Comma in Relative Clauses or Дом, который построил Джек
By Maria Kirsanova,
Ph.D., lecturer at
Higher School of Economics and the Academic Writing Center.
Everybody knows the famous poem This is the house that Jack built. If we compare it with the Russian version Дом, который построил Джек, we can notice the difference in punctuation. Both sentences contain relative clauses but the rules of punctuation in Russian and English are different.
Types of Clauses
English language has two types of relative clauses: defining and non-defining, and the rules of punctuation in the two are opposite. This causes confusion among non-native English speakers. For instance, my analysis of different written assignments proved that only 50% of my upper-intermediate level students use different types of relative clauses with accurate punctuation.
For a moment, imagine you are a student and ask yourself: what is the difference in meaning between these two sentences?
The members of the team who had sponsors flew to the championship in Tokyo.
The members of the team, who had sponsors, flew to the championship in Tokyo.
The first sentence means that not all members of the team had sponsors. Those who did not have sponsors did not fly to Tokyo.
The second sentence means that all members of the team had sponsors. ‘Who had sponsors’ is just additional information which is not essential to the meaning of the sentence.
Let’s blow the lid off the mystery
Rule 1: A defining clause gives necessary information about the noun it modifies. That means we can’t omit this relative clause without changing the meaning of the whole sentence. Look at the famous quote from Bruce Lee:
I fear not the man who has practiced 10 000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10 000 times.”
If we omit the relative clauses, we will have the following: I fear not the man, but I fear the man. You can see that this sentence doesn’t make any sense.
In defining clauses, we don’t use commas. Note the difference in the use of “that”, “which” and “who” in British and American English*.
Rule 2: A non-defining clause gives unnecessary, extra information about the noun in the main clause. Let’s use the same strategy with Maya Angelou’s quote:
You will face many defeats, which can spoil your day, but never let yourself be defeated.”
And in the Academic Context?
In academic writing the clarity of the message plays a particularly important role. Hence, it is vital to pay close attention to the punctuation used in defining and non-defining clauses. One comma can make a difference.
Compare the sentences:
This study reports on the beliefs of Japanese teachers of English, who engaged in teaching-oriented postgraduate study in the UK, and focuses on their expectations about international programs.
This study reports on the beliefs of Japanese teachers of English who engaged in teaching-oriented postgraduate study in the UK and focuses on their expectations about international programs.
The first sentence is odd because it means that all Japanese teachers engaged in teaching-oriented postgraduate study in the UK, which is hardly the fact.
How to avoid ambiguity?
To put commas in an appropriate way:
- Find the relative clause (“that”, “which”, “who”)
- Try to omit the relative clause
- If the sentence still makes sense, use commas
- If the sentence doesn’t make sense, no commas are used
Check yourself with with the quiz:
- As other ideologies, native speakerism is spread, normalized, and supported by powerful discourses that are evident in how the English language has been taught and presented in course books.
- The second part is mainly concerned with formalisms within which it can be proved that a strategy will achieve a goal.
- For all participants, their MA constituted their first long residence abroad and except for Masa who was a frequent traveller to foreign countries the other teachers’ travel abroad experiences were quite limited.
- Yoshi and Sato who were both in their late twenties completed the same MA programme in 2014.
....
Answers:
- As other ideologies, native speakerism is spread, normalized, and supported by powerful discourses that are evident in how the English language has been taught and presented in course books.
- The second part is mainly concerned with formalisms within which it can be proved that a strategy will achieve a goal.
- For all participants, their MA constituted their first long residence abroad and except for Masa, who was a frequent traveller to foreign countries, the other teachers’ travel abroad experiences were quite limited
- Yoshi and Sato, who were both in their late twenties, completed the same MA programme in 2014.
*The difference in the use of “which”, “that” and “who” in American and British English is the following:
- AmE: that is used in defining relative clauses, while which, with a preceding comma, is used in non-defining relative clauses.
- BrE: which is used in both types of relative clauses in writing. That is used in spoken language.
Who is used in both AmE and BrE in both defining and non-defining clauses.
Useful Resources
Cambridge Dictionary: Relative Defining and Non-defining Clauses
Purdue Online Writing Lab: Relative Defining and Non-defining Clauses
References
Peng, J. (2020). Teacher interaction strategies and situated willingness to communicate. ELT Journal, 74(3), 307–317. doi: 10.1093/elt/ccaa012
Paran, A. (2016). Language teacher associations: key themes and future directions. ELT Journal, 70(2), 127–136. doi: 10.1093/elt/ccw012