In the game "XCOM: Enemy Within" there is a guy, whose way of speaking seems to be more appropriate for written language (as it seems to me). In particular, he says such a phrase:
Intelligence sources indicate a rogue organization, with a separate, misguided agenda, is undermining XCOM field operations.
My question is about grammatical structure of this sentence
- What is "is" referred to? To the word "organization?" If so, then is the word "that" omitted?
- Is such sentence construction used in speech?
Answer
This is a situation where dashes should have been used instead of commas.
Intelligence sources indicate a rogue organization--with a separate, misguided agenda--is undermining XCOM field operations.
The entire with ... phrase is an appositive, and here you can more clearly see that the subject of is is "a rogue organization."
Is such sentence construction used in speech?
You can use it in speech. It would actually work better in speech as tonal variation would make it obvious that "with a separate, misguided agenda" is an interruption in the outer sentence.
Whether or not that appears after is can change the meaning of the sentence, and this is because to be is a copular verb that is used to link a subject and description.
Intelligence sources indicate a rogue organization is undermining XCOM field operations.
Some activity is happening right now that is undermining field operations.
Intelligence sources indicate a rogue organization that is undermining XCOM field operations.
The rogue organization's purpose is undermining operations, but we aren't really commenting necessarily on any current activity.
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