An English Grammar Part 23

[Sidenote: _Special caution needed here._]

127. It is sometimes hard for the student to tell a relative from an interrogative p.r.o.noun. In the regular direct question the interrogative is easily recognized; so is the relative when an antecedent is close by. But compare the following in pairs:--

1. (_a_) Like a gentleman of leisure _who_ is strolling out for pleasure.

(_b_) Well we knew _who_ stood behind, though the earthwork hid them.

2. (_a_) But _what_ you gain in time is perhaps lost in power.

(_b_) But _what_ had become of them they knew not.

3. (_a_) These are the lines _which_ heaven-commanded Toil shows on his deed.

(_b_) And since that time I thought it not amiss To judge _which_ were the best of all these three.

In sentences 1 (_a_), 2 (_a_) and 3 (_a_) the regular relative use is seen; _who_ having the antecedent _gentleman_, _what_ having the double use of p.r.o.noun and antecedent, _which_ having the antecedent _lines_.

But in 1 (_b_), 2 (_b_), and 3 (_b_), there are two points of difference from the others considered: first, no antecedent is expressed, which would indicate that they are not relatives; second, a question is disguised in each sentence, although each sentence as a whole is declarative in form. Thus, 1 (_b_), if expanded, would be, "Who stood behind? We knew," etc., showing that _who_ is plainly interrogative. So in 2 (_b_), _what_ is interrogative, the full expression being, "But what had become of them? They knew not."

Likewise with _which_ in 3 (_b_).

[Sidenote: _How to decide._]

In studying such sentences, (1) see whether there is an antecedent of _who_ or _which_, and whether _what_ = _that_ + _which_ (if so, it is a simple relative; if not, it is either an indefinite relative or an interrogative p.r.o.noun); (2) see if the p.r.o.noun introduces an indirect question (if it does, it is an interrogative; if not, it is an indefinite relative).

[Sidenote: _Another caution._]

128. On the other hand, care must be taken to see whether the p.r.o.noun is the word that really _asks the question_ in an interrogative sentence. Examine the following:--

1. Sweet rose! whence is this hue _Which_ doth all hues excel?

--DRUMMOND

2. And then what wonders shall you do _Whose_ dawning beauty warms us so?

--WALKER

3. Is this a romance? Or is it a faithful picture of _what_ has lately been in a neighboring land?--MACAULAY

These are interrogative sentences, but in none of them does the p.r.o.noun ask the question. In the first, _whence_ is the interrogative word, _which_ has the antecedent _hue_. In the second, _whose_ has the antecedent _you_, and asks no question. In the third, the question is asked by the verb.

OMISSION OF THE RELATIVES.

[Sidenote: _Relative omitted when_ object.]

129. The relative is frequently omitted in spoken and in literary English when it would be the object of a preposition or a verb. Hardly a writer can be found who does not leave out relatives in this way when they can be readily supplied in the mind of the reader. Thus,--

These are the sounds we feed upon.--FLETCHER.

I visited many other apartments, but shall not trouble my reader with all the curiosities I observed.--SWIFT.

Exercise.

Put in the relatives _who_, _which_, or _that_ where they are omitted from the following sentences, and see whether the sentences are any smoother or clearer:--

1. The insect I am now describing lived three years,--GOLDSMITH.

2. They will go to Sunday schools through storms their brothers are afraid of.--HOLMES.

3. He opened the volume he first took from the shelf.--G. ELIOT.

4. He could give the coals in that queer coal scuttle we read of to his poor neighbor.--THACKERAY.

5. When Goldsmith died, half the unpaid bill he owed to Mr.

William Filby was for clothes supplied to his nephew.--FORSTER

6. The thing I want to see is not Redbook Lists, and Court Calendars, but the life of man in England.--CARLYLE.

7. The material they had to work upon was already democratical by instinct and habitude.--LOWELL.

[Sidenote: _Relative omitted when_ subject.]

130. We often hear in spoken English expressions like these:--

There isn't one here ? knows how to play ball.

There was such a crowd ? went, the house was full.

Here the omitted relative would be in the nominative case. Also in literary English we find the same omission. It is rare in prose, and comparatively so in poetry. Examples are,--

The silent truth that it was she was superior.--THACKERAY

I have a mind presages me such thrift.--SHAKESPEARE.

There is a nun in Dryburgh bower, Ne'er looks upon the sun.

--SCOTT.

And you may gather garlands there Would grace a summer queen.

_Id._

'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view.--CAMPBELL.

Exercises on the Relative p.r.o.noun.

(_a_) Bring up sentences containing ten instances of the relatives _who_, _which_, _that_, and _what_.