1. Restrictive and Nonrestrictive Clauses: A Look at The Polarities of These Terms and Their Usefulness in Regard to Student Writing and Instruction Ms. Pennell’s Instruction and Presentation of Brock Haussamen’s NCTE Paper “Between Restrictive and Nonrestrictive: Amplifying Clauses”

2. Our purpose with this lesson … There exists a scholarly debate in regard to how to teach students punctuation in regard to restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses. Ms. Pennell is interested in finding out how you believe you should be taught these concepts.

3. So here is the plan … First, we will review clauses in general. I will teach you what your grammar book says about restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses; in other words, I will teach you in the manner of traditional grammar in regard to how to punctuate your sentences.

4. After all of this … We will examine an interesting scholarly paper on a different way to teach students about restrictive or nonrestrictive clauses. I will teach you about clauses that are called “amplifying” clauses. We will take some time to let these new ideas take hold in those lovely brains of yours.

5. After all of that … You will decide which pedagogical approach (or way to teach you about these types of clauses) makes more sense to you. We will all discuss which approach is easier asa class. You will then defend your assertion with a logical argument. In other words, you must tell me why one approach works better for you than the other.

6. Step One: A Review of Clauses (pages 314 to 325 in your grammar textbook) A clause is a group of words with its own subject and verb. There are two basic kinds of clauses: –Independent and Dependent Clauses

7. Just a bit more on Independent Clauses … Independent Clauses can stand by themselves as complete sentences. Punctuating these clauses can be as easy as beginning with an upper case letter and finishing with a period: –I see Jane run. To as complex as using a semicolon followed a conjunctive adverb: –The librarian wanted all of the children to read the book; however, she was limited in regard to the number of copies available.

8. More on punctuating independent clauses … Let’s not forget the comma rule that goes along with coordinating conjunctions or the fanboys (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so): Tom wanted to write the next great American novel, and he knew one day he would achieve this goal. We could also use the semicolon, but in order to do so the two independent clauses must be related: Eating ice cream with the kids was fun for granny for a little while; what the elderly matron truly craved was the type of excitement that lay beyond the confines of a family setting. She wanted to feel the thrill of speed; she wanted to devote what remained of her life to drag racing with unicorns!

9. Subordinate Clauses … Like phrases, subordinate clauses function in sentences as single parts of speech: –As Adjectives –As Adverbs –As Nouns

10. Adjective Clauses One way to describe, limit, or qualify any noun or pronoun in a sentence is to use an adjective clause. An adjective clause is subordinate clause that modifies a noun or pronoun by telling what kind or which one.

11. Adjective Clauses, Relative Pronouns, and Relative Adverbs … An adjective clause is usually connected to the word it modifies by one of the relative pronouns: –that, which, who, whom, or whose Sometimes, adjective clauses are connected by a relative adverb: after, before, since, when, where, why

12. Essential and Nonessential Adjective Clauses Like participial and appositive phrases, adjective clauses are set off by punctuation only when they are not essential to the meaning of a sentence. –Ex of a Nonessential Adjective Clause: –The ship, which was a nuclear submarine, became the first vessel to pass beneath the North Pole. –Nonessential adjective phrases need commas. –Ex of an Essential Adjective Clause: –The first vessel that passed beneath the North Pole was a nuclear submarine. –Essential adjective clauses do not need commas.

13. Introductory Words in Relative Pronouns … Relative pronouns and relative adverbs not only introduce adjective clauses, but also function within the subordinate clause. They: –Connect the adjective clause to the modified word and –Act within the clause as a subject, direct object, or other sentence part

14. The Uses of Relative Pronouns Within the Clause As a subject: –Sentence: The part of Alaska that is within the Arctic Circle is cold most of the year. –Clause: that (subject) is (verb) within the Arctic Circle

15. The Uses of Relative Pronouns Within the Clause As a Direct Object: –Sentence: The explorer whom I met last year has never been to the North Pole. –Reworded Clause: I met (verb) whom (direct object) last year –Review: A direct object is a noun, pronoun, or group of words that receives the action of a transitive verb. It is one of the five complements (the word or group of words that completes the meaning of the predicate in a sentence) – direct objects, indirect objects, objective complements, predicate nominatives, and predicate adjectives (page 284 of your grammar book).

16. The Uses of Relative Pronouns Within the Clause As the Object of a Preposition: –Sentence: The climate is one in which little foliage can grow. –Reworded Clause: little foliage (subject) can grow (verb) in (preposition) which (object of preposition) –Review: The object of a preposition is the noun or pronoun that completes the information that the preposition provides (page 165 of your grammar book).

17. The Uses of Relative Pronouns Within the Clause As an Adjective: –Sentence: I saw a dog whose sled left without him. –Reworded Phrase: Whose (adjective) sled (subject) left (verb) without him. –Review: An adjective is a word used to describe a noun or pronoun or to give a noun or pronoun more specific meaning (adjectives – pages 248 to 251 in your grammar book).

18. A note about understood relative pronouns … Sometimes, a relative pronoun is understood rather than expressed. It, nevertheless, still functions in the sentence. –Ex: The dog sled (that) Ted drove won the race. –Relative adverbs can only act as adverbs within a clause.

19. Adverb Clauses Adverb clauses modify verbs, adjectives, adverbs, or verbals by telling where, when, in what way, to what extent, under what conditions, or why. Each adverb clause contains a subject and a verb and is introduced by a subordinating conjunction such as although, because, if where, or while (Chapter 17 of your grammar book has a complete list of these – we have also called them dependent marker words in other grammatical explanations this year).

20. Adverb Clauses An adverb clause can modify verbs, adjectives, adverbs, or verbals: Examples of adverb clauses modifying: Verb: The Yukon entered Canada’s confederation after a gold rush brought 100,000 people to the territory (clause modifies the verb entered).

21. Examples of Adverb Clauses Modifying Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs, or Verbals Cont’d Adjective: The miner’s children were nervous whenever he entered a tunnel (the clause modifies the noun or direct object nervous). Adverb: Today’s dig lasted longer than the one yesterday (modifies the adverb longer). Participle: The miners, cheering whenever someone made a strike (modifies the participle cheering), were excited. Gerund: Digging wherever miners thought there was gold (modifies the gerund digging) has left the Yukon full of old miners. Infinitive: The tired miners wanted to relax after the workday ended (modifies the infinitive to relax).

22. Elliptical Adverb Clauses … In an elliptical adverb clause (especially those beginning with as or that), the verb or both the subject and verb are not stated but are understood. Nevertheless, they still function to make the subject complete. Ex of Verb Understood: I am taller than he [is]. The Yukon has almost as many rural inhabitants as [it has] urban inhabitants.

23. Noun Clauses Noun clauses can perform any function that a single-word noun can. Noun clauses can normally function as subjects, direct objects, indirect objects, objects of prepositions, or predicate nominatives.

24. Examples of Noun Clauses … Subject: Whoever travels the Pelly River follows in the footsteps of the explorer Robert Campbell. Direct Object: You must pack whatever you will need. Indirect Object: You should give whoever waits at the camp a copy of your route. Object of a Preposition: Robert Campbell settled trading camps in whatever regions the Hudson Bay Company sent him. Predicate Nominative: At 40, Campbell’s most notable achievement was that he established Fort Selkirk.

25. More on Noun Clauses … Noun clauses frequently begin with that, which, who, whom, or whose. Other words that can begin noun clauses are how, if what, whatever, when, where, whether, whichever, whoever, or whomever.

26. Some uses of introductory words in noun clauses Adjective: John Bell chose which tributary to explore (which modifies tributary, and, therefore, functions as an adjective). Adverb: We want to know how we should dress (how modifies the verb dress, and, therefore, acts as an adverb). Subject: I want the recipe from whoever made that delicious casserole (whoever functions as the subject of the clause). Direct Object: McGill University’s Redpath Museum, which Sir John William Dawson founded, specializes in botany and geology (which functions as the direct object of the clause). No function: The doctor determined that she had the measles (that has no function in the clause).

27. When that has no function in the clause … It is oftentimes omitted. Example: I know [that] you tried your best.

28. Careful when identifying clauses … Because some of the words that introduce noun clauses also introduce adjective and adverb clauses, check the function of the clause in the sentence to determine its type. You can also try substituting the words it, you, fact, or thing for the clause. If the sentence retains its smoothness, you probably replaced a noun clause. –Noun Clause: I knew that this would happen. –Substitution: I knew it.

29. That or Which or Who? Do not use which to refer to persons. Use who instead. That, though generally used to refer to things, may be used to refer to a group or class of people. [Examples:] The player who [not that or which] made the basket at the buzzer was named MVP. The team that scores the most points in this game will win the tournament (Hacker, A Writer's Reference 136).

30. Restrictive and Nonrestrictive Theory The main idea is that all modifiers have one of two qualities--they are either essential, tightly bound, defining, and not separated by punctuation, or they are unessential, parenthetic, loosely bound, and separated by commas.

31. Amplifying Clauses A couple of linguistic works have pointed out briefly that the duality of restrictive and nonrestrictive is not as neat as it appears, but I think that the problem calls for more attention. The two terms are, I believe, polarities, not categories.

32. More on Amplifying Clauses The conventional grammar books give the impression that all modifying clauses fall under one heading or the other, but many seem to me to fall in between. That is, not all clauses are either defining and essential on the one hand, or parenthetical on the other, as the handbooks state.

33. Amplifying Clauses Many clauses contain information that does not restrict or define the antecedent, yet these clauses are important, essential, sometimes even primary information in the sentence. These clauses are oftentimes referred to as amplifying clauses.

34. Student Examples of Amplifying Clauses Let me give some examples. One type of amplifying clause is that which amplifies an adjective that precedes the antecedent noun. Such clauses are mildly redundant and are very common in speech and informal writing. Some examples from students: The main character was a rich, egotistic young man who seemed to think of himself as better than those around him. We often have to find forgiving employers who will allow us to work unusual schedules so that we can met our nursing obligations. I have a strict schedule that does not allow many deviations.

35. Without the marked modifiers, the relative clauses would be much more restrictive: "a schedule that does not allow many deviations." With the underlined modifiers, however, the nouns have been restricted and defined, and yet one cannot say the relative clauses after them are therefore nonrestrictive to the extent that they are unessential.

36. We might characterize these sentences by saying that the writer has spread the task of description over both the general adjective coming before the noun and the more detailed clause coming after it.

37. Examples of Amplifying Clauses from the New York Times More frequently, however, there is no preceding adjective, the antecedent itself is identified intrinsically or in context, and the amplifying clause makes an important comment about it.

38. Some examples from The New York Times: How fitting, then, that the Nobel Prize in Literature comes to Ms. Gordimer as her country begins to dismantle the system that she has opposed with such urgency. Now the prospect of housing them is looming in many more neighborhoods--some of them middle- class enclaves--under a new City Charter that requires that all city projects be spread equitably among its neighborhoods. The committee continued several hours of open hearings today, followed by a closed session in which the panel’s members discussed a variety of classified intelligence matters.

39. Final Word on Amplifying Clauses But such reexamination quickly leads us to the second question raised at the beginning of the search for information on this topic: Which topics of grammar do we pass along to students, and why do we choose those?

40. The reconsideration of restrictive and nonrestrictive modifiers presented should lead us to consider not only their accuracy as grammatical concepts but also their pedagogical usefulness. Some might feel that the amplifying clause should be added to the mass of abstractions already heaped on some students.

41. But I think that the practicalities of punctuation are the real writing issues here, and that we should consider telling students in writing classes to put commas around extra, nonessential information and letting it go at that, dropping from those classes and their textbooks the baggage of the restrictive and nonrestrictive concepts.

42. We can retain them of course in grammar and linguistics courses, but we as grammarians perhaps need to become better than we sometimes are at distinguishing the grammar information that we could teach writers from the grammar information that writers really need.