[Grammar] That-structures (that why, that what, that when, that where)

[dawnngcm]

I saw an e-news write,
“Police said that when they found Davis, she denied involvement and admitted to using oxycodone, a controlled drug similar to morphine that can be used as apain-killer but is often abused by addicts.”

I surfed on internet and found many similar sentence structures like “that why”, “that where”, “that what”. However, it is very rare examples I could find in dictionaries or grammar books.

Are these kind of sentence structures the natural English/grammatically correct sentences?

 

[bhaisahab]

It's fine. Read it as "said that" and "when they". "Police said that - when they found..."

 

[dawnngcm]

Is "that when..." the noun clause of "Police said"?

I checked "Understanding and Using English Grammar" by Betty S. Azar & Stacy A. Hagen, it seems they have similar structures.

 

[TheParser]

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

Hello,

May I contribute my two bits (very humble opinion).

Let's look at:

"The police said that, when they found Davis, she denied involvement."

1. I think that the noun clause "that she denied involvement" is the object of the verb "said."

2. I think that "when they found Davis" is an adverbial clause modifying the verb "denied."

a. Question: When did Ms. Davis deny involvement?

b. Answer: When they found her.

Please note that "when they found Davis" should be surrounded by commas. The e-news writer forgot the comma after "that."

As you know, the "that" is not even necessary: "The police said, when they found Davis, she denied involvement."


P.S. We could even say: "The police said that Ms. Davis denied involvement when they found her."

 

[dawnngcm]

Wow! My writing problems would be much smaller if I have this meticulous attention, logical thinking and many good grammar books as you have.

Thanks for your enlightenment:up::-D!

 

[Matthew Wai]

Besides grammar books, there are grammar sites explaining adverb clauses.
http://www.chompchomp.com/terms/adverbclause.htm
http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/parts-of-speech/adverbs/adverb-clauses.html