Jack: Yeah, that's the feeling I get from that "It was (prepositional) that (something happened)" construction.
I found a reference to the construction in Fowler, talking about relative and conjunction clauses. The sense I'm using the construction is the conjunction clause, and I'm pretty sure it's what Fowler is calling "an artificial perversion":
15. It was in this spring, too, that the plague broke out. C.
16. Accordingly, it was with much concern that I presently received a note informing me of his departure. C.
...
Examples 15 and 16, though quite recognized types, are really artificial perversions. In 15 the true question and answer in the circumstances would be, not, as the sentence falsely implies, 'When did the plague break out?' 'That too happened in this same spring', but 'Were there any other notable events in this spring?' 'Yes: the plague broke out'. Impressiveness is given to the announcement by the fiction that the reader is wondering when the plague broke out; in fact, he is merely waiting for whatever may turn up in the history of this spring. In 16 we go still further: the implied question, 'What were your feelings on receiving a (not the) note...?' could not possibly be asked; the information that alone could prompt it is only given in the 'that' clause.
I still don't know what that "was" is doing there that couldn't be served by moving the whole preposition to the end of the clause. (The plague broke out in this spring.) |
