Problems in acquiring the english relative clause of english majored freshmen at binh dinh college m a 60 14 10

Following other currently used English grammar materials now, there are also two kinds of relative clauses: defining and non-defining relative clauses.. Eckersley, A Comprehensive Engli

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY–HOCHIMINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE

PROBLEMS IN ACQUIRING THE ENGLISH RELATIVE CLAUSE OF ENGLISH – MAJORED FRESHMEN AT BINH DINH COLLEGE

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature

in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled:

PROBLEMS IN ACQUIRING THE ENGLISH RELATIVE CLAUSE OF ENLGISH - MAJORED FRESHEN AT BINH DINH COLLEGE

in terms of the statement of Requirements for Theses

in Master’s Programmes issued by the High Degree Committee

Ho Chi Minh City, May 2011

VÕ THỊ KIỀU DIỄM

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, VÕ THỊ KIỀU DIỄM, being the candidate for the degree of Master of TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for care, loan or reproduction of theses

Ho Chi Minh City, May 2011

VÕ THỊ KIỀU DIỄM

Second, I also would like to send all my thanks to all the teachers of the Department of English Linguistics and Literature, Ho Chi Minh University of Social Sciences and Humanities They provided me with good knowledge about every aspect related to my thesis

Third, my sincere thanks are also sent to all of my colleagues in the Foreign Languages Department at Binh Dinh College for their willingness to respond to the interviewed questions

Last but not least, I would like to thank my family for their deep understanding, support and warm encouragement

ABSTRACT

English is growing more and more important not only for the all-sided development of a country but also for our everyday communication And when talking about English, four skills such as listening, reading, speaking and writing have been paid much attention to in the course of teaching and learning the language Besides, English grammar plays a crucial role both in communication and in language acquisition Most of students at Binh Dinh College are trained to become teachers of English in the future So to master English grammar is a must for them

There are lots of points about English grammar, but during the teaching time for BDC students, it has been clearly seen that the majority of

my students at BDC have made so many mistakes in using English relative clauses that I have made up my mind to conduct a thesis aiming at: (1) investigating the first-year English – majored students’ problems in learning English relative clauses at Binh Dinh College; (2) finding out the causes to these problems and from what have been found out, some recommendations have been provided for teachers of English as well as students for better teaching and learning

In order to achieve valuable and reliable data, the survey was carried out and based on the questionnaire delivered to 98 English majored freshmen, an interview to 15 teachers of the Foreign Languages Department, and a proficiency test for these student participants With the findings of the study, the thesis author primarily recommends that (1) the teachers need to know their students’ needs and English levels so as to decide what kind of English grammar book should be used in the course of teaching and learning ERC; (2) the students need to know what the effective method in learning ERC is and try their utmost to successfully apply it in the process of learning ERC

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ERC : English Relative Clause BDC : Binh Dinh College

LIST OF FIGURES

Chapter 2

Figure 3 A hierarchy of syntactic choices defining the verb clause for a

relative comment ………20

Figure 4 General form of phrase structure for a relative clause where the

topic is the subject of the clause ………21

Figure 5 General form of phrase structure for a comment with main

verb……… 21

Chapter 4

Figure 4.1 ERC’s translation frequency rate ……… …55

LIST OF TABLES

Chapter 3

Table 3.1 The participants’ background information ……… …42

Chapter 4

Table 4.1 Students’ evaluation of their English grammar knowledge 47

Table 4.2 Understanding some aspects of ERC……… …….49

Table 4.3 Understanding the ERC from the teacher or grammar book.…52

Table 4.4 Possible causes to the students’ problems……….54

Table 4.5 Students’ mistakes about relative clauses……….57

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1 1

INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background to the study 1

1.2 Aims of the study 3

1.3 Significance of the study 3

1.4 Organization of the thesis 4

CHAPTER 2 6

LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Relative clause 6

2.1.1 Definitions and the syntactic role of the relative clause in sentences 6 2.1.2 Kinds of relative clause 10

2.1.2.1 Defining relative clauses (also called identifying relative clauses or restrictive relative clauses) 11

2.1.2.2 Non-defining relative clause (also called identifying or non-restrictive relative clauses) 13

2.1.2.3 Omission of relative pronouns in relative clauses 15

2.1.3 Characteristics of relative clauses 17

2.1.4 Relative clauses introduced by relative pronouns, relative adverbs and other words 22

2.1.4.2 INDEFINITE RELATIVE PRONOUNS 24

2.1.4.3 RELATIVE ADVERBS 26

2.1.4.4 BUT and AS 27

2.1.4.5 Cleft sentences: it + be + noun/ pronoun + defining relative clause 29

2.1.5 Vietnamese relative clauses 30

2.1.5.1 Relative clause as subject complement 30

2.1.5.2 Relative clause as object complement 31

2.1.5.3 Apposition 31

2.1.5.4 Possessive case 31

2.1.6 English relative clauses 31

2.1.6.1 Relative pronoun as subject and object 32

2.1.6.2 Relative pronoun as object and prepositional complement 32

2.1.6.3 Relative pronoun as adverbial 32

2.1.6.4 Relative pronoun as complement 33

2.1.6.5 Sentential relative clauses 33

2.2 Factors affecting the students’ acquiring of the English relative clauses

34

2.2.1 The learner 34

2.2.2 The teacher 35

2.2.3 Grammar materials 35

2.3 An overview of typical difficulties for learners in acquiring the English relative clauses 36

2.3.1 Comprehension 36

2.3.2 Speaking and writing 36

2.3.2.1 Using unnecessary pronouns 36

2.3.2.2 Using the wrong relative pronoun 37

2.4 Tips for teaching English relative clauses 37

2.4.1 Teaching English relative clause by Thomas Lavelle 37

2.4.2 Fun with Relative Clause Game 39

CHAPTER 3 41

METHODOLOGY 41

3.1 Research questions 41

3.2 Subjects 41

3.3 Instruments 43

3.3.1 Survey questionnaire 43

3.3.2 Test 44

3.3.3 Teachers’ interviews 44

3.4 Assumptions 44

CHAPTER 4 46

DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 46

4.1 Findings 46

4.1.1 Students’ responses to questionnaire 46

4.1.1.1 Students’ knowledge about the ERC 47

4.1.2 Teachers’ responses to the interview 59

4.2 Analysis of BDC students’ mistakes in acquiring ERC 60

4.2.1 Fragment 60

4.2.2 Defining or non-defining relative clause 61

4.2.3 Introductory words 62

4.2.4 Relative clause with ‘But’ 62

4.2.5 Shift in tense 63

4.2.6 Wrong modifying 64

4.2.7 Omission 64

4.2.8 Object of a preposition 64

4.2.9 Relative adverbs: when, where, why 65

4.3 Possible causes to these problems 65

4.3.1 The native language 65

4.3.2 The learning curriculum 66

4.3.3 The materials 67

5.1 Conclusions 70

5.2.1 Recommendations to teachers 71

5.2.2 Recommendations to students 72

5.3 Limitation 72

APPENDIX A 74

QUESTIONNAIRE (IN ENGLISH) 74

APPENDIX B 80

CÂU HỎI KHẢO SÁT (IN VIETNAMESE) 80

APPENDIX C 86

A TEST IN USING ENGLISH RELATIVE CLAUSES (30 MINS) 86

APPENDIX D 89

QUESTIONS FOR INTERVIEW (IN ENGLISH) 89

APPENDIX E 90

CÂU HỎI PHỎNG VẤN (IN VIETNAMESE) 90

BIBLIOGRAPHY 91

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

The thesis is to investigate problems associated with the acquiring of the English relative clause of the first-year majored students at Binh Dinh College and to suggest some solutions to solve the problems found This chapter provides readers with the background to the study, states the aim as well as the significance of the thesis, and presents the organization of all the chapters

1.1 Background to the study

English is one of the most important languages in the world It can even be said to be the most important language It is considered to be the only language that truly links the whole world together If not for English, the whole world may not be as united as it is today With respect to the vast global presence of this language, 85% of international organizations in the world make official use of English, at least 85% of the world’s film market

is in English and more than 65% of scientific papers in several important academic fields are published in English [Crystal, 1997]

Since the open-door policy came into existence in 1986, foreign languages, especially English, have become more and more important in Vietnam and English learning is in great demand English has been taught in every school and has even become a major in several colleges or universities such as Binh Dinh College, Quy Nhon University, etc

Binh Dinh College was established 12 years ago At first, it had the name of Binh Dinh Teacher Training College with the purpose of training and providing all the teachers for secondary and primary schools But now with the rapid development of all the country, the training curriculum is not only limited in training teachers but also expanded into much more different professions Therefore, Binh Dinh Teacher Training College was renamed

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into Binh Dinh College in May, 2009 The number of teachers as well as students has increased since then, and English has been taught for all classes

at the college, too

The significant characteristic of the college is that there are also a lot

of English-majored classes here such as 2 third-year classes with 100 students, 3 second-year classes with 110 students and 4 first-year classes with 180 students These students have been being instructed by lots of experienced teachers who have already had M.A qualifications foreign and domestically granted The training programs are also suitable for them who either want to become teachers at secondary schools or want to do some other jobs at companies Whoever they become - teachers or interpreters or translators or office workers etc., being good at Grammar is always a vital means to help them get more promotion

When being interviewed which subjects were the most difficult ones, the students often responded that they were writing and listening In their opinions, it is also easy to speak English, to make listeners understand what you are saying by using simple sentences, but it is very difficult to write well because one essay cannot include all the simple or short sentences A good essay must contain a lot of interesting ideas expressed by some complex or compound sentences And in order to do that well, the students must depend

a lot on Grammar, especially relative clauses, which will make sentences long enough but still interesting and attractive to readers

According to Martin Parrott, course materials often introduce relative clauses only at late intermediate or advanced levels, and may expect that students learn all the important features together The first-year English majors at Binh Dinh College whose level is not as good as university students’ still have difficulty in getting a deep understanding about Relative clauses and practicing them in communication Maybe this is due to time limitation, boring class atmosphere, or its ill-organized presentation in a

lesson unit, leading to students’ shortage of knowledge and lack of confidence to use it communicatively Therefore, the M.A thesis entitled

‘Problems in acquiring the English relative clause of English-majored freshmen at Binh Dinh College’ has been carried out with an attempt to find ways to solve them

1.2 Aims of the study

With the results of some previous studies and the experiences of teachers at BDC as well as the author herself, the thesis is aimed to explore the current situation of teaching and learning English Grammar of the English majored freshmen at this college in order to find out the common mistakes that our first-year students make during the time of acquiring the English relative clauses and the causes to these mistakes as well Based on these findings, the researcher offers some recommendations for both teachers and students to improve the acquiring and teaching of the ERC in particular, and English grammar in general

1.3 Significance of the study

Richard, Jack C (1974) emphasized the significance of learner’s mistakes: “the major contribution of the linguist to language teaching was seen as an intensive contrastive study of the systems of the second language and the mother tongue of the learner; out of this would come an inventory of the areas of difficulty which the learner would encounter and the value of this inventory would be to direct the teacher’s attention to these areas so that

he might devote special care and emphasis in his teaching to the overcoming,

or even avoiding of these predicted difficulties.” This point of view led the researcher to this study to find the mistakes which the learners often make when acquiring English relative clauses

It is commonly believed that in English there are only four basic skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing and a good learner is one who can master these skills well However, in order to have good knowledge of these

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skills, the learners need a good understanding of grammar, which is also the foundation for learning the other aspects Of all basic grammatical points, the English relative clause is a really important one which should be put into special consideration Understanding this grammar point well could help students write an interesting essay as long as possible with all kinds of sentences, e.g simple; compound; and complex sentences

Relative clause plays a very important part in English Grammar and mastering it contributes greatly to students’ English performance However,

in reality, most students at BDC, even those whose major is English, still find it difficult to understand this point well These shortcomings are caused not only by themselves but also by other factors like teachers of English, study curricular and so on What have been above-mentioned encourages the author to conduct this study with the hope of knowing exactly the existing problems and partially helping students get over them by giving out some implications for teaching the English relative clause Also, its similarities and differences with Vietnamese should be found to make students find it less difficult in their acquisition

1.4 Organization of the thesis

The thesis opens with the introductory chapter followed by other three chapters and closes with the conclusion chapter

The thesis is structured in five chapters:

Chapter 1 introduces 4 sections: the background of the study, the

significance, the aims and the overview of the study

Chapter 2 covers the literature review which presents the theoretical

background and some previous researches related to the thesis

Chapter 3 expounds the methodology of the study It provides a

description of subjects and instruments of the study including the class observation, questionnaire to students and an interview to teachers

Chapter 4 states the data analysis methodology and analyses the

students’ responses to their survey questions, teachers’ responses to the interview and discusses what have been accumulated from class observation The data analysis is to find out the problems in acquiring the English relative clause of the subject students

Chapter 5 suggests some recommendations to solve the problems

found in the study The thesis conclusion is also presented in the chapter

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CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Relative clause

2.1.1 Definitions and the syntactic role of the relative clause in sentences

There have been many definitions about the relative clause so far

According to Azar, B.S (1989), a clause is a group of words containing a subject and a verb An independent clause is a complete sentence It

contains the main subject and verb of a sentence (It is also called a main

clause.) A dependent clause is not a complete sentence It must be connected

to an independent clause A relative clause is dependent clause that modifies

a noun It describes, identifies, or gives further information about a noun (It

is also called an adjective clause.)

e.g.: I thanked the woman

She helped me

(a) I thanked the woman who helped me

(b) I thanked the woman that helped me

(Azar, Understanding & Using English Grammar, p.264)

In (a), (b): I thanked the woman = an independent clause

who helped me = an adjective clause

that helped me = an adjective clause

who, that are the subject of the adjective clause

The adjective clause modifies the noun woman

On the other hand, Jacobs (1993) defines relative clauses as specialized constructions used to provide identifying information, but they are not the only means of providing such information Ordinary sentences that communicate propositions can also be used to identify entities Consider the following dialogue:

Colette: I met that lawyer again yesterday

Suzanne: The one working on the Oceanside case?

Colette: No, the bald one Don’t you remember? You had an

Suzanne: Oh, him! He’s an idiot What did he say?

(Jacobs, English Syntax, p.303)

Here the function of identification is fulfilled by the ordinary sentence You

had an argument with him last month This sentence has no special structure

to mark its identifying function But the same identifying function can be fulfilled more economically in a relative clause:

I met the lawyer that you had an argument with

According to Jacobs, relative clauses (also called adjective clauses) are clauses linked to a noun in their container clause, frequently with a wh form like the relative pronouns which and whom They typically differ from

other embedded clauses in having one constituent missing or, if it includes a relative pronoun, out of its expected order

A relative clause is formed when one clause is embedded into an NP

of another clause to produce structures like the following (relative clauses are underlined):

1 The board dismissed [the teacher who flunked me]

2 [The jewels that he bought] were fakes

(Finegan, Language-its structure and use, p.144)

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Finegan (1994) indicates that when two clauses share a pair of coreferential NPs, a relative clause is formed by embedding one clause into the other, as

in this illustration, in which identical indexes indicate coreferential NPs:

I sent your book to my auntj my auntj lives in Dublin

I sent your book to my auntj whoj lives in Dublin

A relative NP can also be an oblique as in 1 or a possessor as in 2:

1 This is the officer whom I told you about

2 This is the officer whose car was vandalized

(Finegan, p.145)

Thus, in English a relativized NP can have the following grammatical relations within its clause: subject, direct object, oblique, or possessor

COMP Node: Finegan also analyses the syntactic processes associated with

relative clause formation in English, the “gap’ in the structure is indicated by the dash

1 There’s the teacher that I warned you about

David Lodge wrote the books I read the books

In order to produce the relative clause structure given in 2, the relativized NP

the books is pronominalized and moved to the front of its clause by the

WH-movement transformation that we described for information questions In

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this tree diagram, there is a node labeled COMP (for ‘complementizer’), which we have not previously identified It is possible to discuss WH-movement transformation for relative clauses without utilizing the COMP node, but there is evidence that such node exists and serves as a magnet or landing site for the movement of WH-constituents Thus the COMP node

attracts WH-constituents, such as that, which, who, and other relative

pronouns, as well as the WH-constituents of information questions

David Lodge wrote the books which I read

2.1.2 Kinds of relative clause

According to Jacobs, there are two major types of relative clauses in

English Restrictive relative clauses are embedded clauses used to identify a

noun phrase referent by providing further information to narrow down the

reference; appositive or nonrestrictive relative clauses also provide

additional information about a noun phrase referent that has already been adequately identified, so the new information is not needed for identification There is a structural difference, too

A restrictive relative clause is embedded inside a noun phrase and follows its head But there is one important difference from other clauses embedded inside noun phrases As we will see, a relative clause is not a complement of the head noun A constituent structure tree would therefore not show the embedded clause as a sister of the head noun

Restrictive relative clause comes in quite varied forms There are both finite and nonfinite relative clauses; the finite clauses can be relative clauses indicating place, time, and other perspectives In addition, there are participial modifiers, which are essentially another type of relative clause Following other currently used English grammar materials now, there are also two kinds of relative clauses: defining and non-defining relative clauses

2.1.2.1 Defining relative clauses (also called identifying relative

clauses or restrictive relative clauses)

These are clauses that are essential for the basic meaning of a sentence; they are not parentheses and therefore their omission will affect the basic meaning They define the noun and identify which thing or person we are referring to Defining relative clauses are not put in commas

The student who got the highest score was Mai

The book which you sent me was interesting

(Department of English, Practical English Grammar, p.212)

Thank you for your help that you have given me

(C E Eckerskey & J M Eckersley, A Comprehensive

English Grammar, p.324)

In all these sentences the relative clause is a necessary part of the idea

If it is left out, the sentence does not make complete sense All these clauses define the antecedent and give it definite connotation, they indicate which student out of a numbered students, which book out of thousands of books

*Rockall is an uninhabited island which/that lies north west of

mainland Scotland

*We have a friend who/that plays the piano

(Hewings, Advanced Grammar in Use, p.140)

In the following sentences the relative pronoun is the object Notice

that there is a noun (or pronoun) between the relative pronoun and the verb

in the relative clause In this case, we can use a zero relative pronoun:

*He showed me the rocks (which/that) he had brought back

from Australia

*That’s the man (who/that) I met at Allison’s party

(Hewings, Advanced Grammar in Use, p.140)

We can use whom instead of who as object, although whom is very

formal:

*She’s an actress whom most people think is at the peak of her

career

We use that as subject after something or anything; words such as all,

little, much, and none used as nouns, and superlatives We use that or zero relative pronoun as object after these:

*These walls are all that remain of the city (not … all which

Relative pronouns used in defining relative clauses:

For

persons

who that

whom/who that

whose

For things which

that

which that

whose/of which

(Thomson & Martinet, 1986)

2.1.2.2 Non-defining relative clause (also called non-identifying

or non-restrictive relative clauses)

These are clauses that are not essential for the basic meaning of a sentence, they are like parentheses and they can therefore be omitted without affecting the basic meaning [Practical English Grammar, 1995] Unlike defining relatives, they are separated from their noun by commas The construction is fairly formal and more common in written than in spoken English (Thomson & Martinet, 1986)

Bernard Shaw, who wrote St John, died in 1950

The first lesson, which will deal with the program, should not

be missed

(Department of English, Practical English Grammar, p.212)

In these sentences the adjective clause could be omitted and the rest of the sentence would still make perfect sense The adjective clauses here are a kind of parenthesis, a casual remark or an explanation They could be written

14

between dashes and brackets They do not define the antecedent What they

do is to give additional information about an antecedent which has already been sufficiently defined They are therefore called non-defining clauses When we use a non-defining relative clause to add information about a thing or a group of things, we use which as the subject or object of the clause:

*These drugs, which are used to treat stomach ulcers, have

been withdrawn from sale

*That Masters course, which I took in 1990, is no longer taught

at the college

(Hewings, Advanced Grammar in Use, p.140)

The scientist, whose work is very important, has been made a

knight

(C E Eckerskey & J M Eckersley, A

Comprehensive English Grammar, p.325)

Notice we don’t use zero relative pronouns in a non-defining relative

clause

When we want to add information about the whole or a part of a particular number of things or people we can use a non-defining relative

clause with of which or of whom after words such as all, both, each, many,

most, neither, none, part, some, a number (one, two, etc.; the first, the

second, etc.; half, a third, etc.) and superlatives (the best, the biggest, etc.)

(Hewings, 1999)

*The bank was held up by a group of men, three of whom were

said to be armed

*The President has made many visits to Japan, the most recent

of which began today

(Hewings, Advanced Grammar in Use, p.140)

Relative pronouns used in non- defining relative clauses:

(Thomson & Martinet, 1986)

2.1.2.3 Omission of relative pronouns in relative clauses

2.1.2.3.1 Zero relative pronouns

We can leave out the pronoun when it is not the subject of the relative clause Clauses without pronouns are very common in informal English

The woman Gary met knows your sister

The parcel I posted on Monday still hasn’t got there

But we cannot leave out the pronoun when it is the subject

The man who was sitting next to Angela never said a word

(Eastwood, Oxford Guide to English Grammar p.361)

He is the kindest man (that) I know

(C E Eckerskey & J M Eckersley, A

Comprehensive English Grammar, p.327)

Clauses like these, in which the relative pronouns are omitted, are sometimes called CONTACT CLAUSES

The relative pronoun can also be omitted in a defining clause

introduced by there is (was):

The 9.15 train is the fastest train (that) there is to Oxford

I asked for the best book (that) there was on the subject

(C E Eckerskey & J M Eckersley, A

Comprehensive English Grammar, p.327)

Summary of the Usage of Relative Pronouns in Adjective Clauses

to whom, (that)

…to whose

which, that which, (that)

to whom whose

which which

Applications sent in after 23rd March will not be considered

(= applications which are sent in)

Stones thrown at the train by vandals smashed two windows (= stones which were thrown at the train)

(Eastwood, p.364)

Compare the sentences:

1 All the books, which had pictures in them, were sent to the little

girl

(She got all the books.) NON-DEFINING CLAUSE

2 All the books which had pictures in them were sent to the little girl

(She had only those books which had pictures in them.) DEFINING CLAUSE

(C E Eckerskey & J M Eckersley, p.325)

2.1.3 Characteristics of relative clauses

In the book “The Syntax of Some English Relative Clauses”, D.Kathryn Weintraub, University of Chicago analyzes the structure of a relative clause According to him, in English, a subordinate clause consists

of two immediate constituents: the clause marker and the remainder of the

clause In the case of a relative clause these two constituents are termed the

relative topic and the relative comment

* The relative topic

The relative topic is peculiar to the relative clause It imposes restrictions on the form of the relative comment which are not found in other forms of clause Moreover, because of the relative topic, the relative clause appears to differ significantly from other forms of subordinate clause

The relative topic fulfills at least three functions within the clause First, it is a form of clause marker It identifies the specific form of subordinate clause In this function, the relative topic is similar to a word such as ‘when’ which introduces a type of adverbial subordinate clause, or to

a phrase such as ‘whether or not’ which identifies one form of subordinate complement clause

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Second, the relative topic is pronominal in function It explicitly refers

to an antecedent which is not a part of the relative clause In this way, the topic introduces into the relative clause those restrictions of the antecedent which can be expressed by pronominal reference Thus, unlike other forms

of subordinate clause, the constructions within the relative clause must be restricted to those which are coordinate with a construction of the containing clause

Third, the relative topic fulfills a syntactic function within the relative clause The construction which would otherwise fulfill this function within the clause does not occur within the relative comment The function could, for example, be that of the subject of the clause or an object of the clause

*The relative comment

All relative comments exhibit certain characteristics First, obviously, the comment is restricted to those clause types which could, otherwise, include an element representing that particular syntactic function which, in the relative clause, is represented by the topic

Second, there are several sentence patterns which cannot occur within any relative clause These same patterns are also prohibited in at least some other forms of subordinate clause These patterns include all forms of question construction, propredicates, and certain forms of inversion

There are three forms of question in English These forms are exemplified in the sentences:

Question word: Who baked the cakes?

Inverted question: Has she baked the cakes?

Tag question: She baked the cakes, didn’t she?

None of these constructions is permissible within a relative clause The question-word construction appears to contradict this assertion because it is

formally similar to those relative clauses where the relative topic includes one of the pronouns ‘who’, ‘whom’, ‘which’, or ‘whose’, for example:

The woman who baked the cakes sold them in the bakery at Main and

(D.Kathryn Weintraub, 1970) However, the two constructions are not identical They differ in intonation Their role within a sentence differs They include some different forms of constructions and, therefore, are chosen from different substitution classes A question-word construction is either an independent sentence:

Who baked the cakes?

or the complement of a governing verb:

John asked who baked the cakes

while the corresponding relative-clause constructions are attributive to a noun (or pronoun) Thus the two constructions, even when formally similar,

do not fulfill the same role within the sentence

Finally, question-word sentences and relative clauses differ in what Elinor Charney has called their abstract meaning The question-word construction asserts that there is a person such that he or she has baked the cakes and asks the identity of that person The corresponding relative-clause construction either restricts the class of ‘woman’ to the one that baked the cakes or, if the clause is nonrestrictive, identifies ‘the woman’ (of whom there is only one within the universe of the discourse) as the one who, incidentally, baked the cakes Thus, the question-word structures, though similar to some forms of relative clause, are not identical

There are three main types of syntactic relation between the topic and the comment These are shown in Figure 3 When the relative topic is the

subject of the relative clause (2.21 of fig.3), there are no syntactic limitations

on the type of verb in the comment and any subject can co-occur with any

type of verb in the comment If the topic is not a subject (1.22 of fig.3), there

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are several forms of restriction upon the comment These divide into two main classes: those where the syntactic function of the topic is a function if its relation to the main verb within the comment:

John refused to wear any sweater which Joan might crochet

and those where the syntactic function of the topic is a function of its relation

to the verb of the verbal complement within the comment:

John refused to wear the sweater which Joan had promised to crochet

These two types are called ‘comments with main verb’ and ‘comments with verbal complements’

1.1 The hierarchy of syntactic choices defining the verb classes for a relative comment

1.221 Comment with main verb

1.222 Comment with verbal complement

FIG.3 A hierarchy of syntactic choices defining the verb

clause for a relative comment

1.21

Subject

1.22 Not a subject

Relative clause

Topic Comment

FIG.4 General form of phrase structure for a relative clause where

the topic is the subject of the clause

Relative clause

22

FIG.5 General form of phrase structure for a comment with main

verb

(D.Kathryn Weintraub, University of Chicago)

2.1.4 Relative clauses introduced by relative pronouns, relative adverbs and other words

2.1.4.1 RELATIVE PRONOUNS

A relative pronoun agrees with its antecedent in person, number, and

gender, but not in case

* Who / which

who is used for a person and which is for a thing or an idea

It was a dream which came true

I met the girl who is substituting for your brother

(Hormer C House & Harman, Descriptive English Grammar, p.351)

Who is substituting for your brother is the adjective clause: it describes and identifies girl, the object complement of the principal clause Who is the relative pronoun which connects (relates) the two clauses It is nominative case because it is the subject of the relative clause Who is used for a person

* Whom John is the man whom everybody trusts

(Hormer C House & Harman, Descriptive English Grammar, p.352)

Whom everybody trusts is the adjective clause The clause modifies man, a predicate nominative Whom is in the objective case because it is the direct object of the finite verb in the relative clause it introduces

* Whose

Jones is the man whose conscience does not permit him to lie

(Hormer C House & Harman, Descriptive

English Grammar, p.354)

The adjective clause is here introduced by a relative pronoun in the possessive case Observe that the entire clause modifies and restricts the noun man, which in turn refers to and is identical with Jones

24

(Hormer C House & Harman, Descriptive English Grammar, p.355)

Observe that this sentence has inverted word order, and that the subject of the principal clause comes after its predicate The relative pronoun that does not inflect to indicate person, number, or gender; but its use in its clause tells us that it is nominative case; and its antecedent, head, tells us that

it is neuter gender, singular number, and third person

2.1.4.2 INDEFINITE RELATIVE PRONOUNS

The antecedents of the indefinite relative pronouns are often implied,

seldom expresses All of the compound indefinites (whoever, whatever,

whosoever, whatsoever, whichsoever) and the indefinite relative what

regularly refer to unexpressed antecedents, which, if expressed, would be

indefinite pronouns, such as anyone, anything, that, it

* Whoever

I shall send whoever will go

(Hormer C House & Harman, Descriptive English Grammar, p.358)

In this sentence, whoever is equivalent to anyone who, and if we supply the antecedent, the is whoever becomes who, and in the converted sentence the meaning becomes more definite Whoever is nominative because it is the subject of the relative clause

(Hormer C House & Harman, Descriptive English Grammar, p.358)

Whomever is the proper form because the relative pronoun is the

object of the verb see Its antecedent is the implied object of the preposition

to

(Hormer C House & Harman, Descriptive English Grammar, p.359)

Unlike whoever, whichever does not have different forms for the nominative and the objective Its antecedent, if supplied, would be that, anything, or some other equally indefinite pronoun

(Hormer C House & Harman, Descriptive English Grammar, p.359)

*Where

I remember the house where I was born

(Hormer C House & Harman, Descriptive

English Grammar, p.360)

The place where Macbeth met the witches was a desolate health

(C E Eckerskey & J M Eckersley, A

Comprehensive English Grammar, p.328)

* When

Spring is the season when all nature seems glad

(Hormer C House & Harman, Descriptive English

Grammar, p.361)

I remember the day when she first wrote that pink dress

(C E Eckerskey & J M Eckersley, A

Comprehensive English Grammar, p.328)

* Why

This is the reason why you failed

(Hormer C House & Harman, Descriptive English

Grammar, p.361)

I know the reason why he was so angry

(C E Eckerskey & J M Eckersley, A

Comprehensive English Grammar, p.328)

There’s not a man here but would like to be in your place

… but thought = who didn’t think

… but would like = who would not like

(Department of English, Practical English Grammar, p.217) There was nobody but agreed with your proposal

(C E Eckerskey & J M Eckersley,Key to the exercises in A

Comprehensive English Grammar, p.71)

* As

I have the same place as my father held

(Hormer C House & Harman, Descriptive English Grammar, p.357)

I shall be surprised if he does this the same way as I do

I have never heard such stories as he tells

But occasionally, that can be used after same

She wore the same dress that she wore at Mary’s wedding

(Department of English, Practical English Grammar, p.217)

He had a natural thoughtfulness such as is rarely seen in one so

young

(C E Eckerskey & J M Eckersley,Key to the

exercises in A Comprehensive English Grammar, p.71)

2.1.4.5 Cleft sentences: it + be + noun/ pronoun + defining relative clause

It as a formal subject is used to give emphasis to the antecedent of an

adjective clause

It is the man that I voted for

(Hormer C House & Harman, Descriptive English Grammar, p.355)

It is the grandmother who makes the decisions (the

grandmother, not any other member of the family)

When the object is a proper noun, that is more usual than who With all other objects, that is the correct form

It’s the manager that I want to see