Well, firstly, let me make it absolutely clear that I’m not here to tell you about “which” as a Question Word, which works as either an adjective (“Which hat would you like to buy?”) or a pronoun (“Which came first – the chicken or the egg?”). I certainly haven’t got time this week to talk about how the important thing to remember about “which” as a question word is that we use it when there are a limited number of things to choose from. So I shall not be wasting space explaining that we say: “What kind of music can you play?” but “I can play blues, jazz or soul: which would you like to hear?”
Clear? Good. Now we can get on with today’s main business: “which” as a non-defining, and defining, relative pronoun. What do these terms mean, and how does all this work? Stand back, give me some space, and I’ll explain:
Let’s say I have a sentence which refers to various things and/or people and places:
Jeremy bought this elephant in New Delhi from a man with a wooden leg.
The sentence is complete. The person who I’m speaking to clearly knows who Jeremy is, otherwise I would have said “a man called Jeremy”. The elephant is clearly the one that I’m pointing to or sitting on (“this elephant”), New Delhi is the name of a well-known city, and “a man with a wooden leg” introduces, and gives information about, the elephant salesman, who I don’t expect my friend to be acquainted with.
So, if I decide to make this sentence a little more detailed, any information that I insert is extra information. This may be, for example, about…
…Jeremy: he married my grandmother in 1925
…the elephant: it can dance the polka
…the man: Jeremy met him in prison
…the wooden leg the man sometimes used it as a weapon
If these little bits of extra information exist as separate notes, we can use pronouns (he, it,) so that we don’t have to repeat “Jeremy”, “the elephant”, “New Delhi” and so on.
But look what happens to these pronouns when we insert the extra information into the sentence:
Jeremy, who married my grandmother in 1925, bought this elephant – which can dance the polka – in New Delhi, from a man (whom he’d met in prison) with a wooden leg, which he often used as a weapon.
These extra bits of information are called non-defining relative clauses, and, as you can see, there are generally four ways of building them into the sentence: between 2 commas [xxx, YYYYY, xxx], between two dashes [xxx – YYYYY – xxx], in brackets [xxx (YYYYY) xxx] or between a comma and a full stop [xxx, YYYYY.]
The word that replaces the pronoun when these extra segments are built into a sentence is called a relative pronoun. The relative pronouns that we can use in non-defining clauses, as you can see above, are
who – (replacing he, she or they) for a person
which – (replacing it) for a thing, or fact
*whom – (replacing him, her or them) for a person, when that person is the object of the clause.
[*Whom, I have to say, is, in contemporary usage, an optional alternative to who: in the above example, “(who he’d met in prison)” sounds fine, and would be preferred by many. However, I shall discuss the whom question more fully at a later date.]
Note: In these clauses which is, which are, who is or who are can disappear completely:
Joe, who is a musician, plays the kora and the oud, which are African instruments.
-> Joe, a musician, plays the kora and oud, African instruments.
Two other words that are often included in lists of relative pronouns, because they work in a similar way are
where – (replacing there) for a place
when - (replacing then) for a time
but actually there and then aren't pronouns; they're adverbs. So really where and when are relative adverbs. (But a lot of people who write English text books don't seem to notice this, or prefer not to think about it, and add them to the list of relative pronouns.)
To see how these work, let's add two more bits of information to our sentence.
…New Delhi: I went there for my honeymoon
...1925: She turned 18 then.
Jeremy, who married my grandmother in 1925, when she turned 18, bought this elephant – which can dance the polka – in New Delhi, where I went for my honeymoon, from a man (whom he’d met in prison) with a wooden leg, which he often used as a weapon.
Maybe that's enough information, so I won't try to squeeze in any more. BUT there is one more word that we use for putting extra information into a sentence: the relative possessive adjective whose, which replaces his, her or its:
The boy* plays bridge**. (*His hair is red) (**Its rules are complicated)
-> The boy, whose hair is red, plays bridge, whose rules are complicated.
* * *
Now, you’ll notice that there is one more relative pronoun that I haven’t mentioned yet. I just used it in the previous sentence. So when do we use the relative pronoun “that”? Let’s look at another sentence with 3 relative clauses.
Ask the man who phoned this morning to take the key that opens the monkeys’ cage and put it in the place where the zookeeper keeps his tools.
Do these clauses add extra information to the sentence? Well, if we remove them, we’re left with this:
Ask the man to take the key and put it in the place.
We can’t follow these instructions. “Which man?” we’ll reply, and “What key?” and finally “What place do you mean?” or generally “What are you talking about?”
So these relative clauses aren’t extensions built into a sentence: they are essential, supporting pillars – without them the sentence collapses into nonsense.
Relative clauses like these are called defining clauses and we can notice that, unlike non-defining clauses, they don’t live on little islands, separated by dashes, commas or brackets from the surrounding sentence: they generally don’t need punctuation at all.
So how does the difference between defining and non-defining clauses influence our choice of relative pronouns?
Well, to be honest, it usually doesn’t. You can use who, whom, whose and where in both kinds of clause. You can also use our word of the week, which, in both defining and non-defining clauses, although I think, in defining clauses, that generally sounds much better.
The one rule that you really need to remember (the one indispensable golden rule, which you really need to remember) is:
~Don’t use that at the beginning of a non-defining clause.~
That is found only in defining clauses. (In American English "that" can also be used for people – Mark Twain wrote a story called “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg” – but still generally only in defining clauses).
* * *
Conclusion: here’s my main advice about relative pronouns (and adverbs):
· If it’s a person, use who.
· If it’s a place, use where.
· If it’s a thing, and there are no commas, dashes or brackets (it’s essential information), use that.
· If it’s a thing, and the information isn’t essential, use which.
(Coming soon!
Preposition/prepositional phrase + which
to which..., of which..., about which.., as a result of which...
...which I will talk about in an article about whom.)
Oh, and that is a word that requires a couple of further explanations, which I shall spare you for now, but which will be dealt with when I summon the courage to make "that" my Word of the Week...
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