some references? I do not find reference to this in the Cambridge
  Grammar of the English Language or any other of my English grammar books.
  But then, maybe I just don't know where to look.

    Here are two examples from a play:

  His protestations of devotion in the trial scene are, in our opinion,
  genuine, as is his confession [that his affair with the Countess is
  platonic].

  The bracketed clause seems to modify "confession", though there is no
  position for a confession in the clause itself.

  . . . forced hither with an impious black design [to have my innocence and
  youth become the sacrifice of brutal violence].

    Here the bracketed non-finite clause seems to modify "design."

    These are not all that rare. I'm reminded of examples like:

  "The claim [that my client is a murderer] is totally false."

    Are these relative clauses? If so what kind? Thanks for any help.

  Tom Payne