A second essential function vision serves is to facilitate major changes. Is the sentence grammatical?

Question

I came across this sentence and am not sure whether it is grammatical. It looks like the clause "a second essential function vision serves" functions as a subject and is embedded into the outer clause.

[[A second essential function vision serves] is to facilitate major changes.]

The embedded clause has its inner structure similar to a noun clause, i.e. "what vision serves" but it starts with a noun phrase "a second essential function" which is not a pronoun.

My question is, can a clause like "a second essential function vision serves" function as a subject or object in a sentence?

Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

In the original sentence:

A second essential function vision serves is to facilitate major changes.

the words "function vision" seem to be a complex noun. This is not correct, and not, I think, what is intended, but it may confuse the reader. It could be recast as one of:

• A second essential function that vision serves ...
• A second essential function which vision serves ...
• Vision serves a second essential function, namely ...
• Vision serves a second essential function, specifically ...

Any of these makes it clear that the relevant noun phrase is "a second essential function".

Standing alone, "to facilitate major changes" is somewhat unclear, but I trust that the original context clarifies it.

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