Languages & Linguistics
Relative Pronouns
Relative pronouns are words that introduce relative clauses, which provide additional information about a noun in a sentence. Common relative pronouns include "who," "whom," "whose," "which," and "that." They connect the relative clause to the main clause and help to clarify the relationship between the two. Relative pronouns are essential for creating complex and detailed sentences in many languages.
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eBook - PDFMastering English
An Advanced Grammar for Non-native and Native Speakers
- Carl Bache, Niels Davidsen-Nielsen(Authors)
- 2010(Publication Date)
- De Gruyter Mouton(Publisher)
428 Pronominals 11.3.3. Relative Pronouns The central interrogative pronouns serve also as the central Relative Pronouns: who, whom, whose which what To these we can add the conjunction-like that, the 'zero relative' 0, the relative adjuncts when, where, why and how and the intensive -ever forms: whoever, whichever, whatever. The archaic forms whence and whither, the very formal compounds of where and a preposition (whereby, whereto, etc.) and the rhetorical -soever forms (e.g. whosoever) will not be dealt with here. A) Syntax. Relative Pronouns, unlike interrogative pronouns, character-istically serve a double purpose: they signal clausal subordination like subordinating conjunctions and at the same time they take on a clause function other than SUB in the subclause (e.g. subject or object), referring anaphorically to a constituent in the matrix: (1) You remember the case of {the craftsman} who chipped out a priest's hole for himself on the ship? (S) (2) {The second story}, which I pass on without comment, touches on more delicate matters. (O) Autonomous function only: who, whom, that, 0, whoever (as well as when, where, why and how), as in: (3) They arrested Jeremy Soames, who was on his honeymoon. Determinative function only: whose, as in: (4) Why did God preserve this species, whose creation did not reflect particularly well on its creator? Either autonomous or determinative function: which(ever) and what(ever); compare: (5) He used a gun which he had borrowed from a friend. (6) He used a gun, which fact bothered the rabbis. Autonomous relatives may serve as S or Od (as in some of the examples above) or as Cs, Co, A or DEP in a preposition group, but usually not as Oi: (7) Roger wasn't quite the speaker that he used to be. (Cs) (8) He's a bit of a jerk, which some of the girls even call him to his face. (Co) (9) I met him in the gallery where we used to meet. (A) Pronouns without a person distinction 429 (10) Eventually came the day 0 we had been longing^or.
No longer available |Learn more- (Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- University Publications(Publisher)
________________________ WORLD TECHNOLOGIES ________________________ Chapter- 5 Relative Clause A relative clause is a subordinate clause that modifies a noun phrase, most commonly a noun. For example, the phrase the man who wasn't there contains the noun man , which is modified by the relative clause who wasn't there . A relative clause can also modify a pronoun, as in he to whom I have written , or a noun phrase which already contains a modifier, as in the black panther in the tree, which is about to pounce . The complete phrase (modified noun phrase plus modifying relative clause) is also a noun phrase. In many European languages, relative clauses are introduced by a special class of pronouns called Relative Pronouns ; in the previous example, who is a relative pronoun. In other languages, relative clauses may be marked in different ways: they may be introduced by a special class of conjunctions called relativizers ; the main verb of the relative clause may appear in a special morphological variant; or a relative clause may be indicated by word order alone. In some languages, more than one of these mechanisms may be possible. Accessibility hierarchy 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. In many languages, however, especially rigidly left-branching, dependent-marking languages with prenominal relative clauses, there are major restrictions on the role the antecedent may have in the relative clause . According to the classic study of Bernard Comrie, noun phrases can be ranked in the following order from most accessible to least accessible: 1. Nominative or absolutive 2. Accusative or ergative 3. Indirect object (e.g., the man to whom I have written ) 4. Oblique (adpositional) object (e.g., the machine into which I put the coin ) 5. Genitive (e.g., the woman whose daughter is ill ) 6.
eBook - PDF- Ann Raimes, Susan Miller-Cochran(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Cengage Learning EMEA(Publisher)
546 44a Relative Pronouns 43i Faulty or incomplete comparisons Make sure that you state clearly what items you are comparing. Some faulty comparisons can give readers the wrong idea (see 38h and 42b). Incomplete He likes the parrot better than his wife. Do you really want to suggest that he prefers the parrot to his wife? If not, clarify the comparison by completing the second clause. Revised He likes the parrot better than his wife does . Edit sentences like the following: ● In winter, New York’s weather is colder than London. [Compare the weather in both places, not the weather in New York and the city of London.] ● Williams’s poem gives a more objective depiction of the painting than Auden. [To compare Williams’s poem with Auden’s poem, you need to include an apostrophe and -s ; otherwise, you compare a poem to the poet W. H. Auden.] Comparisons must also be complete. If you say that something is “more efficient,” readers wonder, “More efficient than what?” ● Didion shows us a home that makes her feel more tied to her roots. [Include the other part of the comparison.] ^ ’ s ^ ’s ^ than her home in Los Angeles does Relative Clauses and Relative Pronouns ( who, whom, whose, which, that , etc.) 44 A relative clause relates to an antecedent in a nearby clause. ● The girl who can’t dance says the band can’t play. —Yiddish proverb 44a Relative Pronouns When you are deciding whether to use who, whom, which , or that , use the following table as a guide. Your choice of pronoun will depend on these three factors: relative clause 547 44a Relative Pronouns 1. the function of the relative pronoun in its clause 2. whether the relative pronoun refers to a human or nonhuman antecedent 3.
eBook - PDFA Critical Account of English Syntax
Grammar, Meaning, Text
- Keith Brown, Jim Miller(Authors)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Edinburgh University Press(Publisher)
iii There are particularly complex wh relative clauses that occur only in formal writing, but formal written English is practised by a minor-ity of the English-speaking population. iv Other relative clause constructions in spoken English (both stand-ard and non-standard) indicate that the th and contact relatives are more different in structure from wh relatives than many accounts suppose. In the light of the above points we take the view that there are differ-ent relative clause constructions, all sharing the function of modifying nouns (but => R ELATIVE CLAUSES : WH , R ELATIVE CLAUSES : PROPOSI -TIONAL . ) and ranging from the typically simple structures of spontane-ous speech to the very complex structures found only in formal written language. The different constructions have long been appealed to by sociolinguists, educational linguists, typologists, investigators of spoken and written language and specialists in first language acquisition. The three major relative clause constructions exemplified in (1)–(3) differ in their syntax. The obvious difference is that as relativiser they have zero, that, or wh. The Relative Pronouns which in (1c) and who in (1d) are the direct objects of their relative clauses. In (1b) the relativiser that is not a pronoun. It is invariable, in contrast with the oppositions between who and whom and between who / whom and which ; and it cannot 182 A CRITICAL ACCOUNT OF ENGLISH SYNTAX be preceded by a preposition – *the house in that we live versus the house that we live in . Who and which also allow prepositions to be at the end of the relative clause, as in the house which we live in , but they can also be preceded by a preposition, as in the house in which we live . We assume that the structure of that relative clauses is, e.g., the house Rel C [ that we live in [Ø] ], i.e., that [Ø] represents a gap corresponding to the NP modified by the relative clause.
eBook - PDF- Jacek Fisiak(Author)
- 2010(Publication Date)
- De Gruyter Mouton(Publisher)
It has also been suggested that the growing popularity of the wh-forms was due to Latin influence and that those forms were characteristic of formal expression while that was favoured in colloquial style. Due attention has been called to the variation depending on the author and the type of text. 10 In most studies, however, no detailed survey of the possible effects of the syntactic and semantic contexts on the choice of relative pronoun has been attempted: the figures for the occurrence of each pronoun in the texts of individual authors have been given more or less en masse. 11 In this paper, an attempt is made to show how the spread and establish-ment of the wh-forms follow the loose-link/tight-link axis both in formal and colloquial styles. The question of the tightness of the link can be approached both through semantic and syntactic criteria. The traditional classification of relative clauses into restrictive and non-restrictive reflects a basic semantic di-vision, but it is also possible to make more delicate distinctions based on the quality of the antecedent. It seems, for instance, that the relative clause is more closely linked with a pronoun (indefinite or personal) antecedent than with a noun antecedent, possibly because of the vague semantic content of the pronouns. On the other hand, the link seems to be particularly loose when Relative Pronouns in 17th century American English 421 the antecedent is a clause or a VP. Of the purely syntactic factors relevant to the tightness or looseness of the link, the separation of the relative clause from its antecedent is the most obvious. In most discussions of relative pronoun distribution, attention has been called to the function of the relative pronoun in the subordinate clause.
eBook - PDF- Ismail Ulutas(Author)
- 2010(Publication Date)
- Gorgias Press(Publisher)
5. Finite Relative Clauses 5.1 Questions and Relative Clauses (Interrogative Pronouns and Relative Pronouns) In Gagauz, question sentences and finite relative clauses display similarities in sharing words which are called relative words or Relative Pronouns in relative clause structures and interrogative pronouns in question sentences. Using question words as Relative Pronouns is a phenomenon that is mostly cncountcred in Indo-European languages. Outside of the Indo-European family the use of question words as Relative Pronouns is rather rare. English, for example, as a language that fits the description uses WH-words (who, what, which, when, where) as both interrogative words in question sentences and Relative Pronouns in relative clauses as the following examples display, with who as an interrogative pronoun: (1) Who(m) did you see? and with who as relative pronoun: (2) I know the man who bought this house. As is apparent from the above examples English has the ability to employ the same word without any modification in both question sentences and in relative clauses. Bulgarian and Hungarian on the other hand make some modifications on interrogative words that are to be used as Relative Pronouns. For example, the Bulgarian question word koj is modified by postposed article -to when featuring as relative pronoun, while in Hungarian interrogative words are prefixed by a-which comes from the definite article az in their new function. 1 Gagauz employs the following interrogative pronouns without any modification as Relative Pronouns in finite relative constructions. These are a subset of interrogative pronouns used in question sentences. Interrogative pronouns in Gagauz display the same properties as nouns, therefore they may carry case both in question sentences and in relative clause constructions. The following interrogative pronouns are at the same time capable of functioning as Relative Pronouns in Gagauz.
- Brian G. Hewitt(Author)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- De Gruyter Mouton(Publisher)
Chapter Eight Relative (a) Georgian data The three Relative Pronouns are vi-n-c 'who', ra-c 'which' and ro-mel-i-c 'who, which' (cf. the interrogatives vi-n 'who?', ra 'what?', ro-mel-i 'which one?'). The first two exist only in the singular, are differentiated according to the opposition [HUMAN] vs [NON-HUMAN] respectively, and are usually used either when there is no head-noun expressed or when the antecedent is the demonstrative pronoun is 'that one' or a non-specific word such as q'vela 'everyone, all', q'vela-per-i 'everything', ra-ya-c 'some-thing' etc. The third pronoun possesses a full paradigm in both singular and plural (its plural serving when necessary for the absent plurals of vi-n-c and ra-c), is undifferentiated for the above-opposition, and is preferable where the head-noun is expressed, and obligatory if that head-noun is preceded by either the demonstrative is 'that' or the adjective q'vela 'all'. The relative enclitic is present regardless of the case of the pronoun, except that, when the pronoun is genitive, the enclitic attaches either to the possessed noun or is absent; the enclitic also attaches to any postposition that may be governing the relative pronoun, and, if the pronoun stands in the genitive, the enclitic may again be omitted. The third pronoun seems to be segmentable as ro-mel-i-c <= *ra-mel-i(-c), where ra-is the relative (-interrogative) adjective and -i the nominative case-suffix. But -mei-is problematical; Marr (1925: 103—4) suggests that it is a 'word designating child => son and serving as suffix for adjectival formation' without however adducing evidence in support of the existence of such a lexeme. No distinction is made between restrictive and non-restrictive relatives.
eBook - PDFEurogrammar
The relative and cleft constructions of the Germanic and Romance languages
- R. J. C. Smits(Author)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- De Gruyter Mouton(Publisher)
Therefore, it does not play a part here. English actually has only one remnant of case inflection on Relative Pronouns: it is only the pronoun who that has an optional separate non-nominative form whom. 140 Relative constructions (107) ROM bäiatul cäruia M i -am trimis bani R obl . the boy whom (him) I have sent the money (108) DEU a. der einzige Autor, [dessen^ Vater] ich R persönlich kenne, heißt Johann. the only author whose father I know personally is called J. b. der einzige Autor, [mit dem^J ich R gesprochen habe, heißt Johann. the only author with whom I have spoken is called J. (109) ENG the producer [with whom „„ Joe made most of his films R] died in poverty. (110) ROM vecinul [a cärui M nevastä] R e bolnavä are trei ma§ini. the neighbour whose wife is ill has three cars If there is no relative pronoun, but a relative particle, which is uninflected, the case of the relative gap is not morphologically expressed. It also remains unexpressed, of course, if the relative pronoun is present but is not morphologically inflected for case. In both these cases the relative gap is not part of a chain which contains a member that can express case morphologically. 3.2.5 SUMMARY 1. Proper nouns usually take only appositive relatives. no X, some X (sing), an X (non-generic),etc. take only restrictive relatives. 2. Infinitival relatives are always restrictively interpreted. 3. The definite article of a relative construction in the continental Scandinavian languages, may be prenominal only if the relative clause is restrictive and contains an overt relativizer. Otherwise, the definite article must be enclitic. 4. Choice of relativizer is limited by: i) the presence or absence of an antecedent, ii) restrictiveness or appositiveness of the relative construction, and iii) the category of the antecedent. 5. Case of the antecedent : if applicable, the antecedent is marked for the case that is assigned to the relative construction as a whole.
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