Author Topic: 'That'  (Read 10806 times)

Miss Mae

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'That'
« on: June 25, 2012, 03:13:34 PM »
What should be the guideline when omitting that in a sentence?

[http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/news/top-stories/25510-chinese-ship-rams-ph-boat]While China said it would also ask its fishermen to leave the area, it stressed it had no intention of pulling out its bigger ships from there.[/http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/news/top-stories/25510-chinese-ship-rams-ph-boat]

Because with the phrase while China said it would also ask its fishermen to leave the area, having no 'that' between said and it sounds natural. But with the phrase it stressed it had no intention of pulling out its bigger ships from there, it isn't. Why is that?

Mwita Chacha

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Re: 'That'
« Reply #1 on: June 25, 2012, 06:47:56 PM »
They say that the word 'that' can be ommitted after a verb of attribution( said, stated, announced, disclosed, stressed) without a loss of meaning. For instance, it's not inccurate to write 'The minister has said he would open a case against the newspaper.' On the other hand,  'that' is not optional in the sentence 'The president announced (that) his new tax plan would be introduced soon.' Because without including 'that' in that sentence, the clause 'his new tax plan...' can be mistaken as direct object of verb 'announce.' Also, 'that' is not optional when one verb of attribution is shared by two thats, for example, in the sentence 'The minister said that he would open a case against the newspaper, and he would drag to the court all his attackers' the word 'that' should have been inserted after the second he for the sake of parallelism. As to whether the sentence you have given is correct or not, my view is yes it is grammatically airtight for one reason: It has used two different verbs of attribution, said and stressed, in two different clauses, one independent and the other dependent. You might recall clause being defined as a contruction consisting of a subject and a verb and bear its own meaning. Even if those two clauses had shared same verb of attribution, the inclusion of word 'that' in either clause would still be optional as long as the two clauses have different subjects.        
« Last Edit: June 27, 2012, 09:02:09 AM by Mwita Chacha »

Joe Carillo

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Re: 'That'
« Reply #2 on: June 26, 2012, 10:55:08 AM »
Great explanation, Mwita Chacha! Thanks for your instruction support to the Forum!

Miss Mae

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Re: 'That'
« Reply #3 on: June 26, 2012, 01:07:52 PM »
Thanks a lot, too!

Mwita Chacha

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Re: 'That'
« Reply #4 on: June 27, 2012, 12:42:29 AM »
I acknowledge both compliments! But, Sir, does it not seem that I have somewhat botched my explanation, especially in the final part of it? Indeed, I have come to think that in order to help the reader not mistake the clause 'it had no intention of pulling...' for a direct object of verb 'stressed,' the word 'that' is really necessary before 'it,' as it had been suggested by Miss Mae.
« Last Edit: June 27, 2012, 08:57:54 AM by Mwita Chacha »

Joe Carillo

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Re: 'That'
« Reply #5 on: June 29, 2012, 01:18:48 PM »
Many journalists or professional writers with a journalistic background routinely omit “that” in modifying clauses, as in this sentence taken by Miss Mae from a news report:

“While China said it would also ask its fishermen to leave the area, it stressed it had no intention of pulling out its bigger ships from there.”

Such sentences are a common elliptical form, particularly in spoken English. The unellipted form of the sentence above is, of course, this construction with the two missing “that’s” restored:

“While China said that it would also ask its fishermen to leave the area, it stressed that it had no intention of pulling out its bigger ships from there.”

A rule of thumb I use for such sentences is to avail of the ellipsis only (1) if the elimination of “that” won’t confuse the reader, and (2) if the resulting elliptical sentence reads and sounds better than the full-blown sentence.

I would say that if read aloud, the following fully ellipted version of that sentence would handily meet the two conditions I cited above:

“While China said it would also ask its fishermen to leave the area, it stressed it had no intention of pulling out its bigger ships from there.”

Even if “that” is absent after the verb “stressed,” there should be no problem understanding what is meant by the ellipted clause “it stressed it had no intention of pulling out its bigger ships from there” as articulated.

But what about if that sentence is silently read in print? My perception is that even if “that” is absent, there’s still no real danger of misconstruing the intended sense of the modifying clause “it had no intention of pulling out its bigger ships from there.” I would therefore say that the following doubly ellipted sentence is semantically airtight both in its written and spoken form:

“While China said it would also ask its fishermen to leave the area, it stressed it had no intention of pulling out its bigger ships from there.”

Still, it’s prudent to observe this caveat in doing elliptical constructions: When in doubt, don’t.

RELATED READING:
The virtue of elliptical constructions

Mwita Chacha

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Re: 'That'
« Reply #6 on: June 29, 2012, 01:56:10 PM »
Thank you! But I have a feeling that by always not leaving out 'that' in such constructions, we become more on safe side. As an illustration, I don't think  the following two sentences mean same thing: 'President Obama said yesterday he would visit Afghanistan' and 'President Obama said yesterday that he would visit Afghanistan.'