about distinctions, much in the way that Spanish is concerned about identifying
gender:La muchacha es linda(The girl is pretty) versusEl muchacho es lindo
(The boy is cute). In any event, we appear to be witnessing a shift in English to a
single form—that—for use in all situations. If this shift continues, bothwho
andwhomeventually may disappear from contemporary English. Meanwhile,
students need to be aware that many people still do differentiate betweenthat
andwho/whom,and they should be prepared to adjust their language according
to the situation they find themselves in.
Relative Clauses and Modification Type
Like certain other modifiers, relative clauses can function restrictively or
nonrestrictively. Restrictive relative clauses supply defining or necessary in-
formation, so they are not set off with punctuation. Nonrestrictive relative
clauses, on the other hand, supply additional or nonessential information; thus,
they are set off with punctuation. The nonrestrictive subordinate clauses we
have examined to this point have been adverbials, and they always have been
sentence-level modifiers. Nonrestrictive relative clauses are different in this re-
spect because sometimes they are sentence-level modifiers and sometimes they
are not. Consider the following:
- The book,which was a first edition,had a gold-inlaid cover.
- Fred vacationed in Mexico,which disturbed his parents.
In sentence 60, the relative clause, even though it is nonrestrictive, clearly
modifies the noun phraseThe book.In sentence 61, however, there is no single
head word; instead, the relative clause is modifying the meaning of the inde-
pendent clause. That meaning might be described as “the fact that Fred
vacationed in Mexico.” Because the entire clause is receiving the modification,
we must consider the relative clause in sentence 61 to be a sentence-level modi-
fier. Please note: Relative clauses that function as sentence-level modifiers al-
ways begin with the relative pronounwhich (in whichis a common exception),
but not all relative clauses that begin with the relative pronounwhichare
sentence-level modifiers.
146 CHAPTER 4