Saturday, 25 July 2015

grammaticality - Is "such as occurred in" in a parenthetical sentence correct?

I would consider such use to be colloquial at best and I'm unsurprised to see that the OP is quoting from a Wikipedia page. However, thanks to Ngrams, I've just had the proverbial rugs (I try to double-rug myself when on ELU) pulled from under my feet:



such as occurred in



The blue worm represents "such as occurred" which has apparently seen consistent use right from ~1800. The red, signifying "such as those that occurred", is practically flat-lined until the 1960s. Other alternatives including "such as the one that occurred", "such as the ones that occurred", etc. barely register in the plot. "Like those that occurred" and its variants fare better, albeit on a similar scale.



A few relevant excerpts from (Google) books which employ the phrase such as occurred in:



2012: The Oxford Handbook of Latin American Political Economy




A third path is when political elites split, and agree to democratize in order to avoid violence (Bardhan 1993), such as occurred in Colombia. A final path is that democratic institutions develop and thrive when public goods become more highly ...




1941: Grain prices and the futures market: a 15-year survey, 1923-1938




The records disclose instead either concurrent price and large-scale position changes, such as occurred in March and April 1925, or an absence of any definite relationship. Added insight into the character of large-scale trading can be ...




1885: Medical and Surgical Reporter




The cases I am about to report, are such as occurred in my practice during the past four years. From 1875 to 1881, we had eight different times, attempted the removal of pieces of gun cap, iron or steel, from the vitreous by aid of forceps.




1855: The American journal of the medical sciences: Volume 29




Some pigment was also found external to the vessels, and perhaps was the residuum of punctiform hemorrhages, but no fresh punctiform hemorrhages, such as occurred in the brain, were ever seen in the kidneys. The pigment was found, ...




1819: Voyage to South America




In being released from the shackles of their old system, and without any settled re-organization of government, it was natural to be expected, that during the sway of the passions, scenes such as occurred in France, would take place.




Google Books returns 863,000 results for "such as occurred" versus 24,300 for "such as those that occurred".



These surprises should mean that I ought to stand corrected. I am, however, unable to bring myself to do it. So, somebody please find something wrong with this entire exercise. I, for one, will be extremely receptive.

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