Do You Know?

The effect will be nil, zilch! Nothing in this country makes any difference. We are here; we exist from day to day, so why bother about anything, particularly a stupid little thing like English grammar? We have been doing without it all these long years; we can continue to do without it.

“Whey you come out from?”

Let me quote for you the piece of writing which I should like to discuss. It concerns the fire in which a mother and her two daughters perished.

“Fire officers visiting the scene yesterday, said that they received a call at about 10.15 pm and responded immediately.

Upon arrival, fire had already razed most of the roof...

It is this last sentence beginning “Upon arrival” that contains the grammatical mistake. It is a common one, and correcting it will in no way affect the result of the fire. The woman and her two children died. I understand that. But I see no harm in letting would-be scholars know what is wrong about the construction. Others who are not would-be scholars need not try to assimilate it.

As I said before, it will not affect the price of cheese, and I may add, it will not affect the chances of your getting a job either as a writer or as a proof-reader.

Now down to the nitty-gritty of English grammar for would-be scholars!

The expression “Upon arrival” is known as a prepositional phrase. A phrase, unlike a clause, does not have a subject of its own and a finite verb, as for example in “When the fire brigade (subject) arrived (finite verb.)”

However, a prepositional phrase always refers to the subject of the sentence. The subject of that particular sentence is “fire,” and the verb is “had already razed.”

That is quite simple to understand, whether you are a scholar or not, isn’t it?

Since, as I said, a prepositional phrase always refers to the subject of the sentence, and the subject of the relevant sentence is “fire,” then what the construction implies is that the fire had arrived, which is nonsense. It is the “fire officers” who had arrived.

Corrected, this is how the whole passage should read:

“Fire officers visiting the scene yesterday, said that they received a call at about 10.15 pm and responded immediately.

When the officers arrived (a clause with its own subject and finite verb), fire had already razed most of the roof.”

Here is a favourite sentence teachers use to illustrate the use of the “misrelated participle,” in other words, the participle that does not relate to the real subject of the sentence.

“Walking down the road, the telephone post fell on the woman.”

“The telephone post” being the subject of the sentence, what is implied there is that the telephone post was walking down the road.

Corrected, that would be, “As the woman was walking down the road, the telephone post fell on her.”

Please check Hilo Food Stores now, and then save this article until next week.