A Reduced Clause is Not a Skinny Santa (Part II: Weird Adjective Clauses)

In Part I, I described how most adjective clauses are reduced.  This is very important information, but kind of boring.  Now I’d like to show you some of the weird, wacky, wonderful ways to use reduced adjective clauses.  You’ll see them a lot when you read, especially in literature, but kids, don’t try these at home.  (Professional writer - closed course.)


This first one is pretty vanilla, but I realized I didn’t give any examples of reduced non-defining clauses.  I’m sure you were tossing and turning all night last night worrying about this.

• In the following days, Magellan, inflamed with biblical fervor, destroyed other idols arrayed along the shore, and incited the agitated islanders to follow his example.  (Over the Edge of the Earth)

This one actually has two reduced adjective clauses.  (Can you find them?  No peeking.)  The first one is the non-defining clause.  In its full glory, the clause would read Magellan, who was inflamed with....  It is a non-defining clause because Magellan is a proper noun (capitalized name).  The second one is idols that were arrayed....  This one is a defining clause (without commas) because idols is a general, non-specific noun.


Here is another non-defining clause with a non-action verb that has been changed to a gerund.

• Phil and Mac, realizing that Louie was going to get his head ripped off, grabbed the oars and bumped the sharks away while Louie splashed about, trying to drown the lice.  (Unbroken)

The full version of the adjective clause would be Phil and Mac, who realized that....  Again, nothing spectacular, but a couple of extra examples never hurt.  One interesting thing that I’ve found in doing this “research” over the past year or so is that every writer has their own grammatical tendencies.  One writer will use tons of gerund phrases while another will use very few.  One writer reduces everything while another rarely does.  Over the Edge of the Earth has lots and lots of appositives and adjective clauses while Unbroken has many more noun clauses.  (Maybe I’m the only one nerdy enough to notice or care about this.)


One of the more interesting “discoveries” I made while looking at all of these sentences was that not all adjective clauses come directly after the noun they modify.  For example:

• Increasingly desperate to find the strait, Magellan scrutinized every inlet, hoping it might contain a hidden channel leading inland...  (Over the Edge of the Earth)

This sentence begins with the adjective desperate, which seems strange at first glance.  This is actually a reduced SVC clause that describes Magellan’s feelings.  The original pre-reduction sentence would read:

• Magellan, who was increasingly desperate to find the strait, scrutinized every inlet...

In the original form, the action scrutinized, which is most important, is being interrupted by the emotion desperate.  By fronting desperate, the author is setting the mood of the sentence and letting the action flow more smoothly, without interruption.  (BTW - Did you notice the second reduced clause in the original sentence?  Hoping it might contain a hidden channel that led inland...)


Another interesting type, which I discussed in Part I, is putting an adjective AFTER a noun rather than in front of the noun, which is far more common.  One simple example is the adjective after an indefinite pronoun.

• I feel like having something spicy for dinner.

In this extremely simple example, the adjective spicy, which started in the adjective clause that is spicy, must go after something because usually you cannot put an adjective in front of a pronoun.  But why would you do this with nouns?  One reason is simply literary style.  The author just likes the sound of it.  It works in literature, but I don’t recommend it for formal academic or business writing.  The second reason is shown in this sentence.

• The slave labor at Naoetsu was the kind of work that swallowed men’s souls, but the prisoners found ways to score little victories so essential to their physical and emotional survival.  (Unbroken)

The phrase could have been written as essential little victories.  However, the information about physical and emotional survival is extremely important.  If the author put essential in front of victories, he would not have been able to include this information.  In order to include the infinitive phrase, the adjective had to be put after the noun as a reduced adjective clause.


Finally, here’s an example that, after a LOT of head scratching, I think I’ve finally figured out.

• ...the ill will between Spain and Portugal led to rumors that the lives of the Portuguese co-commanders were in danger.  (Over the Edge of the Earth)

At first glance, it seems pretty straightforward.  The adjective clause begins with rumors that.  But is it really an adjective clause?  The answer is YES and NO.  The first rule of adjective clauses is that the relative pronoun (who, which, that, etc.) has the same meaning as the noun that it follows.  For example.

• the dress that my wife is wearing (that = dress)
• the students who sit in the back of the room (who = students)

However, in this case, does that mean rumor?  If you take the entire clause out of the sentence, without that, this is what you are left with.

• The lives of the Portuguese co-commanders were in danger.

Nothing seems to be missing.  Now, try the same thing with the simple adjective clauses I wrote

• My wife is wearing
• sit in the back of the room

Clearly something is missing in these.  Furthermore, how could you add the word rumor to the clause about the co-commanders?  You can’t.  So what in blazes is going on?  This is what I’ve discovered.


Is the clause, as written, an adjective clause?  No.  It’s a NOUN CLAUSE.  You could rewrite this sentence this way: They heard that the lives of the Portuguese co-commanders were in danger.  Clearly in this sentence, it is a noun clause because it comes after the verb heard.  However, it is also a reduced SVC adjective clause.  When you put the reduced words back into the clause, this is what you get.

• ...the ill will between Spain and Portugal led to rumors, which were that the lives of the Portuguese co-commanders were in danger.

In other words, the rumors were that their lives were in danger.  The complement of this clause is a noun clause.  In the immortal words of Gus Portokalos, “There you go.”  Here are some other examples of this structure that I have found.

• [Magellan] agreed to free Cartagena on condition that Mendoza confine him aboard Victoria.  (Over the Edge of the Earth)
• Despite the many indications that they had found nothing but a large river...  (Over the Edge of the Earth)
• ...[Louie] had been filled with the rushing fear that he would lose her.  (Unbroken)
• ...citizens...were relentlessly indoctrinated with the lesson that to be captured in war was intolerably shameful.  (Unbroken)

Pretty cool, dontcha think?  In conclusion, reduced adjective clauses are like dogs.  (Huh?)  They come in many shapes and sizes and you see them everywhere, but they all come from the same common ancestor.  (The wolf.  Get it?)