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1. Relative
clauses.
a) standard forms b) omission of relative
pronouns,
c) qualifying a whole sentence, d) whose and
of whose.
A: Relative pronouns: the fundamental structures
common in written English:
A1. For humans we use the following forms:
who
(subject form), whom
(object form), whom
(after propositions), whose
(possessive form).
We can also use that
as a subject or object form; this is particularly common in American English.
A2. For inanimates (things) we use
the following forms:
which
(subject and object forms), which
(after prepositions), whose
(possessive form).
We can also use that
as a subject or object form in both British and American English.
Note that whose
is the only form of who that can be used with inanimates.
Examples:
A10: The man who
bought my old car was Canadian.
The man that
bought my old car was Canadian.
A11: The people whom
you saw were not wearing hats.
The people that
you saw were not wearing hats.
A12: The womanto
whom you were talking is my sister.
The person from
whom I got this guitar is very famous.
A13: The man whose
child won the prize was very happy
A 20: The house which
fell down was badly built..
The house that
fell down was badly built.
A21: The book which
I've just read is very interesting
The book that
I've just read is very interesting.
A22a: The wine with
which he celebrated was very good.
The name by
which he was known was not his real name.
A23: The school whose
students did best was not well known.
B: Omission of the relative pronoun.
Often, particularly in spoken English, the relative pronoun is omitted
when it refers to the OBJECT of the relative clause.
Thus examples A11 and A21 can be rephrased as:
B11: The people you saw were not wearing hats.
B11: The book I've just read is very
interesting.
The relative pronoun is often frequently omitted
in prepositional relative clauses, particularly in spoken English;
but in these cases, the preposition moves to the end
of the relative clause.
Thus examples A12 and A22 could be rephrased
as:
B12: The woman
you were talking to
is
my sister.
The person I got this guitar
from
is
very famous.
B22: The wine he celebrated with
was
very good.
The name he was known by
was
not his real name.
C: Relative clauses which qualify a whole sentence,
not
just a noun:
The relative clause is introduced by which,
never that or what.
C1. He drank too much, which is why he was sick.
C2. It was raining yesterday, which was rather a pity.
D: Whose and of whose
For uses of whose, see group A above.
Of whose occurs when
whose is modified by a quantifier,
such as some of, many of, a few of, one of, two of , or by
a specifier such as the best of, the first of.
Examples:
D1 The man, one of
whose sons was ill, could not come.
D2 The house, some of
whose windows were broken, was for sale.
D3 The artist, the best of whose
paintings were stolen, was very angry.
D4 The writer, the first of whose
novels won a prize, has not written any more books recently.
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