REDUCED NON-DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES Relative [=adjective] clauses Necessary [=defining; restrictive] clauses Unnecessary [=non-defining] There are two different points which should not
Trang 11 They are followed by a prepositional phrase
A The man who is in the house likes to watch television all day
The man in the house likes to watch television all day
B The books that are on the desk are mine
The books on the desk are mine
2 The main verb in the relative clause is progressive
A The man who is swimming in the lake is my father
The man swimming in the lake is my father
B The clothes that are lying on the floor belong to me
The clothes lying on the floor belong to me
3 The main verb in the relative clause is passive.
A The survey which was conducted by the government did not indicate true public opinion
The survey conducted by the government did not indicate true public opinion.
B The food that was eaten by the mice was poisonous
The food eaten by the mice was poisonous
REDUCED NON-DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSES
Relative [=adjective] clauses
Necessary [=defining; restrictive] clauses
Unnecessary [=non-defining]
There are two different points which should not be confused:
1) Omitting just the relative pronoun if possible
2) Reduction of relative clauses if possible Of course, here relative pronoun will be omitted as well
as some changes on the verb within the relative clause
Concerning the first point, you are absolutely right, because
“The relative pronoun can be omitted ONLY in necessary [defining] adjective [relative] clauses.”
Trang 2What is called “reduction” is something else Here it is not limited to only defining relative clauses
Of course, there are conditions for reducing relative clauses, whether defining or non-defining One grammar book explains as follows:
“An adjective clause can be reduced to an adjective phrase only if the clause (a) begins with who, which, or that as the subject of the clause and (b) contains a be form of the verb … If there is no be form of the verb, it is often possible to omit the relative pronoun and change the verb to its –ing form [present participle].”
You see there is no mention of limiting it to only defining clauses On the section about reduction of full adjective clauses into adjective phrases, that grammar book goes on with this clarifying point, with a warning about preserving the original punctuation:
“If the adjective clause needs commas [i.e non-defining], the adjective phrase also needs commas.” Then these examples are offered:
“Adjective clause: You can get your passport renewed at the Kennedy Building, which is located near the train station
Adjective phrase: You can get your passport renewed at the Kennedy Building, located near the train station.”
Adjective clause: These articles, which were written several years ago, have been published in
several popular magazines
Adjective phrase: These articles, written several years ago, have been published in several popular magazines
Undoubtedly, the examples above are non-defining clauses which have those acceptable reduced forms
A related kind but with different name is appositive phrases:
“Some adjective clauses can be reduced to appositive phrases An appositive phrase is a noun or pronoun with modifiers that is placed after another noun or pronoun to explain it
Adjective clause: History, which is my favorite subject, has always fascinated me
Appositive phrase: History, my favorite subject, has always fascinated me
Because an appositive phrase adds only extra, unnecessary information, it is always set off from the rest of the sentence by commas.”
Clearly, appositive phrases are instances of non-defining relative clauses which are reduced with the same sets of rules
Trang 3SOME OTHER USES:
The person writing reports is my colleague
The above sentence may be interpreted, according to the context, as equivalent to one of the more explicit versions in the following
1 The person who will write reports is my colleague
2 The person who will be writing reports is my colleague
3 The person who writes reports is my colleague
4 The person who is writing reports is my colleague
5 The person who wrote reports is my colleague
6 The person who was writing reports is my colleague
A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, Quirk, et al
However, according to Michael Swan, we should use a relative clause to express a non-progressive meaning
7 The man who threw the bomb was arrested
NOT 8 *The man throwing the bomb was arrested
If Quirk is right, sentence #8 should be acceptable, shouldn't it?
If Swan is right, the underlined sentence cannot normally be interpreted as 1, 3, or 5
Who do you think is right, Quirk or Swan?