Relative_Clauses

RELATIVE CLAUSES: A SUMMARY (Reference: Collins Cobuild Student’s Gramar: 1991, Harper Collins, London) • A relative clause is a type of subordinate clause embedded inside a noun phrase. • It typically post-modifies the head noun of a noun phrase. • It gives additional information to more narrowly define the head noun. • It contains a verb which may be either finite or non-finite. • A relative clause may or may not be introduced by a relative pronoun (that, which, who, etc) (see rules below) 1) Use ‘who’ or ‘that’ to introduce a relative clause when referring to people. Mele is the girl [who won the competition]. She knew the man [that was killed in the accident]. Use ‘that’ or ‘which’ to introduce a relative clause when referring to things. Here is the book [that was so famous]. Give me the knife[ which is on the table]. 2) ‘which’, ‘that’ and ‘who’ can refer to a) the subject of the verb in the relative clause: The woman [who is washing clothes in the yard] is my sister. Subject: the woman (The woman is my sister/The woman is washing clothes in the yard) Mele gave me a book [which was a best-selling mystery]. Subject: a book (Mele gave me a book/The book was a best-selling mystery) I found the cat [that was lying on the mat] to be friendly. Subject: the cat (I found the cat to be friendly/The cat was lying on the mat) b) the object of the verb in the relative clause: The woman [who I saw washing clothes in the yard] is my sister. Object: the woman (The woman was washing clothes in the yard/I saw the woman) Mele gave me a book [which she really enjoyed reading]. Object: a book (Mele gave me a book/She really enjoyed reading the book) The house [that I wanted to buy] had already been sold. Object: the house (I wanted to buy the house/The house had already been sold) c) In formal English, ‘whom’ is used in place of ‘who’ as the object of the verb in the relative clause. The woman [whom] I saw washing clothes in the yard is my sister. 3) ‘that’, ‘which’ and ‘who’ can be deleted when they refer to the object of the relative clause. It is optional. Compare with (b) above. The woman [(who) I saw washing clothes in the yard] is my sister. Mele gave me a book [(which) she really enjoyed reading]. The house [(that) I wanted to buy] had already been sold. 4) The relative pronouns ‘that’, ‘which’ and ‘who’ can also refer to the object of a preposition in a relative clause. Typically the preposition is positioned at the end of the clause. I wanted to eat the food [which I had been longing for]. Object of PREP for: the food (I wanted to eat the food/I had been longing for the food) The religion that I believed in was important for me. Object of PREP in: the religion (I believed in the religion/The religion was important for me} The man [who we depended on] did not come. (We depended on the man/The man did not come) Object of PREP on: the man In formal English the preposition is placed in front of ‘whom’ and ‘which’. I wanted to eat the food [for which I had been longing]. The man [on whom we depended] did not come. But: The religion * in that I believed was important for me. (ungrammatical) The religion in which I believed was important for me. (grammatical) 5) ‘whose’ is used in relative clauses to show who something is possessed by or relates to. ‘whose’ is typically used for people, not for things. The man [whose son was killed in the war] is my friend. I don’t know the girl [whose purse was stolen]. 6) ‘when’, ‘where’ and ‘why’ can be used to introduce relative clauses after some nouns which refer to time, place and reason. I don’t know the time [when he arrived home]. Mumbai is the place [where Bollywood movies are made]. The reason [why she ran home] was because she was being teased by the school bully.