nonrestrictive clause

[Allen165]

Would you say that the sentence below is correct? I'm wondering whether "who supervised my thesis" should be set off with commas.

I recently found out from Mr. X, who supervised my thesis, that he has graded the thesis with a 6, which means that I have completed the programme.

Thank you.

 

[indonesia]

Would you say that the sentence below is correct? I'm wondering whether "who supervised my thesis" should be set off with commas.

I recently found out from Mr. X, who supervised my thesis, that he has graded the thesis with a 6, which means that I have completed the programme.

Thank you.

I think your right. It reads to me as though it is just a piece of extra information that we can remove from your sentence without affecting the meaning, so I would call it a nonrestrictive/non-defining clause.

 

[Allen165]

I think your right. It reads to me as though it is just a piece of extra information that we can remove from your sentence without affecting the meaning, so I would call it a nonrestrictive/non-defining clause.

A nonrestrictive clause is, as you said, the part of a sentence that can be removed. But here's the problem: if I remove "who supervised my thesis," the reader no longer knows what thesis I'm talking about, and the sentence doesn't make sense as a result.

I recently found out from Mr. X that he has graded the thesis with a 6, which means that I have completed the programme.

 

[Perkamenn]

A nonrestrictive clause is, as you said, the part of a sentence that can be removed. But here's the problem: if I remove "who supervised my thesis," the reader no longer knows what thesis I'm talking about, and the sentence doesn't make sense as a result.

I think the problem lies in your understanding of removability. Removability means by removing the non-restrictive clause, the sentence remains grammatical. Mr X already defines the reference. There is no need to further define who revised the thesis. My last sentence means the parenthesized clause is non-restrictive.

 

[indonesia]

I see your point.
I think I misread your original post.

I thought that it read, 'I recently found out from Mr. X, who supervised my thesis, that he has graded my thesis with a 6, which means that I have completed the programme.

 

[Allen165]

I see your point.
I think I misread your original post.

I thought that it read, 'I recently found out from Mr. X, who supervised my thesis, that he has graded my thesis with a 6, which means that I have completed the programme.

So are you saying that the sentence should read "I recently found out from Mr. X, who supervised my thesis, that he has graded my thesis with a 6, which means that I have completed the programme"?

Thanks.

 

[indonesia]

I think it reads better using 'my thesis' rather than 'the thesis'. We could then use 'it' to replace the second 'my thesis' if you wished.