H.W. Fowler (1858–1933). The King’s English, 2nd ed. 1908.
Chapter II. SyntaxRELATIVES
a. Defining and non-defining relative clauses. FOR the purposes of b. and c., all relative clauses are divided into defining and non-defining. The exact sense in which we use these terms is illustrated by the following groups, of which (i) contains defining clauses, (ii) non-defining.- The man who called yesterday left no address.Mr. Lovelace has seen divers apartments at Windsor: but not one, he says, that he thought fit for me.—Richardson. He secured … her sincere regard, by the feelings which he manifested.—Thackeray. The Jones who dines with us to-night is not the Jones who was at school with you. The best novel that Trollope ever wrote was… Any man that knows three words of Greek could settle that point.
- At the first meeting, which was held yesterday, the chair…Deputies must be elected by the Zemstvos, which must be extended and popularized, but not on the basis of…—Times. The Emperor William, who was present…, listened to a loyal address.—Times. The statue of the Emperor Frederick, which is the work of the sculptor Professor Uphnes, represents the Monarch on horseback.—Times. Jones, who should know something of the matter, thinks differently.
Mr. H. Lewis then brought forward an amendment, which had been put down by Mr. Trevelyan and which provided for an extension of the process of income-tax graduation.—Times. This was held to portend developments that somehow or other have not followed.—Times.The former of these is quite ambiguous. The bringing forward of an amendment (no matter what or whose) may be all that the writer meant to tell us of in the first instance; the relative clauses are then non-defining clauses of description. On the other hand, both clauses may quite well be meant to define; and it is even possible that the second is meant to define, and the first not, though the coordination is then of a kind that we shall show under c. to be improper. Similarly, in the second sentence, ‘to portend developments’ may possibly be complete in itself; the whole might then be paraphrased thus: ‘It was thought that the matter would not stop there: but it has’. More probably the clause is meant to define: ‘It was held to portend what have since proved to be unrealized developments’. This view is confirmed, as we shall see, both by the use of ‘that’ (not ‘which’) and by the absence of a comma before it. Punctuation is a test that would not always be applicable even if all writers could be assumed to punctuate correctly; but it is often a guide to the writer’s intention. For (1) a non-defining clause should always be separated from the antecedent by a stop; (2) a defining clause should never be so separated unless it is either preceded by a parenthesis indicated by stops, or coordinated with a former defining clause or with adjectives belonging to the antecedent; as in the following examples:
The only circumstance, in fact, that could justify such a course… It is he only who does this, who follows them into all their force and matchless grace, that does or can feel their full value.—Hazlitt. Perfect types, that satisfy all these requirements, are not to be looked for.It will occur to the reader that our last two examples are strictly speaking exceptions to the rule of defining clauses, since they tell us only what is already implied, and could therefore be removed without impairing the sense. That is true to some extent of many parallel defining clauses: they are admissible, however, if, without actually giving any limitation themselves, they make more clear a limitation already given or implied; if, in fact, they are offered as alternative versions or as reminders. Our next example is of a defining clause of the same kind:
This estimate which he gives, is the great groundwork of his plan for the national redemption.—Burke.The limitation given by ‘this’ is repeated in another form by the relative clause. ‘This estimate, the one he gives, is…’ The reader should bear in mind that the distinction between the two kinds of relative is based entirely on the closeness of their relation to the antecedent. The information given by a defining clause must be taken at once, with the antecedent, or both are useless: that given by a non-defining clause will keep indefinitely, the clause being complete in sense without the antecedent, and the antecedent without the clause. This is the only safe test. To ask, for instance, whether the clause conveys comment, explanation, or the like, is not a sufficient test unless the question is rightly understood; for, although we have said that a non-defining clause conveys comment and the like, as opposed to definition of the antecedent, it does not follow that a defining clause may not (while defining its own antecedent) contribute towards comment; on the contrary, it is often open to a writer to throw his comment into such a form as will include a defining clause. It may even appear from a comparison of the two sentences below that this is the origin of the non-defining clause, (2) being an abbreviation of (1):
- Lewis, a man to whom hard work never came amiss, sifted the question thoroughly.
- Lewis, to whom hard work never came amiss, sifted the question…