What is the word "dem" doing in this sentence?

Question

Part of a sentence from a novel:

… zum erstenmal kam sein Ton dem nahe, wie er wohl normalerweise sprach.

Could someone please explain what the grammatical status and purpose of the "dem" is in this sentence?

Answer 1

The demonstrative pronoun dem is a so-called correlate (Korrelat) here and serves two purposes:

1. Nahekommen (to approximate/resemble sth.) requires a dative object as complement:

   jmdm./etw. nahekommen.

   Since in this case the complement is a postpositioned subclause, we need to substitute it. It cannot be plainly omitted in the main clause.

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2. Furthermore, we have a subclause with the relative adverb wie that doesn't refer directly to the sentence. Compare these two sentences to see the difference direct vs. indirect reference:

   • Direct: Zum ersten Mal kam sein Ton seinem Sprachstil nahe, wie man sofort bemerkte.
   • Indirect: Zum ersten Mal kam sein Ton dem Sprachstil nahe, wie er wohl normalerweise sprach.

   Thus also the subclause needs an anchor in the main clause.

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As Felixus did in his answer, I would replace wie by in dem for stylistical and maybe even grammatical reasons. I consider der Sprachstil, wie er normalerweise sprach a syntactical borderline case.

Answer 2

As Bernhard already mentioned, dem refers to the person's tone/speaking style.
The sentence would not make sense without answering the question of which or what the tone is coming close.

zum erstenmal kam sein Ton seinem/dem Sprachstil nahe, in dem er wohl normalerweise sprach.