Relative Clause

[nagara]

Dear Teacher,

Please help me analyzing the following complex sentence.

a/ My brother gave me two books. One of the books is interesting.

==>1/ My brother gave me two books, one of which is interesting.
==>2/ One of the two books which my brother gave me is interesting.

Which of the above sentences-1 or 2- is the combined sentence of the two sentences in a?

Thanks in advance.

Best wishes.

 

[Tdol]

They both work, but the first reads better to me.

 

[nagara]

Teacher Tdol,

One of the two assignments that my teacher gave me is interesting.

Does "that my teacher gave me" modify either "the two assignments" or "one"?

Thanks

 

[Afit]

Teacher Tdol,

One of the two assignments that my teacher gave me is interesting.

Does "that my teacher gave me" modify either "the two assignments" or "one"?

Thanks

The relative pronoun can only see the nearest noun phrase head. It cannot see the NP structure, just the head.

There are two nouns before "which":

1. assignments (plural),
2. one (singular).

Which is the head? Let us test for number concord! Normally the verb agrees in number with the head of the noun phrase.

One of the two assignments is :tick:
One of the two assignments are :cross:

The verb agrees with "one" so "one" is the head and "one" is the noun the relative pronoun refers back to.

One of the two assignments that my teacher gave me is interesting.

The part in bold is the subject, a noun phrase. "One" is the head, the rest is the modifiers. "of the two assignments" is a prepositional postmodifier and "that my teacher gave me" is a relative postmodifier.

 

[5jj]

The verb agrees with "one" so "one" is the head and "one" is the noun the relative pronoun refers back to.

I disagree.

'One' is the subject of the verb 'is', but that is not relevant to the relative clause.

One of the [two assignments that my teacher gave me] is interesting.

My teacher gave me two assignments. One of these two assignments (which/that my teacher gave me) is interesting. The antecedent of the relative is '(the two) assignments'.

 

[Afit]

[One of the two assigmnents] that my teacher gave me is interesting.

He gave me two assignments. One of them is interesting: the one that my teacher gave me. The other one that my brother gave me is disappointingly ho-hum.

 

[5jj]

[One of the two assigmnents] that my teacher gave me is interesting.

He gave me two assignments. One of them is interesting: the one that my teacher gave me. The other one that my brother gave me is disappointingly ho-hum.

Who is 'He'? 'He' seems to have given me assignments that my teacher and my brother gave me.

Sorry, Afit, you are just not right here.

One of the two assignments that are on my desk is good.
One of thetwo assignments that my teacher gave me is interesting.

 

[Afit]

The relative pronoun can only see the nearest noun phrase head. It cannot see the NP structure, just the head.

The question is: Is "One of the two assignments" a matryoshka doll or not?

1. [One of] [the two assignments] that --> one of = phrasal determiner?
or
2. [One of the two assignments] that
or
3. [[One] of [the two assignments]] that

 

[Barb_D]

No, it's as 5jj says.

There is really almost no possibility of a native speaker interpreting it any other way.

The teacher gave two assignments. One is interesting.
One [of the two assignments that my teacher gave me] is interesting.

I have two assignments. The one from my teacher is interesting. The other is from someone else and is not.
One of the two assignments, the one from my teacher, is interesting. -- You would need to use an appositive, or some other structure, to say this.

Edit: Sorry, as I was writing this, the conversation continued.

 

[Afit]

One of the two assignments that are on my desk is good.

[One (assignment) (of [the two assigments])] that is on my desk is good; one (assignment) that is on my desk

II would never use "are" here.

 

[5jj]

[One (assignment) (of [the two assigments])] that is on my desk is good; one (assignment) that is on my desk

[STRIKE]I[/STRIKE]I would never use "are" here.

Then you'd never be right. Don't worry - it's not that serious.

 

[Barb_D]

I need to back up 5jj on this.

One IS... the rest is just window dressing.

 

[Tdol]

[One (assignment) (of [the two assigments])] that is on my desk is good; one (assignment) that is on my desk

II would never use "are" here.

To me, this doesn't work- you'd need to rephrase the sentence if only one of the assignments is both good and on the desk to something like The assignment [that is] on the desk is good.

 

[Afit]

Then you'd never be right. Don't worry - it's not that serious.

I do not think that kind of irony adds much to the charm of this forum. ;-)

Read this thread from this post on, please. What is your learned opinion about it?

https://www.usingenglish.com/forum/ask-teacher/4888-attributive-clause.html#post28479


I think the problem lies here:

That relative pronouns modify nominals, specifically nominals in nature ...
I've noticed something of interest. Tell me what you think: take a closer look at the "nouns",

roomful (derived: room that is filled )
sampling (derived: participle; verbal in nature)

If the head (i.e. sampling, roomful) is verbal in nature (i.e. derived from a verb), then of course there wouldn't be any argument at all since the relative pronoun would not be able to modify a verbal head,

I addressed a roomful of professors that was huge.
I gave the student a sampling of the books that was long.

One is a proform for assignment, which is verbal in nature (to assign).

 

[Afit]

I need to back up 5jj on this.

One IS... the rest is just window dressing.

Are you telling this with your mighty syntactician hat on?

 

[5jj]

If the head (i.e. sampling, roomful) is verbal in nature (i.e. derived from a verb), then of course there wouldn't be any argument at all since the relative pronoun would not be able to modify a verbal head"

I don't know where that idea came from. The following seem fine to me:

The acting that I saw yesterday was of a high quality.
John's driving, which used to terrify me, has improved since he went on that course.

One is a proform for assignment, which is verbal in nature (to assign).

'Assignment' can be used as a countable noun. COCA has over one hundred examples of 'assignment that...', 'assignment which...'

 

[Tdol]

I am going to close this thread as it's going downhill. Please can we keep discussions to ideas and views rather than views about the nature or character of the poster. Thanks.