Clauses of Place

There appears to be only one way of introducing such clauses, and this is by means of the relative adverb where, and in a very few cases by the phrase from where. For instance, .. Miss Dolly insisted on looking into all the cupboards and behind the curtains to see, as she' said, "if there were any eyes or ears where they -were not Canted." (A. WILSON) This way of indicating (he whereabouts of

"eyes or ears" serves to characterize it by referring to a situation expressed by the subordinate clause, rather than to indicate the precise places meant, Then go where you usually sleep at night, (E. CALDWELL) Here the room where the person addressed is asked to go is characterized by what takes place there.

Here is an example of a prepositional where-clause denoting-place in the literal sense of the term: From where he stood, leaning in an attitude of despair against the parapet of the terrace, Denis had seen them. . . (HUXLEY) The clause from ... the terrace denotes the place from which the action of the main clause (Denis had seen) was performed. Occasions for this particular way of denoting the place of an action appear to be rather rare. Here, however, is another example; / gathered up my damp briefcase and ancient mackintosh and made my way down to where a thin penetrating drizzle swept the streets from the direction of the sea. (DURRELL).

Here are some more examples: But Magnus stayed where he was... (LINKLATER) But Meiklejohn lay where he had fallen. (Idem) This time she did not wave gaily, but went directly to where he stood... (E. CALDWELL)

Occasionally a wAere-clause can be used together with an adverb indicating place, as in the sentence "Come on here where I am, honey," Lujean called, at the same time beckoning urgently to her. <E, CALDWELL) The adverbial modifier here would seem to indicate clearly enough where the speaker wants her friend to come, so the clause where I am serves to state the point more emphatically, rather than give any essentially new information.

There has been some discussion whether the word where introducing a subordinate clause of place is an adverb or a conjunction. The latter view was suggested by a certain analogy with the conjunction when introducing clauses of time. However, the possibility of the word where being preceded by the preposition from, as in some of the above examples, is a definite argument against its being a conjunction.

The number of sentences with an adverbial clause of place is negligible as' compared with those containing an adverbial clause o time. The cause of this is plain enough. It is only in exceptional cases that the speaker or writer deems it necessary to denote the place of an action by referring to another action which occurred at the same place. In the vast majority of cases he will rather indicate the place by directly naming it (at home, in London, at the nearest shop, and so forth). Sentences with adverbial clauses of place are therefore used only in cases where the speaker or writer avoids naming the place of the action, or in sentences of a generalizing character, or again in sentences where the place is perhaps hard to define and the name is unimportant

Clauses of place can also be used in a metaphorical sense, that is, the "place" indicated may not be a place at all in the literal meaning of the word but a certain generalized condition or sphere of action. This of course is made clear by the context, that is, by the lexical meanings of the other words in the sentence. Compare the following sentences. Where people wish to attach, they should always be ignorant. (J. AUSTEN) Wherever the choice has had to be made between the man of reason and the madman, the world has unhesitatingly followed the madman. (DURRELL) Both the adverb wherever and the meaning of the sentence as a whole show that not a concrete place but a general review of conditions is meant.

Two very well known sentences are also cases in point: the proverb Where there is a will there is a way and the famous line from Thomas Gray's poem "On a Distant Prospect of Eton College": Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise.

It is of no special importance whether we shall term such clauses of metaphorical meaning clauses of place or invent a new term to denote them. Anyway, there would seem to be no basic objection to give them that name, provided we keep in mind that spatial xnotions are apt to be interpreted metaphorically.