88. Exotic Grammar Structures 1

Some English grammar structures are unlikely to be described in language coursebooks

COMMON AND NOT SO COMMON GRAMMAR STRUCTURES

Some English grammar structures are used much less commonly than others. Consider this example:

(a) Air quality is poor in large cities, there are so many motor vehicles.

This is a slightly informal variant of the familiar so/such … that … combination used to express a consequence (see 32. Expressing Consequences). With that combination, the sentence would be:

(b) There are so many motor vehicles in large cities that air quality is poor.

The essentials of the structure shown in (a) are two separate statements, each with a verb (in this case is … are), and a comma between them. In addition, the second statement must express a cause of what is said by the first, and must contain either so or such (depending on whether or not there is a following noun). Readers might like to try putting this new sentence into the same structure:

(c) Stars are such a distance away that they cannot be reached in a spaceship.

Rewritten in the less usual way, this becomes:

(d) Stars cannot be reached in a spaceship, they are such a distance away.

This post presents and analyses a number of other similarly unusual English grammar structures. For more, see 159. EGS 2,  191. EGS 3,  207. EGS 4,  228. EGS 5,  247. EGS 6,  269. EGS 7,  289. EGS8 and 311. EGS9.

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LIST OF STRUCTURES

1. “But for”

EXAMPLE

But for the river, the enemy WOULD HAVE captured the town.

This use of but is similar to that meaning “except” (see 215. Naming Exceptions). The underlined words mean “if the river had not existed”. But for thus means “if … not existed” and hence introduces a condition (see also 159. Exotic Grammar Structures 2, #6). Grammatically it is a preposition (see 221. Multi-Word Prepositions).

The verb implied by but for will be in either the past perfect had tense (as here) or the past simple, depending on whether or not the main verb contains have. Here is an example where the main verb lacks have, so that but for implies the past simple tense:

(e) Life would be impossible on earth but for the atmosphere. (= …if the atmosphere did not exist).

As a preposition, but for needs a noun or equivalent directly after. This means verbs need either to have -ing (see 70. Gerunds) or to follow the fact that (see 153. Conjunction Uses of “that”), e.g. …but for the fact that IT HAS the atmosphere.

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2. “Just because … does not mean”

EXAMPLE

Just because prices are high does not mean (that) sales will fall.

This combination is often preferred to the normal use of because (see 61. “Since” versus “Because”) for denying an expected consequence. It involves a highly unusual sentence subject: not a noun or noun equivalent (see 12. Singular and Plural Verb Choices), but a conjunction (just because) followed by its own separate subject and verb. Some speakers do add it (after high in the example above) but many do not.

Note that just because is usually made into a subject like this only when the verb is does not mean (or a synonym like does not entail/prove); other verbs require a “proper” subject to be added.

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3. Imperative Verb + “and” + Statement

EXAMPLE

Break the speed limit and a fine will have to be paid.

This sentence illustrates another alternative to conditional if: a verb in the “imperative” form, like break, linked by and to a following statement. For full details of imperative verbs, see 128. Imperative Verbs in Formal Writing. With if, the sentence would be:

(f) If you break the speed limit, a fine will have to be paid.

Not every use of if can be replaced by an imperative verb. The if verb must usually, it seems, express an action rather than a state. An example of a state after if is If demand is constant….

For another use of and between non-parallel structures, see 289. Exotic Grammar Structures 8, #5.

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4. “there to be”

EXAMPLES

The government want there to be more taxes.

Tax rises will cause there to be more poverty.

Saying there to be instead of there is/was seems strange, but follows the ordinary English grammar rule of changing a verb into the infinitive form (with to) in situations that typically require one.

To understand the situation in the example sentences, it is first necessary to appreciate that there before BE is generally like a noun (some grammarians even say it is the grammatical subject of BE – see 161. Special Uses of “There” Sentences). In the example sentences, the verbs before there (want and cause) are both of the kind that can be followed by a noun + other verb, provided the other verb is in the to (infinitive) form (see 208. Verbs with an Object + Infinitive). Hence they can precede there with BE, but the latter must become to be.

Sometimes, instead of there to be, it is necessary to write there being:

(g) The need for safety involves there being a supervisor at the scene.

Of course, the reason for the -ing form here is a preceding verb (INVOLVE) which typically requires any following verb to have it.

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5. Adjective/Adverb + “though”

EXAMPLES

Difficult though it is to exercise, doing so brings benefits.

Quickly though a gazelle can run, it cannot outpace a cheetah.

Though is a conjunction with the unusual ability to go either in the typical conjunction position at the start of its part of a sentence (Though it is difficult to exercise, …: see 40. Conjunctions versus Connectors), or after a starting adjective or adverb as above. The latter use gives special focus to the adjective or adverb, highlighting the contrast with what the main part of the sentence is saying (compare difficult-brings benefits above).

Although and as (= although) are also found in the above position. The former is probably less frequent there; the latter can go nowhere else (see 228. Exotic Grammar Structures 5, #5).

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6. “Be it/Be they … or …”

EXAMPLE

Be they young or old, everyone should be vaccinated.

In this use, be starts an adverb-like phrase saying that neither of two opposite ideas within it is relevant to the main point of the sentence. Thus, the message of the above example is that people’s age does not affect their need to be vaccinated.

This sort of be phrase is parenthetical, with punctuation before and after. It can occupy the start, middle or end of a sentence. Be is always its first word, and is always followed by a subject (they above). The subject is very often a pronoun, referring to the subject of the main verb (everyone). It is usually followed by two or-linked expressions, representing the opposite ideas. These describe the subject and as such are complements of be. Like most complements, they can be either adjectives, like young or old above, or nouns (see 220. Features of Complements, #2).

One kind of be subject that can differ from that of the main verb is it representing a situation or time:

(h) Be it summer or winter, top athletes have to train.

Be used in ordinary statements instead of is or are is an example of the rare verb category known as the “subjunctive”. There are some other subjunctive forms and uses elsewhere in this blog in 118. Problems with Conditional “if” (last paragraph), 228. Exotic Grammar Structures 5, #4, 247. Exotic Grammar Structures 6, #5, and 269. Exotic Grammar Structures 7, #7 For other structures resembling the above in meaning, see 199. Importance and Unimportance, #6 and #7.

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7. “With” + Noun + “-ing”

EXAMPLE

The war was waged by the army, with the air force staying at home.

The second half of this sentence means “…while the air force stayed at home”; with hence means “while” rather than “alongside”. It is one of various prepositions that can link two events or situations with the same time (see 225. Simultaneous Occurrence, #4).

The words after this use of with must fit particular requirements. The noun (the air force) must be somehow related to the subject noun of the main verb (the army). The relation here is obvious. Secondly, this noun must be the subject of a participle (here staying) rather than of an ordinary tense form. For a further example, see 3. Multi-Use Words, #3.

An ordinary tense form would be needed if while was used instead of with (…while the air force stayed…), because while is a conjunction (see 174. Eight Things to Know about Conjunctions, #1). The possibility of paraphrasing prepositions with conjunctions is common in English – see 84. Seven Things to Know about Prepositions, #4.

An important aspect of this structure is its position at the end of the sentence. If the sentence begins with the with part, the meaning of “because” is created instead of “while”: that the army in the example waged the war because the air force stayed at home (see sentence #e in 72. Causal Prepositions). Here is another example, this time with an -ed participle:

(i) With their work finished, the labourers started to drift away.

This is a shorter way of saying their work having been finished (see the end of 75. How to Avoid “Dangling” Participles).
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8. “It is important” + Indirect Question

EXAMPLE

It is important which company lands the contract.

This is an unusual form of the sentence type examined in depth in 103. Representing a Later Statement with “it”. The starting It represents a later statement (which company lands the contract), which we understand as the “real” subject of the main verb (is important). The reason why the represented statement is not itself placed at the start is its length.

What makes this example unusual is that the represented statement is an indirect question (see 57. Indirect Questions in Formal Writing) rather than an ordinary statement after that. The question word (which) has the same conjunction role as that, or as the -ing or to form of a verb, as in the following:

(j) It is painful seeing/to see so much suffering.

What is also unusual, as a result of the indirect question form, is that it does not correspond exactly to the words after important: you have to understand the question of before them. It is this that is being called important, rather than “the company that lands the contract”.

Note that the question word in this use of indirect questions cannot be paraphrased with a noun, as it can in other uses (see 185. Noun Synonyms of Question Words): you cannot say the company landing the project instead of the which question above.

Instead of it is important, you can say it matters or it makes a difference (see 199. Importance and Unimportance, #1). Important by itself can also be replaced by various other adjectives, for example vital, essential, crucial, interesting, tricky, unresolved, unknown and perhaps urgent (for more, see 219. Wording next to Indirect Questions, #3). Example sentences are:

(k) It is tricky where to go next.

(l) It is unknown who will be elected.

87. “Same As” versus “Same That”

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The same foods that doctors recommend are the least
popular with children

It is sometimes right to use “that” instead of “as” after “the same”

RIGHT & WRONG LINK WORDS AFTER “the same”

Most readers will know the right word to put into the blank space in this sentence:

(a) Britain’s climate is the same … New Zealand’s.

In a recent post about comparisons (82. Pitfalls in Making Comparisons), I stated that the normal word used after same is as. It would certainly be wrong to use any other word in (a) above. The reason why I felt a need to emphasise this is that some speakers whose mother tongue is not English occasionally say that or like or with or of instead of as.

The reason for the incorrect use of that seems at first sight to be one of “first language transfer”: following the rules of another language in English instead of English ones. However, further investigation into this problem suggests to me that English itself may be as much to blame for it as other languages. This is because even English allows that after the same in some situations. I have been unable to find any grammar-book explanations that make this clear, let alone explain when it happens, but I have certainly been able to find and construct correct-seeming examples of it, and I have some hypotheses about when it is necessary.

In this post I wish to compare and contrast the correct uses of that and as after the same in English.

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RIGHT AND WRONG USES OF “same that”

Here are some correct uses of that after the same:

(b) The colour was the same (one) THAT always appears.

(c) The same foods THAT doctors recommend are the least popular (ones) with children.

If these sentences are compared with (a), which has as, a noticeable difference is the presence of two verbs in them (underlined) instead of just one. The reason is that that is a “joining device” – a word needing to be accompanied by a verb additional to the main verb of the sentence (see 30. When to Write a Full Stop). The exact type of joining device that that is here is a relative pronoun – replaceable by which without much change (see  34. Relative Pronouns and Commas).

However, this grammatical difference between the sentence with same as and the ones with same that is not the explanation of the use of same that. It only explains why as rather than that is necessary in (a). One problem is that same as can be used before a verb just like same that – indeed even sentence (a) could have is added at the end. More importantly, many sentences with same that can be paraphrased to make same as possible – even necessary – and vice versa. Sentences (a) and (c), for example, can be reworded like this:

(d) Britain’s climate is the same (one) that New Zealand has.

(e) The same foods as the ones which doctors recommend are the least popular (ones) with children.

The explanation of why sentences (a) and (c) are more likely than (d) and (e) may be one of meaning rather than grammar. Fundamentally, sentences with the same are always talking about two things. In (a) these are Britain’s climate and New Zealand’s climate, in (b) they are a colour appearing now and a colour that always appears, and in (c) they are foods recommended by doctors and foods that children do not like. The key difference is whether the two things mentioned each time are in reality a single thing (mentioned twice) or two different things. The first case is not a comparison, and prefers that; while the latter is one and uses as.

Consider again sentence (a). This is a comparison sentence. Britain and New Zealand each have their own climate – Britain’s is not New Zealand’s and New Zealand’s is not Britain’s. We say that the climates are “the same” because they look the same. In sentences (b) and (c), however, we are talking about the same thing twice. The colour appearing now does not just look the same as the one that always appears – it is it.

The difference might be clearer in the following two sentences:

(f) The murder weapon was the same that had been used before.

(g) The murder weapon was the same as the one used before.

According to (f), a single weapon was used twice, while in (g), a different weapon was used each time but they looked the same. It might have been the same kind of gun, for example.

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PREPONDERANCE OF “same as”

The use of same as is shown by a computer text analyzer (for example that of the British National Corpus) to be much more frequent than that of same that. A major reason for this, I think, is that in many cases the distinction presented in (f) and (g) is not so easy to make, and that same as, being more concise, is preferred when doubt exists. In other words, the special meaning of same that has to be very clear and important before those words are preferred. Here is a sentence where perhaps it is not, so that same as is used instead:

(h) Pronouns have almost the same properties as nouns (BETTER THAN … the same properties that nouns have).

Sometimes, however, the same as is preferred more for grammatical reasons – separate from the question of whether or not there is a following verb. One of these is the occurrence of the same in an adverb role instead of its more normal adjective or pronoun one, as in this example:

(i) The king acted the same as he had in his youth.

This is an adverb use because it says how the action of a verb (acted) was carried out; the same as means in the same way as (see 120. Six Things to Know about Adverbs). A sentence like this cannot easily be rephrased with same that.

Another grammatical situation that seems to demand the same as instead of the same that is where that would be a “complement” of a following verb, like this:

(j) The king was not the same as he had been in his youth.

Consider here the underlined verb had been. Its subject is he. If that were present instead of as, it would be the complement of had been (complements in general are nouns or pronouns or adjectives that rename or describe the subject of a verb like BE – see 220. Features of Complements). Using that as a complement above feels slightly unnatural. Here is another example:

(k) The house seems the same as it did last year.

Another feature of sentences like this is that the subject and verb after as (underlined) can be left out.

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PRACTICE EXERCISE: “same as” VERSUS “same that”

Decide whether as or that is needed in each gap below. Answers are given afterwards.

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1. Remedial language tutoring involves essentially the same techniques ……… doctors use for diagnosing illnesses.

2. French verbs change their forms in almost the same way ………. Spanish ones.

3. The animals in wall paintings are the same ………. those whose bones have been found nearby.

4. The same ideas ………. Plato put forward 2500 years ago still influence some modern thinking.

5. In cooler climates, most trees do not look the same in winter ………. they do in summer.

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Answers

1. that (identical idea mentioned twice; presence of a second verb use);   2. as (adverbial use of same as; no following verb);   3. as (non-identical ideas; no following verb – have been found does not count because it already has the joining device whose);   4. that (identical idea mentioned twice; presence of a second verb put);    5. as (that in its place would be a complement).