Relative clauses provide extra information about nouns they

Relative clauses provide extra information about nouns they modify. They have the function of adjectives. The information can either define something (defining clause), or provide unnecessary, but interesting, added information (non-defining clause). 1

Relative clauses can be introduced by: • a relative pronoun: who (whom), which, that, whose • no relative pronoun, Ø. • where, why and when instead of a relative pronoun 2

Defining , identifying, definite or restrictive clauses These clauses have a definite relative pronoun as a subordinating word. A definite relative pronoun has an antecedent. E. g. : We heard the things that they said. 3

They have three main characteristics: • In speech the intonation is the same as the noun they qualify. • In spelling they are not separated by commas. • In meaning they are essential to the meaning of the clause. 4

You never put a comma or a dash in front of a defining relative clause. ¡ E. g. : The woman who owns this cabin will come back in the autumn. 5

Non-defining , indefinite or non-restrictive clauses • A non-defining relative clause usually has a comma in front of it and a comma after it, unless it is at the end of a sentence, in which case you just put a full stop. Dashes are sometimes used instead of commas. e. g: • Sir Denis, who is 78, has let it be known that much of his collection is to be left to the nation. 6

They have three main characteristics: • In speech the intonation is different from the noun they qualify. • In spelling they are separated by commas. • In meaning they are not essential to the meaning of the clause. 7

Relative clauses referring to people When a non-defining clause relates to a person or group of people, you use ‘who’ as the subject of the clause, or ‘who’ or ‘whom’ as the object of the clause. Heath Robinson, who died in 1944, was a graphic artist and cartoonist. I was in the same group as Janice, who I like a lot. She was engaged to a sailor, whom she had met at Dartmouth. 8

Relative clauses referring to things When a non-defining clause relates to a thing or a group of things, you use ‘which’ as the subject or object. I am teaching at the Selly Oak Centre, which is just over the road. He was a man of considerable inherited wealth, which he ultimately spent on his experiments. WARNING You cannot use ‘that’ to begin a non-defining relative clause. For example, you cannot say ‘She sold her car, that she had bought the year before’. You must say ‘She sold her car, which she had bought the year before’. Non-defining clauses cannot be used without a relative pronoun. For example, you cannot say ‘She sold her car, she had bought the year before’. 9

• ‘whose’ in relative clauses • When you want to talk about something belonging or relating to a person, thing, or group, you use a defining or non-defining relative clause beginning with ‘whose’ and a noun. • . . . workers whose bargaining power is weak. • According to Cook, whose book is published on Thursday, most disasters are avoidable. . 10

Relative clauses with ‘when’, ‘where’, and ‘why’ ‘When’, ‘where’, and ‘why’ can be used in defining relative clauses after certain nouns. ‘When’ is used after ‘time’ and other time words, ‘where’ is used after ‘place’ or place words, and ‘why’ is used after ‘reason’. This is one of those occasions when I regret not being able to drive. That was the room where I did my homework. There are several reasons why we can’t do that. ‘When’ and ‘where’ can be used in non-defining relative clauses after expressions of time and place. This happened in 1957, when I was still a baby. She has just come back from a holiday in Crete, where Alex and I went last year. They are used after indefinite pronouns such as ‘someone’, ‘anyone’, and ‘everything’. 11

Relative clauses can sometimes be reduced to nonfinite clauses. For example, instead of saying ‘Give it to the man who is wearing the bowler hat’, you can say ‘Give it to the man wearing the bowler hat’. Similarly, instead of saying ‘The bride, who was smiling happily, chatted to the guests’, you can say ‘The bride, smiling happily, chatted to the guests’. 12

• Often, in a defining relative clause, the relative pronoun is omitted and there is a change of word order in the sentence: the antecedent comes first. The pages she was looking at were these. The boy you helped was my son. • Sometimes it is replaced by an indefinite pronoun. E. g. : I’d be wary of anything Matt Davis is involved with 13

Credits Designed by Prof. Stella Maris Berdaxagar Quemú La Pampa, Argentina April, 2005. 14