IN last week's column we discussed the resumptive modifier. We saw that by using a key word in the main clause as the subject or theme of the relative phrases that come after it, we can eliminate verbal sprawl and construct more emphatic sentences. That repeating key word is the resumptive modifier, and it can take the form of a noun, verb, or adjective central to the idea of the main clause, as "woman" does in this sentence: "She was a woman of a few thoughts, a woman of a few words, a woman with not a single bit of true feeling or informed opinion in her."
Contrast that sentence with this one that's overly laden with relative clauses: "She was a woman of a few thoughts who was capable of saying only a few words and who did not have a single bit of true feeling or informed opinion in her."
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