Taka  +  845738 Mon, 03 Aug 09 05:56 PM Distributive justice, absolute, rigid, and unvarying, must be observed by anyone who has children to deal with. If 'which is' was added as: Distributive justice, which is absolute, rigid, and unvarying, must be observed by anyone who has children to deal with. would it still have the same meaning as the original? Or would it sound a bit different? Taka Joined on Tue, Sep 7 2004 Japan Senior Member 2,625

	Grammar Geek  +  845805 Mon, 03 Aug 09 07:02 PM I don't know what "distributive justice" means. Perhaps the part in bold is defining it for me, in which case, the "which is" serves to tell me that it's a definition.   However, adding it makes the original sound less austere, and I think the writer likes the austere tone.   Grammar Geek Joined on Tue, Jan 10 2006 Veteran Member 19,683 Barbara, who answers in American English. My housekeeping skills attest to the truth of the second law of thermodynamics: Left to themselves, things get more and more random!

	Taka  +  845827 Mon, 03 Aug 09 07:20 PM It's B. Russell, GG. For your information: http://russell.cool.ne.jp/beginner/HA16-010.HTM Here it seems to mean something like 'treating each children equally'. If the non-restrictive 'which is' was added, wouldn't it sound like 'distributive justice' is basically absolute, rigid, and unvarying? Is it really always so? Taka

	MrPedantic  +  850345 Thu, 06 Aug 09 09:47 PM I think I would take it as defining too, and thus omit the commas in the extended version:   1. Distributive justice which is absolute, rigid, and unvarying must be observed by anyone who...   MrP MrPedantic Joined on Tue, Oct 12 2004 Veteran Member 12,592 ...opella forensis / adducit febris... Commas, Punctuation

	Taka  +  852620 Sat, 08 Aug 09 12:52 PM P, do you think this adjective 'hot' grammatically different from those adjectives in question, or not? There is no proof that Pekin Man knew how to light it, and it is unlikely that he had learned how to cook. If he had, he would not have had to crack the bones of his food animals to get at the marrow, which, hot, could have been scooped out with relative ease. Taka Adjectives

	Yankee  +  852685 Sat, 08 Aug 09 02:07 PM Hi Taka I'd say the word "hot" is used similarly to the adjectives in your first sentence. Distributive justice, absolute, rigid, and unvarying, must be observed by anyone who has children to deal with. The words "absolute, rigid, and unvarying" modify "distributive justice". Taka “There is no proof that Pekin Man knew how to light it, and it is unlikely that he had learned how to cook. If he had, he would not have had to crack the bones of his food animals to get at the marrow, which, hot, could have been scooped out with relative ease. ” In that sentence, the word "which" refers back to the word "marrow", thus the word "hot" modifies "marrow". Yankee Joined on Sat, Apr 15 2006 Connecticut, USA Veteran Member 6,506 Amy "You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." - Mark Twain Adjectives, Sentences