Founded in 1690 by Prince Constantine Brancoveanu, the monastery of Horezu is a masterpiece of the 'Brancovenesti' style.
Founded in 1690 by Prince Constantine Brancoveanu: = beta
the monastery of Horezu is a masterpiece of the 'Brancovenesti' style: alpha
ie The elaborating dependent clause is a non-defining relative clause with Mood element ellipsis, fronted for Thematic purposes.
—
Only one person on Sysfling got this one right:
Thomas Bloor wrote:
Sorry this is two days late and people have moved on to other interesting data, but I think it’s important to add that ‘Founded in 1690 by Prince Constantine Brancoveanu’ is non-defining. This makes it a dependent, as opposed to an embedded clause, so not rankshifted into the nominal group that it precedes. So yes, relative, and yes fronted, if that isn’t too Chomskyan, but not rankshifted.. If written, it would be set off with commas and if spoken by appropriate intonation, exactly like a full non-defining clause. I believe this means it is not a Modifier/Qualifier. I’m not proposing this as the only possible analysis – circumstantials spring to mind. As David says, co-text matters.
