英语专业语法学习13-Relative clause.ppt

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1、,Lecture 13,Relative clauses,Which sentence is true?,Pubs in the UK,which banned smoking,are now very popular.2.Pubs in the UK which banned smoking are now very popular.,Which sentence is true?,1.Milk,which contains chemicals,is dangerous.2.Milk which contains chemicals is dangerous.,Who on earth is

2、 William Shakespeare?,1.William Shakespeare,who is one of the most famous British writers,died on his birthday.2.William Shakespeare who is one of the most famous British writers died on his birthday.,Who is the Queen?,Is the information in the middle of the sentence necessary?Which sentence is corr

3、ect?1.Queen Elizabeth ll,who lives at Buckingham Palace,is expected to live to a very old age,like her mother.2.Queen Elizabeth ll who lives at Buckingham Palace is expected to live to a very old age,like her mother.,Which of these sentences is correct?,1 a)Everest which is the highest mountain in t

4、he world was not climbed until 1953.b)Everest,which is the highest mountain in the world,was not climbed until 1953.2 a)We need someone who can read Chinese.b)We need someone,who can read Chinese.,Which of these sentences is correct?,3 a)Could you let us know the dates,which would suit you best?b)Co

5、uld you let us know the dates which would suit you best?4 a)The girls who worked hard were given a bonus.b)The girls,who worked hard,were given a bonus.5 a)We got in through the window,which somebody had left open.b)We got in through the window which somebody had left open.,Defining relative clauses

6、=No commas,A defining relative clause identifies which person or thing we mean exactly.You cannot leave information in defining relative clauses out of a sentence:Its the book that I read yesterday.*Its the book.(this sentence is incomplete)You can omit the pronoun in these clauses if it is the OBJE

7、CT:Its the book I read yesterday.,Non-defining relative clauses=with commas,This kind of clause gives additional information about a person or thing.The sentence still makes sense without the non-defining relative clause:The lectures,which I dont enjoy,last for an hour.The lectures last for an hour.

8、,Summary,Defining RC providesEssential informationYoure the man(that)I saw last week.,Non-Defining RC providesExtra informationThe new Woody Allen film,which I saw last week,is very good.,Use commasAlways use relative pronouns,e.g.who/whom(people);which(things),No commasCan omit pronoun if it is the

9、 OBJECT of the verb in the relative clauseThat can replace which/who(infml),Relative Adverbs:Time,Time That was the year when/that I got my MA.(The year in which.)11 September 2001 was the day when/that peoples attitude towards terrorism changed.(The day on which.)The adverb(when)can be omitted.(ada

10、pted from:Foley&Hall:20030,Relative Adverbs:Place,Place:in/on/at+which or in/on/that+thatThats the factory where they make chemicals.(The factory in which.)Thats the spot where the battle took place.(The spot on which.)The adverb(where)cannot generally be omitted.,Relative Adverbs:Reason,ReasonI wil

11、l explain the reasons why the outbreak occurred.(I will explain the reason for which.)The adverb(why)can be omitted.,Formal vs Informal,Non-Defining relative clauses(i.e.with commas)are more common in written English because they are quite heavy and formal.In spoken English we would probably use two

12、 sentences.Compare:Helens article,which was published in 2004,sheds some light on the matter of participatory observation.writtenwithHelens article is good.It came out in 2004.spoken,Formal vs Informal prepositions and relative clauses,Which is more formal of these sentences?1.The people to whom the

13、 questionnaire was given were randomly selected.or2.The people the questionnaire was given to were randomly selected.Preposition before rel.pronoun=more formalPreposition at end of clause=less formal,Exercise,Make these sentences more formal:The house Shakespeare lived in is in Stratford upon Avon.N

14、o one knows who Guy Fawkes revealed the plot to.The village we went to do our research was without water or electricity.The people we worked with were cooperative and informative.,Revise the following sentences by using relative clause,Students enter Masters Programmes may face a number of problems.

15、May was angry that she had been given a book to read it was out of print.A fellow student saw this felt sorry for May and offered her his own book.The tutor gave the student a book,the book was written 20 years ago.Experts all agree that dreams cause great anxiety and stress are called nightmares.Th

16、ere are other authorities who consider any dream is sad and upsetting to be a nightmare.,What is a relative clause?A relative clause is a clause that is introduced by a relative word either by a relative pronoun or by a relative determiner or by a relative adverb.Relative clause is also known as att

17、ributive clause,as it mainly acts as modifier or attributive of NPs.But we prefer the term relative clause,for attributive is just one of functions performed by relative clause.,Relative clause,Compare:He is the boy who broke the vase.My sister,who works in HK,will come to see me soon.A restrictive

18、relative clause gives essential information about the meaning of the antecedent.It forms an integral part of the NP,without which the head cannot be identified as the specific person or object.A non-restrictive relative clause does not restrict the referential meaning of the antecedent.If it is take

19、n away,the antecedent still refers to the same person or thing.,Restrictive vs non-restrictive relative clauses,A restrictive relative clause is closely attached to the head.It is not separated from the head by a break in intonation,or by a comma in writing.The following contexts usually require a r

20、estrictive relative clause:When the noun head takes a generic(类指）indefinite article or a cataphoric(前指）definite article,the relative clause follows is generally a restrictive clause,e.g.She was a woman who must be treated decently.He looked at me in a way which I never understood.This is the girl I

21、mentioned yesterday.The reason why I was late is that I was caught in a traffic jam.Please show me the house where Shakespeare once lived.,Restrictive relative clauses,When the noun head takes such indefinite determiners as all,any,some,every and no,the post-modifier is also restrictive,e.g.Any man

22、who smokes cigarettes is risking his health.No visitors who come to Beijing would fail to see the Great Wall.He has read almost every book on linguistics that he could get hold of in the library.,Restrictive relative clauses,A non-restrictive relative clause is not closely connected with the head.It

23、 is generally separated from the head by a clear break in speech,or by a comma in writing.Non-restrictive clauses are usually introduced by wh-words like who(m),whose,which,where,when,e.g.The official,who spoke on the anti-corruption meeting,was charged with embezzlement.The peasant,whose daughter w

24、as matriculated by Peking University,is too poor to afford the tuition.His speech,which bored every one,went on and on.Im seeing the manager tomorrow,when he will be back from New York.,Non-restrictive relative clauses,Notes:To introduce a non-restrictive relative clause,“that”is not so common,but p

25、ermissible in some case like:She is devilish like Miss Cutter,that I used to meet at Dumdum.“Why”is not allowed to introduce non-restrictive relative clause.Semantically,sometimes non-restrictive clauses correspond to adverbial clauses of reason,purpose,result,condition and concession.That is why we

26、 prefer relative clause to attributive clause(Refer to Page 380).,Non-restrictive relative clauses,A relative clause may be closely or loosely related to the head(antecedent),which gives rise to restrictive or non-restrictive relative clause.It should be noted that sometimes relative clause may be a

27、ttached to more than one antecedents within a sentence,resulting in the ambiguity of the sentence.,Relative clause attachment,Observe the following sentences.Someone shot the servant of the actress who was on the balcony.The crowds annoyed the chauffeur of the actor who wanted to go home.The guide d

28、escribed the painting of the castles that was owned by the tycoon.The artist recognized the sketch of the house that was mentioned in the book.The tourists went to the store near the beach that was hot and crowded.The personal assistant recommended the dress with the lace that was imported from Fran

29、ce.,Relative clause attachment,RC attachment,Someone shot the servant of the actress who was on the balcony.,Observe the following sentences in Chinese.昨天晕倒的老板的秘书。昨天晕倒的/老板的夫人就自己的病情请教了医生。昨天晕倒的老板/的夫人就自己的病情请教了医生。,Relative clause attachment,RC attachment in Chinese,昨天晕倒的老板的秘书,A reduced relative clause i

30、s a relative clause that is not marked by an overt complementizer(such as that).Reduced relative clauses often give rise to temporary ambiguity or garden path effects,and have been a common topic of psycholinguistic study,especially in the field of sentence processing.Observe the following sentences

31、.The horse raced past the barn fell.The florist sent the flowers was very pleased.Sentences like these often produce a garden path effectan effect whereby a reader begins a sentence with one interpretation,and later is forced to backtrack and re-analyze the sentences structure.,Reduced relative clau

32、se,a.Subject-extracted relative clause(SRC)The reporter who _ attacked the senator admitted the error.b.Object-extracted relative clause(ORC)The reporter who the senator attacked _ admitted the error.a.Subject-extracted relative clause(SRC)_ yaoqing fuhao de guanyuan xinhuaibugui邀请富豪的官员心怀不轨。b.Object

33、-extracted relative clause(ORC)fuhao yaoqing _ de guanyuan xinhuaibugui富豪邀请的官员心怀不轨。Which clause is more difficult to process?Can you see any difference between Chinese and English relative clause?,A special perspective of relative clause,Can you interpret the sentence:The mouse the cat the dog the m

34、an the woman married beat chased ate had a white tail.If you find it difficult,consider the following sentence first.This is the dog that worried the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built.The woman that married the man that beat the dog that chased the cat t

35、hat ate the mouse that had a white tail.This phenomenon is known as the recursiveness of human language.,A special relative clause,Recursiveness means that a phrasal constituent can be embedded within another constituent having the same category.Recursiveness has become an umbrella term,which includ

36、es several important linguistic phenomena such as coordination and subordination,conjoining and embedding.All these are means to extend sentences.Then how long can a sentence be?Theoretically,there is no limit to the number of embedding one relative clause into another relative clause,so long as it

37、does not become an obstacle to successful communication.The same holds true for nominal clauses and adverbial clauses.This is what we call recursiveness.,Recursiveness of language,I met a man who had a son whose wife sold cookies that she had baked in her kitchen that was fully equipped with electri

38、cal appliances that were new.Johns sister Johns sisters husbandJohns sisters husbands uncle Johns sisters husbands uncles daughter,etc.that house in Beijingthe garden of that house in Beijingthe tree in the garden of that house in Beijinga bird on the tree in the garden of that house in Beijing,etc.

39、,More examples of recursiveness,The choice of relative words is determined by several factors:The referential meaning of the antecedent(person or inanimate things);Syntactic function of the relative words(subject,object,adverbial,etc.);Nature of the clause(restrictive or nonrestrictive clause);The r

40、egister or style in which the clause occurs(formal or informal style),Choice of relative words,Generally,who or that may be used as subject of a restrictive clause for personal reference,and which or that for non-personal.But who is favored instead of that as subject for personal reference,and that

41、instead of which as subject for non-personal reference,e.g.He is the man who saved the boys life.He drives a car that can travel 150 miles an hour.,Choice of relative pronouns in restrictive clauses,Observe the following sentences,can you sense any differences among them?Where is the man whom I saw

42、this morning?Where is the man who I saw this morning?Where is the man that I saw this morning?Where is the man I saw this morning?Where is the book which I borrowed this morning?Where is the book that I borrowed this morning?Where is the book I borrowed this morning?,Choice of relative pronouns in r

43、estrictive clauses,Formal style,Formal style,In formal style,whom is commonly used as prepositional complementation for personal reference and which for non-personal reference,e.g.James Russel is a man for whom I have the greatest respect.The temperature at which water changes into ice is 0C.But in

44、informal style,a preposition may take the end position when who or that is used in stead of whom for personal reference,that instead of which for non-personal reference.They are the boys(who/that)I went to school with.The case(that)you are referring to is now settled.,Choice of relative pronouns in

45、restrictive clauses,Relative that is normally used as subject complement in an SVC construction or as notional subject of an existential clause for both personal and non-personal reference.In this use,that is usually omitted,and the relative clause introduced by this kind of that is invariably a res

46、trictive clause,e.g.He still talks like the man(that)he was 10 years ago.This is the fastest train(that)there has ever been.,Problems deserves our attention,Sp.,Notional subject,Compare the following sentences:There are some students at the party that I must shun.There are some students at the party

47、 who(m)I must shun.There are some students at the party which I must shun.To avoid causing ambiguity,its necessary to use who(m)for personal reference and which for non-personal reference.But:He talked brilliantly about the man and the books that interested him.,Problems deserves our attention,Cause

48、 ambiguity,Personal reference,Non-personal reference,Refer to the coordinate noun phrase for both personal and non-personal reference,When the antecedent is an indefinite pronoun such as all,anything,something,or nothing,the one,much,few,any,little,the following relative clause usually requires a re

49、lative that as subject,and that/zero as object,e.g.All that violate the rules should be punished.All(that)I want is peace and quiet.Finally,the thief handed everything that he had stolen to the police.Is there anything(that)I can do for you?But when the antecedent is an indefinite personal pronoun s

50、uch as anyone,anybody,someone,somebody,everyone,every body,the relative pronoun who(m)is required,e.g.Is there anyone here who cannot speak Chinese?He saw the manager talking with someone(whom)he didnt know.,Problems deserves our attention,When the antecedent is composed of a personal head with such