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Sentence Relatives: Showing
Feeling, Interpreting Information |
“The Big Lebowski” is an American movie that has
developed a large following. Since its release in the
late 1990s, the film has been shown at film festivals,
colleges, and special events.
Many college students have spent evenings watching this
film instead of doing their homework.
One famous quote from the movie is this:
"And even if he's a lazy man - and the 'Dude' was most
certainly that, quite possibly the laziest in Los
Angeles County, which would place him high in the runnin'
for laziest worldwide."
You can learn a lot from this quote about a lazy man.
You can learn about a common feature of everyday speech
in America: the use of adjective clauses.
In today's report, we are going to explore how Americans
use a type of adjective clause, sometimes called a
sentence relative, in everyday speech.
What is a clause?
A clause is a group of words that has a subject and a
predicate. It does not act as a sentence on its own;
instead, it is part of a longer sentence.
One common type of clause is the relative clause. These
clauses begin with relative pronouns such as that or
which and act as adjectives in a sentence.
For example, consider the sentence "The book that my
friend gave me is very boring."
In the sentence, the words "that my friend gave me" make
up a relative clause that acts as an adjective for the
noun, book.
Today, we are discussing how Americans use adjective
clauses that begin with the word which. You will often
hear speakers use these clauses to modify an entire
idea, not just a noun.
Susan Conrad and Douglas Biber are English grammar
experts. They say these special clauses that always use
which are called sentence relatives.
If this sounds difficult to understand, don’t worry. We
will give you many examples to clarify this point. Today
we are going to show you two of the most common uses of
sentence relatives.
Common functions
1. Expressing a feeling or value
judgement
Americans often use sentence relatives when they are
expressing a feeling or a value judgment. For example, a
speaker may be talking about an idea. The sentence
relative gives more information about the idea.
Consider this famous scene from the 1954 film, On the
Waterfront:
"You don't understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been
a contender. I could've been somebody, instead of a bum,
which is what I am. Let's face it."
Here, the main idea is that the character sees himself
as a failure. The sentence relative which is what I am
expresses a feeling or value judgment about his
situation.
Marlon Brando's fictional character does not feel good
about his life! He is saying that, in his opinion, his
life has little value.
Speakers do not always use sentence relatives to talk
about their unhappiness. Indeed, speakers can use these
structures to show happy feelings, too.
Consider this example: "Two schools sent him acceptance
letters, which is great news!"
Here, the sentence relative which is great news shows
the speaker's feelings about the statement in the first
part of the sentence. This is an optimistic, positive
use of a sentence relative; you will hear it often in
everyday speech.
2. Interpreting information
Americans also commonly use sentence relatives to
interpret information.
Consider this line from the 1960 film, The Apartment:
"Our home office has 31,259 employees - which is more
than the entire population of, uh, Natchez,
Mississippi."
In the quote, the sentence relative, which is more than
the entire population of, uh, Natchez, Mississippi,
interprets information in the main part of the sentence.
The main part of the sentence is: Our home office has
31,259 employees.
Using a sentence relative is a quick way to give and
interpret information. If the same scene did not have
the sentence relative. It might sound like:
"Our home office has 31,259 employees. 31,259 employees
is more than the entire population of Natchez,
Mississippi."
These lines are not as interesting as the line you heard
from the movie. Why? Probably because it repeats
information while the line from the movie uses the
sentence relative to give new information.
What about the Big Lebowski?
Now that we have discussed two common uses of sentence
relatives, think back to the film, The Big Lebowski.
"And even if he's a lazy man - and the 'Dude' was most
certainly that, quite possibly the laziest in Los
Angeles County, which would place him high in the runnin'
for laziest worldwide."
Did you notice that the quote has one of the sentence
relatives we talked about today? Can you recognize how
the speaker is using it? Do you think it is to express a
feeling, to interpret information, or to show something
else? Write to us in the comments section of our
website, or on our Facebook page.
Closing thoughts
Sentence relatives are very common in speaking. They are
polite and acceptable in almost any situation. You will
hear them every day in American workplaces, schools,
airports, and so on.
However, you should know that the structures we have
talked about today are not as common in different kinds
of writing. While you might read them in a newspaper or
in fictional writing, say Conrad and Biber, you are less
likely to see them in academic writing.
That's all for today's program. We will be back next
week, which means you will get to learn more grammar!
I'm Alice Bryant.
And I'm John Russell.
John Russell wrote this story for Learning English.
Mario Ritter was the editor. |
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Words in This Story |
- lazy
– adj. not liking to
work hard or to be active
- clause
– n. grammar : a part
of a sentence that has its own subject and verb
- predicate
– n. grammar : the part
of a sentence that expresses what is said about the
subject
- relative
– adj. grammar :
referring to a noun, a part of a sentence, or a
sentence that was used earlier
- pronoun
– n. grammar : a word
(such as I, he, she, you, it, we, or they) that is
used instead of a noun or noun phrase
- modify
– v. grammar : to limit
or describe the meaning of (a word or group of
words)
- interpret
– v. to explain the
meaning of (something)
- academic
– adj. usually used
before a noun : of or relating to schools and
education
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