I have a question concerning the following example:
By coincidence, the Finnish results were released at the same
time that an American study found the cancer-fighting potential
of a chemical
in broccoli known as…
With the prepositional phrase beginning with at, where
does the phrase end? Is it "time" or is it "potential"?
Is "that" beginning a subordinate adverb clause which would
therefore modify the word "time", or am I mistaken?
Posted 28 February 2003
The first question is: “With the prepositional phrase
beginning with at where does the phrase end? Is it
'time' or
is it 'potential'??br>
A prepositional phrase has to have a noun or pronoun as
object of the preposition. The prepositional phrase is “at
the same time,?and thus ends with the noun time.
The next question is: “Is 'that' beginning a subordinate adverb clause
which would therefore modify the word 'time', or am I mistaken??
You are almost right. The clause is not an adverb clause per
se, it is a relative clause. But it is
not an adjective clause. You are correct, however, as to
type: it is an adverbial relative clause. Here is
why:
If the clause that an American study found the cancer-fighting
potential of a chemical in broccoli known as. . . were
indeed an adjective clause (which it is not), the word that would
have to stand for either the subject or the object of the clause.
That would stand for the subject, as in this example
from another sentence:
at the same time that seemed
convenient (subject)
or that would stand for the
object as in the example from this sentence:
at the same time that
they specified (direct object)
But the clause you presented already
has a subject—"study"—and
an object—"potential"—so
there's no adjective clause role for the word that.
Furthermore, the example sentence could be paraphrased as
By coincidence, the Finnish results were released at the
same time as an American study found the
cancer- fighting potential of a chemical in broccoli known
as?
With the use of as instead of that,
it becomes clear that the relative clause with that is
not an adjective clause but an adverbial relative
clause. Other similar examples include*:
At the same time as we
started using the concept of cyberfeminism,it also began
to appear in other parts of
the world.
These are updated at the same time as the daily
graphs above are added
Can I get my other vaccines at the same time as I
get the flu vaccine?
Marilyn Martin
_________
*These examples are taken from a Google search.