relative clauses

H

Hela

Senior Member
Tunis
Tunisia - French
Hello everyone,

How many relative clauses are there in this sentence, two?

Anyone who is familiar with American media receives the impression that Americans are not too far removed from the days of the Wild West when guys with guns took care of business, both private and public.

There aren't any underlying relative pronouns, are there?

Would you have, by any chance, one sentence with let's say 2 evident relatives and 1 or 2 underlying relative pronouns?

Thanks in advance.
Hela
 
    • Hela said:
    Hello everyone,

    How many relative clauses are there in this sentence, two?

    Anyone who is familiar with American media receives the impression that Americans are not too far removed from the days of the Wild West when guys with guns took care of business, both private and public.

    There aren't any underlying relative pronouns, are there?

    Would you have, by any chance, one sentence with let's say 2 evident relatives and 1 or 2 underlying relative pronouns?

    Thanks in advance.
    Hela
    Click to expand...

    Hello Hela! I can only see one relative clause, namely 'who is familiar with American media'. I would call 'when guys...' a temporal clause (introduced by 'when'), not a relative clause. I think 'both private and public' is a couple of adjectives, not a relative clause. Have you been reading an English grammar that encourages you to see hidden relative clauses lurking everywhere?
     
    Look here for info on 'relative pronouns': here. This source lists 5 relative pronouns in English: that, which, who, whom, and whose. More examples here.

    Find the subject ('Anyone'), then find the verb ('receives'), then the direct object ('the impression') and you can see for yourself what's left over.
     
    But isn't "when guys with guns took care of business, both private and public" a relative clause introduced by a relative adverb whose antecedent is "the days of the Wild West" = "the days on which guys with guns..." ?
     
    I found 3.

    ''Anyone who is familiar with American media receives the impression that Americans are not too far removed from the days of the Wild West when guys with guns took care of business, both private and public.''

    And yes, I think ''when'' would be a relative clause as it links the 2nd clause to the first in the essence of the time an/or it was happening.
     
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