Page 539 - Practical English Usage 3ed - Michael Swan, Oxford

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past tenses, they can cause confusion. In the following examples from news reports, arrested means 'who was arrested', accused means 'who is accused', and asked means 'who were asked'.
A court has heard that a young civil servant arrested after shootings on Tyneside left one man dead is to be charged with murder.
A Karnak separatist accused ofleading an attack on a French police barracks in which four gendarmes died has been arrested.
A number ofthe children askedfor comments on the proposals to expel some immigrants told the police they disagreed.
reporting expressions: The man who Ann said will tell us
Complicated structures can be produced when reporting expressions are included in sentences.
This is the man who Ann said will tell us all about the church. There are those people that I thought were going to buy our house. Who did you say (that) you wanted to invite for Christmas?
What do you suppose will happen now?
This can also happen with reported question structures.
He's gone I don't know how far.
We spent I can't remember how much money on our holiday.
Mary gave me you'll never guess what for my birthday. heavy subject: Getting up very early ... makes ...
When the subject of a sentence is a long phrase or clause, the structure can be difficult to follow.
Getting up very early in the morning makes you feel really superior.
(The first seven words are the subject.)
Going on holiday out ofseason when everybody else is working can save you a lot ofmoney. (n-word subject)
What Ann's little sister wanted above everything else in the whole world was a horse. (12-word subject)
heavy indirect object:
I gave all the people who had helped me ...
Similar problems can be caused by a long indirect object.
She gave all the people who had helped her with her research copies ofher book.
He brought the village where he had grown up unexpected fame and prosperity.
more examples
Here are more examples of the above structures, some of them extreme, taken from news reports and fiction.
A 24-year-old labourer who was arrested in Trafalgar Square when he allegedly attempted to knife a traffic warden is said to have injured three policemen.
T h e C o n s u m e r s ' A s s o c i a t i o n s t u d y s h o w e d 75% o f p a r e n t s t h o u g h t j u n k f o o d advertising campaigns made it harder for them to insist their children ate
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sentence structure (7): understanding complicated structures 515
healthy food.
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