the position of 'carefully'

English grammar questions, answered by Alan

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Cosmos
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the position of 'carefully'

Post by Cosmos »

Hello, teacher!

Please help me with this.

1. He carefully opened the box that Jane [gave, had given] him for his birthday. [I know this is natural, isn't it?]
2. He opened the box carefully that Jane gave him for his birthday. [Is this also natural?]

Thank you very much.
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Alan
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Post by Alan »

Yes, the second is possible: with the restrictive relative clause separated from its referent noun, it exhibits a linguistic phenomenon known as 'extraposition'.

Incidentally, for formal usage, tense concord requires 'had given', otherwise it literally means that she always gave him a box for his birthday.
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