The event she left after

[Vladv]

Could you please explain why the sentence "He is the man that I depend on" sounds fine with stranding, whereas "This was the event she left after" sounds off. Does it have to do with the first sentence having a direct object after "depend on"? The problem is I was taught direct object and prepositonal phrase are different things.

 

[emsr2d2]

The only reason "This is the event she left after" sounds off is that I can't imagine a context in which anyone would say it. That's mainly because once an event is over, people leave. There's nothing unusual about leaving after an event.
However, if we change "event" to something else, it's OK. For example, let's say a woman called Helen was attending the BAFTA ceremony but decided to leave about halfway through, just after the award for "Best Light Entertainment Show". If I needed to explain to someone when she left, I'd say "That's the award she left after".

 

[Vladv]

The only reason "This is the event she left after" sounds off is that I can't imagine a context in which anyone would say it. That's mainly because once an event is over, people leave. There's nothing unusual about leaving after an event.
However, if we change "event" to something else, it's OK. For example, let's say a woman called Helen was attending the BAFTA ceremony but decided to leave about halfway through, just after the award for "Best Light Entertainment Show". If I needed to explain to someone when she left, I'd say "That's the award she left after".

Are there restrictions on when one should not strand in relative clause? Can we strand prepositons in their geometrical sense, like " This is the box that he left the toy car behind"?

 

[5jj]

We can.

 

[Vladv]

We can.

Thanks. Are there cases when technically stranding is possible but sounds off and thus to be avoided.

 

[emsr2d2]

Thanks. Are there cases when technically stranding is possible but sounds off and thus to be avoided?

Probably, but we're not going to spend time creating sentences that shouldn't be used. If you stumble across such a sentence somewhere in real-world writing, feel free to post it here (with the source) and ask us if we think it sounds "off". Bear in mind, though, that sounding "off" doesn't mean it's ungrammatical!

 

[Annabel Lee]

Are there restrictions on when one should not strand in relative clause?

If you're interested in ruining English sentences and saying things no one would ever say, one category of bad stranding would occur if one attempted to relativize the object of a noun-modifying prepositional phrase within the relative clause:

She placed the book on a chair near a table.​

?* This is the table that she placed the book on a chair near.​

"Near a table" modifies "chair" and has nothing to do with placing the book on the chair. Now, what happens if we use Pied Piping instead of stranding?

This is the table near which she placed the book on a chair.​

​

Interestingly, that one isn't ungrammatical at all, but it has a different meaning. It's not that it was a chair near a table that she placed the book on. Rather, the sentence expresses that her act of placing the book on a chair took place near the table.

 

[5jj]

I suppose that Morris Bishop could have pointed to a piece of furniture and said "That's the chair my preposition didn't come up from out of in under."


The Naughty Preposition by Morris Bishop

I lately lost a preposition:
It hid, I thought, beneath my chair.
And angrily I cried: “Perdition!
Up from out of in under there!”

Correctness is my vade mecum,
And straggling phrases I abhor;
And yet I wondered: “What should he come
Up from out of in under for?”

 

[embertmorton200]

Phrases like “the event she left after” can definitely sound a bit awkward when you first see them, but they actually make sense in casual English. People often drop extra words in conversation, so the full idea might be something like “the event that she left after.” It’s one of those small grammar shortcuts native speakers use all the time.