Unit 1 Cultural relics

ii. learning about attributive clause
1. what is an adjective clause?
an adjective clause is a dependent clause which takes the place of an adjective in another clause or phrase. like an adjective, an adjective clause modifies a noun or pronoun, answering questions like “which?” or “what kind of?” consider the following examples:
adjective
the red coat
adjective clause
the coat which i bought yesterday
like the word “red” in the first example, the dependent clause “which i bought yesterday” in the second example modifies the noun “coat.” note that an adjective clause usually comes after what it modifies, while an adjective usually comes before.
in formal writing, an adjective clause begins with the relative pronouns “who(m),” “that,” or “which.” in informal writing or speech, you may leave out the relative pronoun when it is not the subject of the adjective clause, but you should usually include the relative pronoun in formal, academic writing:
informal
the books people read were mainly religious.
formal
the books that people read were mainly religious.
informal
some firefighters never meet the people they save.
formal
some firefighters never meet the people whom they save.
here are some more examples of adjective clauses:
the meat which they ate was tainted
this clause modifies the noun “meat” and answers the question “which meat?”.
they’re talking about the movie which made him cry
this clause modifies the noun “movie” and answers the question “which movie?”.
they are searching for the student who borrowed the book
the clause modifies the pronoun “student” and answers the question “which student?”.
did i tell you about the author whom i met?
the clause modifies the noun “author” and answers the question “which author?”.
2. restrictive & non restrictive clauses
do the following pairs of sentences mean the same thing?
1a my uncle, who lives in london, is very rich.
2b my uncle who lives in london is very rich.
2a the policies, which were unpopular, were rejected by the voters.
2b the policies which were unpopular were rejected by the voters.
3a my niece, whose husband is out of work, will inherit the house, which i have always treasured.
3b my niece whose husband is out of work will inherit the house which i have always treasured.
the first sentence in each pair has a non-restrictive clause within two commas, and the second has a restrictive clause.  a non-restrictive clause simply adds more information into the sentence and does not affect the meaning of the main clause:  it is therefore bracketed off with commas (1a = an uncle who happens to live in london).  conversely, a restrictive clause defines its referent in the main clause more specifically and contributes significantly to the meaning of the sentence.  thus it is that particular uncle who lives in london who is referred to (1b).  in 2a, all policies were unpopular and all were rejected, whereas in 2b only the policies that were unpopular were rejected.  note that in restrictive clauses the non-human relative pronoun is either ‘that’ or ‘which’, whereas for human referents the relative pronoun can be either ‘who/m’ or ‘that’ (the man that/whom i will marry ....).