[Grammar] Are whoever ,whichever and whatever relative pronouns

[Dinusha]

Are whoever ,whichever and whatever relative pronouns which is used to modify nouns in adjective clauses?
e.g:

1. Most workers, whoever was not employed by the auto manufacturer, toiled at one of the millions of little minnow companies.
   
   
   
2. The three approaches, whichever works is fine, produce a more ambiguous picture of a man.
   
   
   
3. Any excessive profits, whatever exceeded accepted limits, would attract the notice of representatives.
   
   

Are these sentences correct? And can we use whoever, whichever and whatever as relative pronoun?

 

[bhaisahab]

Your sentences are not correct I'm afraid.
1. Most workers not employed by the auto manufacturer toiled at one of the millions of little minnow companies.

 

[Dinusha]

I also feel above sentence are incorrect.but I saw them at http://www.englishlanguageguide.com/grammar/relative-pronoun.asp
what do you think about that?

 

[Matthew Wai]

May I rewrite 2 as 'The three approaches, which work fine, produce a more ambiguous picture of a man.'?

Not a teacher.

 

[TheParser]

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


Hello, Dinusha:


One of my favorite books * says the following:

1. "Who" is a definite relative pronoun.

a. Definite relative pronouns introduce adjectival clauses.

2. "Whoever" is an indefinite relative pronoun.

a. Indefinite relative pronouns introduce noun clauses.

3. "He who pays his debts is to be respected."

a. The adjectival clause "who pays his debts" is introduced by the definite relative pronoun "who."

4. "Whoever walks on the grass will be reported."

a. The noun clause "Whoever walks on the grass" is introduced by the indefinite relative pronoun "whoever."

*****

In my opinion, then, your first sentence could read: "Most workers who were not employed by the auto manufacturer toiled at one of the millions of minnow companies."


NOTES:

1. I would not use commas because "who were not employed by the auto manufacturer" is a DEFINING clause.

2. As the moderator pointed out, you could simplify the adjective clause by dropping "who were."



James


* R.W. Pence and D.W. Emery, A Grammar of Present-Day English (1963), page 129.