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“The Relative Pronoun” As Has Been the Case in the Last Several Chapters CHAPTER 17 “Te Relatve Pronoun” As has been te case in te last several chaptrs, tis chaptr realy doesn’t confont te neophyt wit a lot of new grammatcal concepts; it builds on knowledge already mastred. Stl it’s going t take a litle patence, but we’l go slowly. Before we get t te relatve pronoun per se, we’re going t clean up a syntactcal point you’ve already been working wit, but may not have yet a firm conceptual understanding of. Let’s look at what we mean by a “clause”. THE CLAUSE You al remember te junior high school definiton of a sentnce: it’s a complet tought. And by tat we mean a tought which includes a noun, eiter expressed or implied, and a verb, eiter expressed or implied. Tat is, a complet tought must involve someting which is doing someting or which is being held up for descripton: “Te road is blocked”; “Te tee fel down”; and so on. Now, te human mind is a wonderfl ting. It reasons and perceives dozens of different kinds relatonships between events, tings, and ideas. It arranges events and facts logicaly and tmporaly, and in levels of priorit. Tat is t say, it takes two or more tings, tings which are separat ideas, separat visions, and weaves tem tgeter conceptualy and linguistcaly int what we “reasoning”. Te way tis reasoning is expressed in language is caled “syntax”, which litraly means “arranging tgeter”; puting tgeter events and tings and facts. For example, te two separat ideas or visions -- “te road is blocked” and “te tee fel down” -- might have a causal relatonship, which te mind instantly recognizes and expresses linguistcaly wit an appropriat conjuncton: “Te road is blocked because te tee fel down”. Te conjuncton “because” in tis example is speling out te relatonship te speaker perceives between te two ideas. It’s arranging tem int a cause and effect relatonship: tat te tee fel down is a fact, and because of tat fact, te road is now blocked. Each tought, idea, or event, when it is expressed in language, is a caled a clause. Hence te sentnce “te road is blocked because te tee fel” contains two “clauses”: te fact tat te tee fel is expressed in one clause, and te fact tat te road is blocked forms anoter “clause”. It’s possible for a sentnce t contain only one clause, as in “Roses are red”. It’s also possible for a sentnce t contain an ungodly number of clauses. See wheter you can spot al te clauses -- tat is separat toughts -- in tis sentnce: “Since we are looking for te ideal oratr, we must use our powers of oratry t portay a speaker fee fom al possible faults and endowed wit every possible merit; for tough it is undeniable tat te large number of lawsuits, te great variet or public questons, te ilitrat masses who make te audience of our public speakers, offer a field t ever te most defectve oratrs, we wil not for tat reason despair of finding what we want” (Cicero, On te Oratr, 26). Let’s back up and take a look at a sting of unsubordinatd clauses. (Te speaker’s name is George.) “Te dog is mean. Te dog lives next door. One day te dog bit George. George kicked te dog. George’s neighbor came out of te house. George’s neighbor owns te dog. George’s neighbor screamed at George. George’s neighbor caled te police. Te police came. Te dog bit te police. Te police shot te dog. George is happy. Te dog is dead”. We don’t talk like tis because our language has developed a whole systm of conjunctons and pronouns which alows us (1) t avoid al te unneeded repetton of nouns and (2) t make te logical and tmporal relatonships between toughts explicit. Tere are a hundred ways t cast tis sting of events and facts which make fl use of range of linguistc apparatus English makes available t us. Here’s only one: “Te dog tat lives next door is mean, and one day he bit me. So I kicked him. My neighbor, who owns te dog, came out of te house and screamed at me. Ten he caled te police. When tey came, te dog bit tem to, so tey shot it. I am happy te dog is dead”. You can see here al kinds of linkage between tese toughts, and al kinds of different linguistc apparatus tat makes it possible. Te kind of linkage we’re intrestd in now is te “relatve clause”. Let’s look at how it’s done. ENGLISH RELATIVE CLAUSES Here’s a bare bones definiton of a relatve clause: “A relatve clause is a subordinat clause which acts like an adjectve by providing additonal informaton about a noun in anoter clause”. Now here’s an example showing te evoluton of te relatve clause. CLAUSE 1: “Te five o’clock tain is never on tme”. CLAUSE 2: “Hundreds of people take te five o’clock tain”. Te two clauses have someting in common: te five o’clock tain. Two separat facts have been identfied about tis tain: it’s never on tme and hundreds of people take it. A speaker may arrange tese two clauses however he wishes, subject only t te idea he wished t convey t his listner. If, for example, te most important ting he wants his listner t know about te tain is tat it is lat al te tme, clause 1 wil have t be logicaly and syntactcaly “superior” t te fact contained in clause 2. Tat is t say, te fact in clause 2 -- tat hundreds of people take te five o’clock tain -- wil be added simply as additonal informaton about te tain. In grammatcal circles we cal te most important element in te sentnce te “main” or “ordinat” or “independent clause”; we cal any oter clause a “subordinat” or “dependent clause”, because it is, in a real sense, a subordinat, a worker in te employment of te main clause. So let’s assume tat te most important fact te speaker wants t get across is contained in clause 1, and tat clause 2 is going t be worked in only as subordinat matrial. How is tis going t happen. STEP 1: Substtut “te five o’clock tain” in clause 2 wit te appropriat pronoun. Te pronoun wil refer te listner t te noun statd in clause 1. CLAUSE 1: “Te five o’clock tain is never on tme”. CLAUSE 2: “Hundreds of people take it”. Now hold on. Why did we chose “it” as te appropriat pronoun t reproduce “te five o’clock tain” in clause 2? Wel, te noun which te pronoun has t reproduce is singular in number and inanimat, so “it” is te correct choice. Next, what case is “it” in? Look, it’s actng as te object of te verb “take” in its clause, so “it” is in te objectve (or accusatve) case. (Tis was just a review. You already know tat pronouns get teir number and gender fom teir antcedents, but get teir case fom te way tey’re being used in teir own clause.) STEP 2: Embed te subordinat clause int main clause. SENTENCE: “Te five o’clock tain -- hundreds of people take it -- is never on tme”. We could almost stp here. Te two sentnces have been merged int one, and clause 2 has been subordinatd t te idea in clause 1. Tat is t say, te stucture of clause 1 forms te main architcture of te new sentnce. But English developed a frter modificaton t work tese two clauses int one sentnce. It replaces te pronoun of te subordinat clause wit a pronoun which indicats witout a doubt tat te clause coming up is dependent, or subordinat t, te clause which has just been intrruptd. We replace te pronoun wit te relatve pronoun “who, which” in te proper case and move it t te beginning of te clause. Now te two clauses have been completly welded int one sentnce. STEP 3: Substtut and move te pronoun. SENTENCE: “Te five o’clock tain, which hundreds of people take, is never on tme”. And tere you have it. Clause 2 has been fly incorporatd int te message of te first clause. As soon as you read te relatve pronoun “which” in tis sentnce, your mind autmatcaly understands two tings: (1) te clause coming up is not as important as te clause you’ve just left and (2) te clause coming up is going t give you more informaton about some ting in te main clause. So tis sentnce is saying someting like tis: “te five o’clock tain -- which, by te by, hundreds of people take -- is never on tme”. And one last pesky queston: what case is “which” in? It’s in te objectve (or accusatve) case because it is stl te object of te verb in te relatve clause: “take”. Remember, number and gender fom te antcedent, but case fom its clause. Now let’s go back t te two clauses when tey were independent toughts. CLAUSE 1: “Te five o’clock tain is never on tme”. CLAUSE 2: “Hundreds of people take te five o’clock tain”. It’s also possible tat main idea te speaker wishes t get across is te fact contained in clause 2 and wil have t subordinat clause 1 int clause 2, in which case clause 2 wil provide te basic architcture for te new sentnce.
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