Puzzled by simple-looking sentence

Question

I found the sentence below confusing to analyse and wonder whether I have got it right.

'I sat writing down what John had told me.'

1. 'I sat' is the independent clause.
2. 'writing down what John had told me' is a participial adverbial phrase, modifying the verb 'sat'.
3. 'what John had told me' is a clause with: subject John, verb had told, object what, indirect object me.

I can't find much dicussion of 'what' except that it can imply 'that which'; in that case, what part of speech is it? I'd be very glad for any comment or correction.

Dokterjokkebrok · Accepted Answer

Hi,

I looked it up for you. 'What John had told me' is identified by Quirk & Greenbaum as a nominal relative clause. 'What' is classified as a pronoun, or more specifically, a nominalized relative pronoun. It is called that way because essentially it is a combination of 'that+which'. 'That' refers to a nominal reference of some kind. Such sentences can always be rewritten into 'that+which'.

'I sat down writing down that which John had told me.

Quirk & Greenbaum, A Student's Grammar of the English Language, 1990, pp 109-110

Hugh Riddle · Answer

Thanks dokterjokkebrok, that really helped me understand that one.

Fivejedjon · Answer

Others would say that it is a fused relative.

Huddleston & Pullum, (2002.1068-79) The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, Cambridge: CUP

RandomGuy · Answer

And according to CGEL, fused relatives are phrases, not clauses.

Puzzled by simple-looking sentence

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