UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE CÓRDOBA

FACULTAD DE LENGUAS

GRAMÁTICA INGLESA I

RELATIVE CLAUSES

Profesor Titular: Mgtr. Fabián Negrelli

Profesora Asistente: Candelaria Luque Colombres

Prof. Asistente: Vanina Neyra

Profesor Asistente: Pablo Carpintero

Profesora Adscripta: Paula Ré

CICLO LECTIVO 2021

Relative clauses

A relative or adjectival clause is a special kind of subordinate clause whose primary

function is as modifier to a noun or nominal (Biber et al., 1999, p. 604; Downing &
Locke, 2006, p.447; Huddleston & Pullum, 2005. p. 183). Relative clauses generally
function as a postmodifier in a noun group to expand the meaning and specify the
reference of the Head noun, which is called the antecedent (Biber et al., 1999, p.195;
Downing & Locke, 2006, p. 449; Gómez González, 2016, p. 167; Huddleston &
Pullum, 2002, p. 1034; Quirk et al., 1985, p. 1245). Relative clauses are used to identify
or give information about nouns – or nominals - (people, places or things). Such
information may be essential or non-essential for the meaning of the sentence. In most
cases, the relative clause directly follows the noun it is describing.

I live in a house that has five bedrooms.

antecedent relative clause

The bike that he stole is worth $300.

antecedent relative clause

John Williams, who is my best friend, is visiting his parents in Spain at present.

antecedent relative clause

Relative clauses are introduced by a relative word, also known as relativizer, which can be:

 A relative pronoun: who (to refer to a personal antecedent); whom (to refer to a
personal antecedent); which (to refer to a non-personal antecedent); that (to refer to
personal and non-personal antecedents).

Anyone who goes to the top of the Empire State Building is impressed with the view.

Daniel, who is my brother, studies French.

Daniel, whom I gave the news about John’s car accident, got very sad.

The book which I bought in London will help you a lot.

This book, which I bought in London, will help you a lot.

Daniel is the person that I spoke to you about.

This is is book that I have been looking for all week.

 A relative adverb: where, when, why

The house where I live is my father’s.

The house in which I live is my father´s.

The house which I live in is my father´s.

The house that I live in is my father’s.

The house Ø I live in is my father´s.

That was the day when the war started.

That was the day on which the war started.

That was the day which the war started on.

That was the day that the war started (on).

That was the day Ø the war started (on).

Nobody knows the reason why she decided to quit her job.

Nobody knows the reason that she decided to quit her job.

Nobody knows the reason Ø she decided to quit her job.

Note: With place adjuncts, the preposition must be expressed:

This is the garden (that) he sunbathes in.

However, in the case of time adjuncts, omission of the preposition is usual whether the
pronoun is that or Ø:

This is the time that he usually arrives (at).

Monday was the day (that) he left (on).

With cause and manner adjuncts, the usual pronoun is that or Ø, and there is no
preposition. However, with manner adjuncts, it is possible to find “which” with a
preposition in a more formal style.

This is the reason (that) he came.

This is the way (that) he did it.

This is the way in which he did it.

 A relative determiner: whose

Sam, whose best friend lives in Paris, is travelling to France today.

The man whose car broke down in the middle of the street is trying to repair it.

John, whose little girl visited us yesterday, is one of our best friends.
Relative clauses are classified into:

Defining relative clauses

The defining relative clause is the most frequent type of relative construction. A
defining or essential relative clause gives information that is necessary to identify or
limit the noun it describes. A defining relative clause cannot be omitted, as this could
obscure the meaning of the main clause; thus, it is not placed between commas.
Defining relative clauses are also called integrated relative clauses because they are
integrated into the construction containing them, both prosodically and in terms of
informational content. Fontela (2016) states that “the prototypical integrated relative
serves to restrict the denotation of the head nominal it modifies, and is often referred to
by the term restrictive or defining relative” (p. 4).

People who steal are thieves.

Plants that lie on the ground are hard to cultivate.

People who use body language to express themselves are interesting to watch.

The phone which has the most features is also the most expensive.

I like to wear clothes that have funky patterns on them.

Non-defining relative clauses

A non-defining or non-essential relative clause adds extra information about the

antecedent, which means that the main idea of the sentence is complete without it. Thus,
it can be omitted without causing confusion or changing the meaning of the main clause
and therefore must be separated from the main clause by commas. A relative clause that
describes a unique person or place is always non-defining. A non-defining relative
clause does not define or restrict which person, thing or event the writer means but
rather adds extra information about a person or a thing that has already been identified.
In other words, the information the relative clause provides is not fully integrated into
the structure of the containing clause and not necessary to delimit the set denoted by the
antecedent.
My father, who lives in Brazil, works as a doctor.

Miss Henderson, who teaches English in the morning, is a very popular teacher.

Toyota, which is a Japanese company, sells many cars in the U.S.

The Palace hotel, where many celebrities stay, is being closed down.

Alison’s sister, who is 19, has just passed her driving test.

To take into account:

In speech, the distinction between defining and non-defining relative clauses is clearly
marked prosodically: non-defining relative clauses are spoken with a separate intonation
contour, whereas defining relative clauses are prosodically bound to their antecedent.
The relative pronouns can perform the following functions in a relative clause:

Subject

Children who eat a lot of candy can get sick.

Bariloche, which is in Argentina, is a marvellous place to spend your winter holidays.

These are the exercises that should be done for next class.

Madrid, which is the biggest Spanish city, has an important museum.

The cushions that are on the couch are purple and green.

She is the woman who helped me yesterday.

Direct object

The arguments that she gave didn’t sound convincing.

Your parents, whom you love, are going to help you.

These are the documents which she needs.

John lives with a special woman, whom he met in Venezuela two years ago.

They have a cottage that they usually use for the weekend.

That’s the woman whom he married.

Indirect object

The man to whom you were giving the books is my English teacher.

The man who you were giving the books to is my English teacher.

The woman for whom I bought this present is my wife.

The woman who I bought this present for is my wife.

Object of a preposition / Prepositional complement

The country from which I come has many economic problems.

The country that / which / Ø I come from has many economic problems.

The person about whom I was speaking was a great hero.

The person who / that / Ø I was speaking about was a great hero.

This is the pen with which I signed the document.

This is the pen which / that / Ø I signed the document with.

These trees, to whose fruit I’m allergic, are beautiful.

These trees, whose fruit I’m allergic to, are beautiful.

CONTACT CLAUSES

A contact clause is a defining relative clause that omits the relative pronoun (that,
which, who, whom) and must be adjacent to the noun phrase which functions as
antecedent. This is very common in speech because it makes the sentence shorter and
helps it to flow more naturally.

The omission of the relative pronoun is frequent in OBJECT position in defining

relative clauses. The resulting relative clause, lacking any subordinator, is known as a
CONTACT CLAUSE.

I have done all the exercises Ø the teacher gave us for homework. (Od)

I have just read the letter Ø I received yesterday. (Od)

These are the sunglasses Ø Tom wants for his birthday. (Od)

The man Ø you were giving the books to is my English teacher. (Oi)

The woman Ø I bought this present for is my wife. (Oi)

This is the story Ø my mother used to tell me when I was a child. (Oi)

To be my friend, you have to be someone Ø I get along with. (Cprep.)

The person Ø I was speaking about was a great hero. (Cprep.)

This is the pen Ø I signed the document with. (Cprep.)

Sentential relative clauses (Taken and adapted from Quirk et al, 1985. pp. 1118-1123)

Unlike the typical relative clauses we have described so far, which have a noun phrase
as antecedent, the sentential relative clause refers back to the predicate or predication of
a clause, or to a whole clause, or even to a series of sentences: Sentential relative
clauses parallel non-defining postmodifying clauses in noun phrases in that they are
separated by intonation or punctuation from their antecedent. They are commonly
introduced by the relative word “which”.

The word which can function as a pronoun or as a relative determiner of general

abstract nouns such as fact, case, event, or situation, or more specific verbal nouns such
as failure and claim.

The journey was unexpectedly cancelled, which caused numerous problems.

He failed the exam, which surprised us.

He came back from Europe yesterday, which we didn’t expect.

She didn´t know what she had to study, which called my attention.

Colin married my sister and I married his brother, which makes Colin and me double-
in-laws.

The plane may be several hours late, in which case there is no point in our waiting.

The train may have been held up, in which event we are wasting our time.

It might have rained after all, in which situation all our efforts would have been spoilt.

The relative determiner which may be found with prepositions other than “in”:

They were under water for several hours, from which experience they emerged
unharmed.

The last speaker assured the audience that the party would win the election, on which
optimistic note the meeting ended.
The relative pronoun which may function as prepositional complement:

Martin exploded a firecracker during a lesson, as a result of which he was suspended

from school for a week.

Her brother snatched the letter away, at which she was furious.

Deeply worried about the hunters, the woman paid no attention to what the visitor was
saying, for which she later apologised.

He shouted at her, of which he repented later on.

He saved the little child from drowning, of which he is proud.

The choice of relative pronouns: some typical cases

1.“that”cannot be used in non-defining relative clauses; instead, we should use “who”

(for personal antecedents) or “which” (for nonpersonal antecedents).

Puerto Rico, which is an island, has a tropical climate.

My father, who lives in Puerto Rico, works as a doctor.

2. Unlike “who” or “which”, “that” can never be preceded by a preposition. Thus, we

may say “The house in which I live ...”, but if we use that, the preposition must be
relegated to the end as in “The house that I live in ...”

3. “whose” substitutes for his, her, its, their or the possessive form of the noun. It cannot
be omitted from the sentence. “whose” is said to be a relative determiner as it always
precedes a noun and modifies it. We use a relative clause beginning with the relative
determiner whose + noun, particularly in written or academic English, when we talk
about something belonging to or associated with a person, animal, plant, town, country,
organisation, and a wide variety of “belonging to” relationships.
The TOEFL is a test for students whose native language isn’t English.

A student whose homework has a lot of mistakes should do it over.

Yesterday, I met the boy whose sister is a supermodel.

Doris, whose husband is my friend, has just come back from Paris.

Stevenson is an architect whose designs have won international praise.

Sue was taking care of a rabbit whose ears were badly damaged in a fight with a cat.

4. Both “who” or “whom” can be used as objects. In this case, “whom” is considered to
be rather formal.

Professor Johnson, who(m) I have long admired, is to visit us next week.

Jackson, who(m) she has always trusted, has betrayed her.

5. When we use a collective noun as antecedent, we may consider it as denoting an

entity or as denoting a number of individuals, and we should treat it as singular or plural
accordingly. If, for example, we are thinking of a committee as a whole, we treat it as a
thing (singular) and use which; if we are thinking of it as comprising a number of
people, we treat it as personal (plural) and use who. The choice of pronoun depends on
which particular idea is intended, the single entity or the group of individuals, but
students must be careful to be consistent, and should ensure that any other pronouns that
occur in the sentence are singular or plural in agreement with the relative pronoun.

Our Association, which has consistently pressed for greater employment opportunities
for the disabled, will publish its proposals in the near future.

The England’s team, who are now superbly fit, will be doing their best next week to
revenge themselves for last year´s defeat.
6. We can use of which, of whom and of whose, but not usually which, whom or
whose, after all, both, each, many, most, neither, none, part, some, several, a number
(one, two, etc.; the first, the second, etc.; half, a third, etc.) and superlatives (the best,
the biggest, etc.). We do this to add information about part of something or about an
individual from a group already mentioned.

Laura was able to switch between German and Russian, both of which she spoke
fluently.

Sandra has seven children, three of whom are doctors.

She joined the local tennis club, most of whose members were at least 60.

We met two students, neither of whom had attended classes that day.

There were several people outside the house, none of whom saw the thief enter my house.

We saw the photographs, one of which was taken at night.

We entered the classroom, some of whose furniture was quite old.

7. A wide range of prepositions are often used in prepositional structures with relative
pronouns WHO or WHICH to introduce relative clauses. In most cases, the prepositions
retain their original meaning.

The post marks the beginning of the mined area, beyond which it is inadvisable to go.

In the clearing lay the badly injured soldier, above whom birds of prey were circling.

They had collected the sap from which maple syrup is manufactured.

Before us we could see a forest orchid of which there are many varieties.