2. Reading Obstacles 1: Interrupted Structures

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When closely-connected words are written with other words in between them, the connection can be obscured

DEFINITION OF AN INTERRUPTED STRUCTURE

Interrupted (“discontinuous”) structures are words with a close grammatical link that are separated by other words. For example, the words larger than have a close grammatical link (the –er ending needs or implies than and vice versa), and a word interrupting this two-word group might be usually in the phrase larger usually than. Sometimes the interrupting words are surrounded by a pair of bracket-like commas (see 50. Right and Wrong Comma Places), like this:

(a) Fit athletes should complete a marathon in, at the very most, three hours.

The problem for reading is that the separation of the closely-linked words, especially without commas, can stop the reader seeing the link.

There are various types of structure that can be interrupted. Here are some important ones:

1. Preposition + Noun

All prepositions need a partner noun, usually placed just after them (see 84. Seven Things to Know About Prepositions, #1). The typical place where interruptions occur is just after the preposition. This is the case in sentence (a) above.

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2. Verb Phrases

Verb phrases are expanded verbs. They might be a main verb with one or more preceding auxiliaries (BE, HAVE, DO, will etc.), as in should be working; or one with following ordinary verbs in the participle or infinitive form, as in wants to be seen; or a “two-word” verb – with closely-linked adverb or preposition – such as move on (see 139. Phrasal Verbs and 123. Prepositional Verbs Containing a Noun). Interrupting words are likely to be adverbs (see 120. Six Things to Know About Adverbs):

(b) Fit athletes should, ideally, complete a marathon in three hours.

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3. Noun Phrases

The meaning of a noun can be made more exact (“modified”) by words added directly before or after it. Words before will mostly be the/a or their substitutes (see 110. Nouns without “the” or “a”), and/or many adjective uses (see 184. Adjectives with Limited Mobility), and/or adjective-like nouns (see 38. Nouns Used like Adjectives). Possibilities after include preposition phrases, relative clauses, a few adjective uses, and statements introduced by the conjunction that (for a full list and analysis, see 252. Descriptive Wording after Nouns 1).

When two of the possibilities after a noun are together, one could be said to be interrupting the link that the other has with the noun. For example, preposition phrases usually come before relative clauses and hence can make the connection between the latter and the shared noun harder to see (see 28. Pronoun Errors, #3). Here is an example of how a noun can be separated from a following that statement by an interrupting participle phrase; it is analysed in detail in the Guinlist post 68. How Computers Get Grammar Wrong 1:

(c) Learner motivation may occur because of the possibility mentioned above that learners can enjoy reading aloud.

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4. Adjective Phrases

Like nouns, adjectives can be modified by words before and/or after them (see 203. Expanding an Adjective with Words after it). In the following example, the adjective happy is separated by the time expression at the time from a later modifier starting with with.

(d) The people were happy at the time with the government’s measures.

An interesting type of interruption sometimes exists when a to verb modifies an adjective before it, e.g. easy to understand. Although such phrases can follow the noun that the adjective is about, e.g. instructions easy to understand (see 109. Placing an Adjective after its Noun), they can also be interrupted by it, e.g. easy instructions to understand. For details of which adjectives allow this interruption and which do not (see 83. Adjectives before a “to” Verb).

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ANALYSIS OF A PROBLEM-CAUSING INTERRUPTED STRUCTURE

Not all interrupted structures are a problem in reading; but some are because I have observed their presence in extracts that learners of English have reported as difficult (see the technical article entitled What can learners tell us about their reading problems?). The length of the interruption may well be significant. Consider the following:

(e) This issue (of a journal) examines the courses and causes of fertility decline through history and the industrialization/food security conundrum in China, the world’s most populous country.

The interruption here is between the underlined article the and the noun it modifies. What exactly is this noun: industrialization, food, security or conundrum? In fact, there is a fairly easy rule that can help to show which: any article placed before closely-combined nouns like these goes with the last of them (see 38. Nouns Used Like Adjectives). So the here goes with conundrum (which means “puzzle” or “difficult choice”). The words industrialization and security are being used before it like adjectives to show what the difficult choice is between, and food is also being used like an adjective, saying what kind of security is meant.

Thus, the phrase the industrialization/food security conundrum in China means “the difficult choice in China between industrialisation and food security”. In other words, according to this writer more industrialisation in China means less food security, and more food security means less industrialisation, so that China has a difficult choice to make.

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PRACTICE IN HANDLING INTERRUPTED STRUCTURES

Here are some more interrupted structures that students have reported as difficult. How easily can you understand them? What is the interruption in each (answers below)?

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PROBLEM TEXTS

1. One new product in the grocery trade out of seven survives to the third year.

2. Marketing is a philosophy of running a business that should dominate every major decision.

3. Of equal … importance is the broader issue of the effects of what the information media communicate on individuals and on society.

4. How we relate to them depends to a great extent on their momentary requirements.

5. Part III addresses some of the sorts of reasons advanced for violating the law.

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ANSWERS

1. The interrupted phrase is One … out of seven, which expresses the idea of ¹/₇.

2. a philosophy … that … . The relative pronoun that goes with faraway philosophy, not the immediately preceding business (see 28. Pronoun Errors for more about this difficulty with relative pronouns).

3. effects of… on… . It is easy to decide that on goes with communicate, whereas in fact it goes with effects, there being many other words in between. You have to know that effects can precede of + cause and on + thing changed by the cause (see 10. Words with Unexpected Grammar, #c). The cause is what the information media communicate, which means “the things communicated by the information media”.

4. depends… on… . The words to a great extent (which themselves go closely together – see 164. Fixed Preposition Phrases) have separated this prepositional verb from its usual preposition.

5. reasons… for… . Advanced is separating the noun reasons from its typical following preposition for (see 111. Words with a Typical Preposition under “Noun-Preposition Combinations”). Advanced is usable as both an adjective meaning “sophisticated” and a verb in the participle form meaning “proposed” (see 261. Words with Complicated Grammar 3, #2). It has to be the verb here because it follows its noun, something that adjectives rarely do (see 245. Adjectives with a Participle Ending, #8).