"Relative clauses" with no relativized element

[E.G.]

Jespersen and his nexus-substantives should be mentioned (Philosophy of
Grammar, 1924). Also in his MEG and Analytic Syntax one could find
interesting discussions.

Eitan


On 10 September 2010 20:53, Giuliana Fiorentino <
giuliana.fiorentino at unimol.it> wrote:

> 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
>



-- 
Eitan Grossman
Martin Buber Society of Fellows
Hebrew University of Jerusalem