Um, I'm not confident with the names, maybe using a word antecedent wrong:
"Use of singular noun in adverbial clause for plural antecedent?"
So please correct me if the title does not make sense at all.
A few light-less places where the occupants of a dwelling sat talking low night talk on their front porches.
An old grammar books in the back of my head are woofing that there is something sounding unfamiliar with the sentence because:
Places where the occupants of those places(a dwelling) sat talking low...
those places(those dwelling places) = a dwelling?
I'm guessing that "a dwelling" is used in the above sentence because it is meant to be something like a common noun rather than a concrete noun to signify "one single instance of a dwelling place".
And probably the author did not use zero article because he neither thought the dwellings are uniform enough to stripped off of individuality nor discrete enough from the other dwelling places in general.
English User Guides | David Appleyard
English User Guides | David Appleyard
Also as to why it is not "those dwellings" rather than "a dwelling", I am guessing, the author maybe barely wanted to add that the "places" are of a type that is called a dwelling and did not want to put much emphasis on the fact that the places are dwellings.
But I still do not know how I should be writing myself when I refer back to plural antecedent in adverbial clause because something is screaming in my head that "do not mess with plurality of words!!!".
I'm almost like a paranoid about this...
Thank you for reading and if anyone could help our of this, I will really appreciate.
"Use of singular noun in adverbial clause for plural antecedent?"
So please correct me if the title does not make sense at all.
A few light-less places where the occupants of a dwelling sat talking low night talk on their front porches.
An old grammar books in the back of my head are woofing that there is something sounding unfamiliar with the sentence because:
Places where the occupants of those places(a dwelling) sat talking low...
those places(those dwelling places) = a dwelling?
I'm guessing that "a dwelling" is used in the above sentence because it is meant to be something like a common noun rather than a concrete noun to signify "one single instance of a dwelling place".
And probably the author did not use zero article because he neither thought the dwellings are uniform enough to stripped off of individuality nor discrete enough from the other dwelling places in general.
English User Guides | David Appleyard
English User Guides | David Appleyard
Also as to why it is not "those dwellings" rather than "a dwelling", I am guessing, the author maybe barely wanted to add that the "places" are of a type that is called a dwelling and did not want to put much emphasis on the fact that the places are dwellings.
But I still do not know how I should be writing myself when I refer back to plural antecedent in adverbial clause because something is screaming in my head that "do not mess with plurality of words!!!".
I'm almost like a paranoid about this...
Thank you for reading and if anyone could help our of this, I will really appreciate.