But the prepositional phrase will not always serve our turn, for sometimes we wish to denote a certain place by telling what happens there, and to do this it is usually best to employ a proposition. This gives rise to the adverbial local clause. In the following sentence from Lowell,—
“Where today the martyr stands,
On the morrow crouches Judas with the silver in his hands,”
in order to tell the place where Judas crouches, the poet tells what happens in that place, namely, that it is the place where today the martyr stands.
Introductory Word.—The local clause is introduced by the subordinating conjunctions of place, where, wherever, whence, whither, whencesoever, whithersoever. Whither conveys the idea of action going toward a place, and whence of action proceeding from a place. These two conjunctions and their compounds as well are not often used by modern writers.
Wherever means in any place; as, “Wherever the Anglo-Saxon race goes, there law, industry, and safety for life and property are certain to arise.”—Dickens.
Just as when in a temporal clause often takes the correlative then, so where or wherever in a local clause is often accompanied by there in the principal proposition, as in the sentence just quoted.
Peculiarities of the Local Clause.—Often a local clause denotes condition as well as place; for example, “Wherever money is the principal object of life with either man or nation, it is both got ill and spent ill.”—Ruskin.
Sometimes the idea of time exists along with that of place; for example, “Where one person is really interested by music, twenty are pleased by good reading.”—Hart.
The adverbial clause of place is not common, and yet we frequently meet clauses introduced by where, whence, etc. Most of these are adjective clauses, and as such they have two uses, as may be seen in the following typical sentences: