By Relative pronouns, Genitives

MrPedantic wrote:It interests me that some modern languages have at least the appearance of greater simplicity (e.g. the loss of inflection) than their counterparts of 900 years ago. This seems counter-intuitive: you would expect a language to evolve towards (not from) complexity.Hello MrPAs far...

Hi SOP SeekerOfPeace wrote:Would I be correct to say that relative clauses: ü modify a noun or a pronoun Correct, but they can also modify a clause: He didn't say anything, which was a surprise. ü Are either defining or non-defining Correct. In the following...

Hi KilimanjaroTwo things are common to your sentences: both contain a restrictive relative clause and an of-genitive. As a door normally has only one handle and a house has only one roof, the relative pronouns can't refer to handle and roof. For that to be possible, the sentences should read:He...

What are the rules for using "what" in the way I did in this thread title? I first heard it in the TV cartoon series "The Tick", which has a bad guy called "The Midnight Bomber What Bombs At Midnight". I've been told that the standard pronouns are who, whom, which and that: "Who" is used for...