Chapter 7 - Complementiser Phrases(75) NP
N'
AP N'
favourite N' and N'
places I like to go people I like to visit
However, there is a slight complication in that there are more than one type of
relative clause. Those that we have been looking at so far are known as restrictive
relative clauses. Semantically these tend to focus on one element out of a set of
possible referents. For example, the components that we make focuses on a particular
set of components out of a larger set of components which are distinguished by the fact
that we make them. Thus, the purpose of the relative is to ‘restrict’ our attention to a
certain element or elements out of a possible range of elements. By contrast, non-
restrictive relative clauses simply add extra information about the referent of the noun
being modified:
(76) the earth, which is 93 million miles from the sun
Note here, there is not a range of possible referents for the noun earth and the relative
clause restricts our attention to one of them. There is just one earth being spoken of,
and the fact that it is 93 million miles from the sun is given as information about this
object.
Restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses also differ from each other in terms
of their internal properties, something which we will discuss more fully in the next
section. For now, let us just note that restrictive relative clauses may begin with a that
whereas non-restrictive relatives never do:
(77) a the man [that you met] (as opposed to all the other men)
b *the earth [that is next to Mars] (as opposed to all the other earths!)
c the earth, [which is next to Mars]
The two kinds of relative also differ in their prosodic properties. In written form
the non-restrictive relative is followed by a comma, which indicates a slight pause
between the noun and the relative. There is no pause between the noun and its
restrictive modifying clause however.
It may be that the two clauses also differ syntactically and indeed it is often
assumed that non-restrictive relative clauses are more distant from the noun than are
restrictive relatives. This is supported by the following observations:
(78) a the [man [who you met]] and [woman [who you haven’t]]
b this [man [who you met]] is taller than that one
(79) a my [mother [who you met]] and [father [who you didn’t]]
b *my [mother [who you met]] is taller that his one