Thursday, January 21, 2016

Is there a name for the practice of placing too many phrases/clauses between the subject and verb of a sentence?

I recently had a discussion with a coworker while editing a document, wherein I thought a sentence was hard to read, because the subject was separated from the verb by a large dependent clause describing it.



I was looking for discussion and guidance about this issue, but I don't know if it has a concise name.



Example:




The girl whose mother had brought a fresh tray of delicious lemon cookie bars to class a week ago wrote a book report.





I realize this is an especially rambly run-on sentence, and is purposefully so, as an exaggeration of what I am trying to illustrate. The core meaning of the sentence, "The girl wrote a book report," is so confounded by having to straddle that huge mess in the middle.



So, is there a specific name for this?

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