I'm reading the novel "The Circle" these days. However, there is a sentence making me curious.
"When she opened her eyes she saw a harbor seal, twenty feet in front of her, staring at her as would a calm dog whose yard she'd walked into."
I can't find verb after "as would…", also so far as I know after relative clause (whose), there should be subject and verb. However, in this sentence, there is only yard which is a noun functioning as the subject. Is this sentence a kind of exception?
Best Answer
There's nothing missing from the basic construction.
Your example contains subject-auxiliary inversion, where the subject "a calm dog whose yard she'd walked into" and the auxiliary verb "would" have switched places.
The basic order would be:
When she opened her eyes she saw a harbor seal, twenty feet in front of her, staring at her as a calm dog whose yard she'd walked into would.
Incidentally, this is a comparative construction, and like most comparative clauses would a calm dog whose yard she'd walked into is obligatorily reduced. In full, it would be would a calm dog whose yard she'd walked into stare at her.