A relative clause is a subordinate clause that modifies a noun. For example, the noun phrase the man who wasn't there contains the noun man, which is modified by the relative clause who wasn't there. In many languages, relative clauses are introduced by a special class of pronouns called relative pronouns. In the previous example, who is a relative pronoun.
Some languages mark the verb in the relative clause as such, and others yet do not employ relative pronouns or relativisation marks at all.
The antecedent of the relative clause (that is, the noun that is modified by it) can in theory be the subject of the main clause, or its object, or any other verb argument. However, many languages do not have the possibility, or a straightforward syntactic pattern, to relativise arguments other than the core ones (subject and direct object).
Restrictive and non-restrictive clauses
Relative clauses can be divided in two types depending on whether they restrict the referent of the noun they modify in the main statement, or simply describe the noun.
Restrictive clauses, as their name indicates, restrict the reference of the main noun, that is, they make it definite, for which reason they are also called defining clauses. Their function is to provide information to identify the concrete instance of the noun.
Non-restrictive clauses do not serve to identify the antecedent; instead, they provide further, incidental information about it. They are also called descriptive clauses.
- (1) Jack built the house that stands on the corner of our street.
- (2) Jack built a big house, which stood for many years.
The relative clause in (1) defines the antecedent (the house); it tells the hearer which house is meant ((the one which) stands on the corner of our street). It is a restrictive clause.
The relative clause in (2) modifies an indefinite antecedent (a house); it does not help to make it definite, but gives extra information describing it ((it) stood for many years).
The main clause in (2) could stand by itself and convey the most important part of the meaning to the hearer. The main clause in (1) cannot stand by itself and give the same information, since the point of the relative clause is precisely to define the antecedent.
Examples in different languages
See English relative clauses for a detailed survey of English usage of relative pronouns.
German
Despite their highly inflected forms, German relative pronouns are less complicated than English. There are two varieties. The more common one is based on the definite article der, die, das, but with distinctive forms in the genitive (dessen, deren) and in the dative plural (denen). Historically this is related to English that. The second, which is more literary and used for emphasis, is the relative use of welcher, welche, welches, comparable with English which. As in most Germanic languages, including Old English, both of these inflect according to gender, case and number. They take their gender and number from the noun they modify, but the case from their function in their own clause.
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Das Haus, in dem ich wohne, ist sehr alt.
- The house in which I live is very old.
The relative pronoun dem is neuter singular to agree with Haus, but dative because it follows a preposition in its own clause. On the same basis, it would be possible to substitute the pronoun welchem.
However, German uses the uninflecting was ('what') as a relative pronoun when the antecedent is alles, etwas or nichts ('everything', 'something', 'nothing'.).
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Alles, was Jack macht, ist erfolgreich.
- Everything that Jack does is successful.
In German, all relative clauses are marked with commas.
French
The system of relative pronouns in French is as complicated as, and similar in many ways to, the system in English.
When the pronoun is to act as the direct object of the relative clause, que is generally used, although lequel, which is inflected for grammatical gender and number, is sometimes used in order to give more precision. For example, any of the following is correct and would translate to "I talked to his/her father and mother, whom I already knew":
- J'ai parlé avec son père et sa mère, laquelle (f. sing.) je connaissais déjà.
- J'ai parlé avec son père et sa mère, lesquels (m. pl.) je connaissais déjà.
- J'ai parlé avec son père et sa mère, que je connaissais déjà.
However, in the first sentence, "whom I already knew" refers only to the mother; in the second, it refers to both parents; and in the third, as in the English sentence, it could refer either only to the mother, or to both parents.
When the pronoun is to act as the subject of the relative clause, qui is generally used, though as before, lequel may be used instead for greater precision. (This is less common than lequel's use with direct objects, however, since verbs in French often reflect their subjects' grammatical number.)
When the pronoun is to act in a possessive sense, where the preposition de (of/from) would normally be used, the pronoun dont ("whose") is used, but does not act as a determiner for the noun "possessed":
- J'ai parlé avec une femme dont je travaille avec le fils. ("I spoke with a woman whose son I work with." - lit., "I spoke with a woman dont I work with the son.")
In modern French, this construction is also used even in non-possessive cases where the pronoun is to act as the object of de; hence, dont can mean "of/from which/who(m)" in modern French:
- C'est un homme dont je pense mal. ("That's a man of whom I think ill.")
When the pronoun is to act as the object of a preposition (other than when dont is used), lequel is generally used, though recently it has become common to use qui if the antecedent is a human. The preposition always appears before the pronoun, and the prepositions de and à (at/to) contract with lequel to form duquel and auquel, or with lesquel(le)s to form desquel(le)s and auxquel(le)s.
Hebrew
In Hebrew, there are but two relative pronouns: the word asher, and the prefix she-, which is affixed to the first word of the relative clause. The two are interchangeable in this use; she- is much more common in modern Hebrew, but asher is the form found in the Bible, and is hence often used in formal, archaic, or poetic writing. These forms are used regardless of whether the antecedent is a human, of the grammatical case of she-, and of whether the clause is restrictive.
Further, because Hebrew does not generally use its word for is, she- is used to distinguish adjective phrases used in epithet from adjective phrases used in attribution:
- Ha-kise l'-yad-kha. ("The chair is next to you." - lit., "The chair [is] to your hand.")
- Ha-kise she-l'-yad-kha shavur. ("The chair next to you is broken." - lit., "The chair that [is] to your hand [is] broken.")
(This use of she- does not occur with simple adjectives, as Hebrew has a different way of making that distinction. For example, Ha-kise adom means "The chair [is] red," while Ha-kise ha-adom shavur means "The red chair is broken" - literally, "The chair the red [is] broken.")
Except with the simple adjective-phrase clauses described above, relative clauses in Hebrew are always set off with commas:
- Ha-kise, she-ata yoshev alav, shavur. ("The chair that you are sitting on is broken," or "The chair, which you are sitting on, is broken.")
This is perhaps due to influence from other languages, such as German (described above).
One major difference between relative clauses in Hebrew and those in (for example) English is that in Hebrew, what might be called the "regular" pronoun is not always suppressed in the relative clause. To reuse the prior example:
- Ha-kise, she-ata yoshev alav, shavur. (lit., "The chair, that/which you are sitting on it, [is] broken.")
Indeed, this pronoun is only suppressed when it is the subject or direct object of the relative clause; and even in these cases, the pronoun is sometimes left in for emphasis or other reasons.
Spanish
See Relative pronouns in the Spanish grammar article.
Japanese
Japanese does not employ relative pronouns to relate relative clauses to their antecedents. Instead, the relative clause directly modifies the noun phrase, occupying the same syntactic space as an adjective (before the noun phrase).
- kono oishii tempura
- "this delicious tempura"
- ane ga tsukutta tempura
- sister (SUBJECT) make-PAST tempura
- "the tempura [that] my sister made"
- tempura o tabeta hito
- tempura (OBJECT) eat-PAST person
- "the person who ate the tempura"
In fact, since so-called i-adjectives in Japanese are technically intransitive stative verbs, it can be argued that the structure of the first example (with an adjective) is the same as the others. A number of "adjectival" meanings, in Japanese, are customarily shown with relative clauses consisting solely of a verb or a verb complex:
- hikatte-iru biru
- lit-be building
- "an illuminated building"
- nurete-iru inu
- be_wet-be dog
- "a wet dog"
References
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Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum (2002). The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-43146-8.
- A.J.Thomson & A.V.Martinet (4th edition 1986). A Practical English Grammar. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-431342-5. §72-85. (For the basic "rules" of the English relative pronoun in a presentation suitable for foreign learners.)
External links
Last updated: 10-12-2005 01:18:59
