Grammar Guide: RELATIVE CLAUSES

One type of complex sentence which is often found in texts designed to convey
information is the sentence which contains a RELATIVE CLAUSE.

A relative clause is a clause which contains additional information relating to the main
clause of the sentence, for example:
Endocrine glands, which secrete into the blood, are found in various parts of the body.

Relative clauses which contain information essential to the meaning or purpose of

the sentence are called DEFINING relative clauses. Relative clauses containing information
which, although useful, is not essential to the meaning or purpose of the sentence are called
NON-DEFINING relative clauses. Non-defining relative clauses can be removed from the
sentence without changing its meaning or making it ungrammatical, although of course the
amount of information will be reduced.

1. What type of relative clause is the clause in the example above?

2. The following sentences all contain a main clause and a defining relative clause:
a. Find the main clause in each sentence and underline it.
b. Explain why the relative clause cannot be removed from the sentence.

i) We shall here confine our description to specialized respiratory systems which involve only
a part of the body.
ii) European doctors who speak poor English should be banned from practising in Britain.
iii) Thorough clinical evaluation of a patient who presents with acute diarrhea is essential in
order to guide a cost-effective, evidence-based approach to initial diagnostic testing and
therapy.

The examples in the previous activity illustrate the fact that a defining relative clause
limits the meaning of the sentence; without the limitation, the sentence becomes untrue,
unclear or ungrammatical.

In contrast, non-defining relative clauses provide extra information about the subject
of the main clause. For example, in the sentence:
Endocrine glands, which secrete into the blood, are found in various parts of the body.

This non-defining relative clause tells us what the endocrine glands do, i.e. their
function, which is extra information for that sentence.

3. The following sentences all contain a main clause and a non-defining relative
clause. For each sentence:
a. Identify the main clause.
b. Explain the function the non-defining relative clause has in each sentence.

i) Valves, which are found in most veins, direct the blood flow.
ii) Less common but readily treatable protozoal causes of persistent diarrhea in normal or
immunocompromised persons include Cyclospora cayetanensis and Isospora belli, which
can be identified by means of acid-fast staining of stool specimens.
iii) The first contact point between the community and a trained physician is the Primary
Health Center, which is supposed to provide an integrated curative and preventive health
care to the rural population with emphasis on preventive and promotive aspects of health
care.

4. Underline the relative cluase in the following sentences and draw an arrow to the
noun each one modifies. Then, decide whether each relative clause is necessary or
unnecesssary (defining/ non-defining).

i) The early findings indicate a generalized lack of resident engagement in a systems-based

practice of medicine in the clinical environments in which they learn and provide clinical
care.
ii) The ACGME presumed that training programs were based in environments in which the
competencies required in GME training were routinely applied in clinical care.

Subject and object relative clauses

In some relative clauses you may omit the relative pronoun with no obvious change
in meaning. For example:
This is one diagnostic test which I have not been able to have and cannot afford myself.
or
This is one diagnostic test I have not been able to have and cannot afford myself.

This is possible because the relative pronoun does not function as the subject of the
relative clause. Have a look at the following example:

Endocrine glands, which secrete into the blood, are found in various parts of the body.

5. What would happen if we deleted the relative pronoun which?

The answer is that in the first sentence the relative pronoun is the object of the
relative clause. With this type of clause we can choose either to use the relative pronouns or
to omit them. In fast colloquial speech, omission is the norm, whereas in written English we
tend to leave them in.
In the second sentence, however, the relative pronoun is the subject of the relative
clause. In this case we cannot leave out the relative pronoun and expect a fully coherent
sentence to remain.
So, when you first see a relative clause it is a good idea to decide whether you are
looking at subject relative clause or an object relative clause.
REDUCED RELATIVE CLAUSES

Although it is not possible to omit the relative pronoun in subject relative clauses, we
can, if we want, omit an even larger piece of the relative clause and still retain a
grammatically acceptable sentence. Using the example from above, we can say:

Endocrine glands secreting into the blood are found in various parts of the body.
This is usually referred to as a reduced relative clause and can only be applied to
subject relative clauses not object relative clauses.
The most obvious feature of this type of reduced clause is that the relative pronoun is
left out and the verb following the noun always ends in -ing. The second, but perhaps not
quite so obvious feature is that the tense of the verb in the original relative clause is not
taken into account.
So, to sum up so far, subject relative clauses cannot lose their relative pronoun,
except when the whole relative clause is reduced to a non-finite -ing verb form. Object
relative clauses can lose their relative pronoun, but cannot form reduced relative clauses.
Now consider the following sentence:

The information given in the brochure is wrong.

This is also an example of reduced subject relative clauses, but this time the word
immediately following the noun which is being described is not an -ing type finite verb but a
past participle.
The difference here is that those reduced relative verbs ending in -ing stand in for
active verbs, while the past participles replace passive verbs and, as with the former type,
they can replace almost any tense.
However, continuous tenses are usually replaced by being + past participle. The full
relative clause for the above example is:

The information which is given in the brochure is wrong.

REMEMBER
A. You may delete the relative pronoun and the be verb when:

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 books that are lying on the floor are mine.

The books lying on the floor are mine.

B. You may NOT delete the relative pronoun and the be verb when:

1. They are followed by an adjective:

 The man who is angry is my father

The man angry is my father (WRONG)

2. They are followed by a noun:

The man who is a doctor is my father.

The man a doctor is my father. (WRONG)

C. A relative clause is an adjective clause because it modifies a noun.

D. A reduced clause is a phrase.

E. When you are not sure if you can reduce the clause or not, then don't.

Application activity. Read the following text and underline at least ONE
EXAMPLE of each of the relative clauses you have studied in this guide.
Support your choice with facts from the guide. Prepare a Word file with the
examples and the justifications and then upload your file to the Campus. Save
your file as YOUR SURNAME - RELATIVE CLAUSES.

Sepsis is on the rise, warns medical expert

The rise in antibiotic resistance is leading to a growing number of deaths from sepsis, experts warn. Sepsis
develops when an infection gets into the bloodstream and affects the whole body, triggering a violent and
potentially fatal immune response which can cause organ failure.

Deaths from sepsis are on the rise due to growing antibiotic resistance which means
previously harmless infections can become fatal, a healthcare expert has warned.
Mark Bellamy, president of the Intensive Care Society, said new antibiotics must be
developed to prevent the spread of resistant bugs which can lead to sepsis.
Sepsis develops when an infection gets into the bloodstream and affects the whole body,
triggering a violent and potentially fatal immune response which can cause organ failure.
The condition causes about 37,000 deaths a year in the UK, a figure that is likely to rise if
antibiotic resistance is not tackled, Mr Bellamy warned.
The Intensive Care Society has launched a campaign to raise awareness of sepsis and
encourage a greater understanding of the illness to reduce the number of preventable
deaths.
Working with the UK Sepsis Trust, the society is calling for better recording of sepsis cases
by hospitals.
With sepsis on the rise, the society claims it is vital that medics improve their knowledge of
the illness so they can recognise the early signs, which include a high temperature and a
fast heartbeat, and administer appropriate treatment.
Prof Bellamy, who is based at the Leeds Institute of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, said:
In time without new and effective antibiotics the problem will gradually escalate.
For the first time in recent months I have seen in my own intensive care unit patients who
are coming along who have infections which are pretty much resistant to all of the antibiotics,
at least in normal doses.
There is this spectre, if we dont develop new antibiotics and if we dont control the problem
of antibiotic resistance effectively there is this spectre emerging of moving into a post
antibiotic era, an era where simple surgical operations will become life threatening because
there are no effective antibiotics available.