English relative words


The English relative words are words in English used to mark a clause, noun phrase or preposition phrase as relative. The central relative words in English include who, whom, whose, which, why, and while, as shown in the following examples, each of which has the relative clause in bold:
  • We should celebrate the things which we hold dear.
  • I've been studying hard, which explains my good grades.
  • I finally met Jordan, who had been away.
  • That's the reason why it works.
Most also belong to the set of English interrogative words but function differently as relative words.
The subordinator that is widely regarded as a relative word, though one with different properties from the others.

Semantics

speaking, relative words typically refer to some antecedent in the containing phrase or clause. For example, who within the teacher of mine who likes apples does not question the identity of a person, but rather refers to "the teacher of mine", which in turn denotes some particular person.

Individual words

  • Who primarily refers to persons, although it can also refer to other animate beings. Whose, however, may also refer to non-persons, as in a book whose cover is missing.
  • Which is semantically the most flexible, taking a wide range of antecedents, including propositions, as in I've skipped a lot of classes, which is why I flunked. A clear exception is reference to persons, usually ungrammatical as in *They're the people which I know. This is not absolute, though, as shown by the example I told her Lee was a friend, which he was. Arguably, this use refers to the person's position or the relation, rather than to the person himself.
  • Where refers primarily to locations, but locations broadly conceived, including locations in time and situations.
  • When refers primarily to times and situations.
  • While refers to a period of time.
  • Whence refers to a place and in such sentences as She returned to the house whence she had come has a "from" meaning. Yet examples such as She returned to the house from whence she had come are common. Whither is similar but with a "to" meaning; the contrast with whence is not straightforward in that *to whither is ungrammatical.
  • Why refers primarily to reasons.
  • As a [|fused relative], and in some nonstandard English dialects more widely, what is general purpose, and how refers to method.
  • More or less archaic and formal compounds of where and a preposition:
  • *Whereafter means "after which".
  • *Whereat means "at which".
  • *Whereby means "by which" or "as a result of which".
  • *Wherefrom means "from which".
  • *Wherein means "in which".
  • *Whereof means "of which".
  • *Whereon means "on which".
  • *Whereto means "to which"
  • *Whereupon means "upon which" or "immediately after which"
  • *Wherewith means "with which"
All of the words may have singular or plural antecedents. For example, the customer who was cheated/the customers who were cheated.
That differs from the other relative words in that, like other subordinators, it lacks semantic content, referring or otherwise.

Lexical categories and syntactic functions

Each relative word also has a syntactic function in a phrase or clause. For example, in the person who arrived, who functions as the subject of the relative clause. Different words have different functions depending on their lexical category and form. For example, while a plain pronoun like who may typically function as a subject or object, its genitive form functions only as a determiner.

Syntax

A relative word occurs within a relative phrase, which appears in clause-initial position. A simple relative phrase consists of a relative word by itself. A complex relative phrase also has other material; it is exemplified by to whom within the man to whom you introduced me, from under which within the rock from under which it had crawled, and whose car within the man whose car you borrowed.

Individual words in relative clauses

  • Who is a pronoun. Whose is the genitive form of who; whom is an accusative form generally limited to careful or formal writing or speech – and thus still commoner with preposition fronting – and who is the nominative or the plain form. It has been claimed that whose cannot form a simple relative phrase, but The Oxford English Dictionary disagrees, citing, for example, Everything depends on the person whose this administration is.
  • Which is usually a pronoun. It is a determiner in cases like We pause for three weeks, after which time, we will restart.
  • Where, when, and while are prepositions.
  • Why is an adverb.
  • That is a subordinator. In most contexts, it is omissible; thus I've said all the things I want to say; She's the one ' you met last week; That's the reason ' it works. But it is not omissible in Standard English when the relativized element is the subject of the relative clause, when the subject of the relative clause does not immediately follow that, or for a supplementary relative.
  • In some nonstandard dialects, what and how are used for relative clauses.
  • Whereupon and the other where-plus-preposition compounds are themselves prepositions.

    Fused relatives

A fused construction is one in which a word or phrase has two functions at once. A simple type of fused construction is exemplified by any within I didn't notice any: Although a noun phrase is normally headed by a noun, and although any is normally a dependent, within I didn't notice any it heads a noun phrase and thus functions as a fused dependent-head.
Similarly, a fused relative is a noun phrase or preposition phrase that is headed by a relative phrase, and that lacks an antecedent. For example, the fused relative construction who you want within Believe who you want contains the relative phrase who. This has functions within both the NP that contains the relative clause and within the relative clause itself: functions that are fused.
The fused relative is also called a free relative, free relative clause, nominal relative clause, and independent relative clause.

Fused relatives with relative words without ''-ever''

A fused relative may be headed by a non-compound word, such as what, by a where+preposition compound, or by a compound with -ever. The three kinds are considered in turn.

Individual non-compound words in fused relatives

  • Who, as in You can believe who you want. But this is archaic with who as the subject in the relative clause: Who steals my purse steals trash was used by Shakespeare, and survives in the expression Can I help who's next? but *You can believe who told you is not used today.
  • Whom, as in You can believe whom you want.
  • Whose, as in You can believe whose version you want.
  • Which, as in You can believe which version you want. Like who, this is not used as the subject in the relative clause: *Use which is handy.
  • When, as in We arrived when it opened.
  • Where, as in My phone wasn't where I'd left it.
  • While, as in We arrived while the band was playing.
  • Whence, as in He returned whence he had come.
  • Whither, as in He goes whither he wants.
  • Why, as in Why I resigned was because of the chairman's intransigence. Use in fused relatives of why seems to be limited to pseudo-clefts.
  • What, as in They ate what was offered. Examples with what as a determiner, such as They ate what food was offered and They considered what options were open to them, imply a small quantity or number.
  • How, as in You can dress how you like.

    Individual ''where''+preposition words in fused relatives

  • Whereof is widely used, particularly with the verb speak.

    Fused relatives with ''-ever'' relative words

Individual ''-ever'' words in fused relatives

  • Whoever, as in I cursed whoever had taken it.
  • Whomever, as in I borrow from whomever I can.
  • Whoever's, whosever, as in The gang will steal whoever's/whosever car they can.
  • Whichever, as in Buy whichever you like; Buy whichever vase/vases you like.
  • Whenever, as in We go whenever we can.
  • Wherever, as in There were ants wherever we looked.
  • Whatever, as in Buy whatever you like; Buy whatever vase/furniture you like.
  • However, as in However it happened, fix it; However unfair it seems, fix it.

    ''-Soever'' and ''-so'' relative words

As relative words, forms ending -soever and -so are old-fashioned variants of the -ever forms. There are whoso, whomso, whichsoever, whensoever and whatso; and the archaisms whencesoever and whithersoever are still occasionally found.