13 antecedent as “the relative pronoun that points back to the head of the noun
phrase”. Furthermore, according to Close 1975, the antecedent in the relative clause is classified into personal and non-personal, where the personal antecedent
refers to living being or people while the non-personal refers to things. Since the relative clause is a clause, therefore it should consist of a subject and a predicate,
but through its attribute which is a dependent clause, the relative clause cannot stand alone without being attached to an independent clause. In addition, Givon
2001 mentions that a relative clause is only a part of a noun phrase which functions as a post modifier. I will elaborate relative clauses into some aspects
which related to the research as follows.
a. Kinds of the Relative Clauses
The first aspect to discuss is the kinds of the relative clauses. There are two kinds of the relative clauses as below:
1 Defining Relative Clause
Through its definition, defining relative clause or also known as restrictive relative clause modifies or explains the preceding noun in order to distinguish it
from other nouns of the same class and make a clear understanding of the noun Thomson Martinet, 1986. The explanation will restrict or limit the preceding
noun or the antecedent and will guide the hearers or readers to understand what noun is being talked or addressed by the speaker or the author. As example:
2 The man who told me this refused to give me his name Thomson Martinet, 1986.
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The dependent clause who told me this is a defining relative clause. It defines the
antecedent man and tells the hearers or readers which man the speaker or author is talking about. If we ignore or omit the relative clause, the hearers or readers will
not know which man the speaker or author is talking about. In writing this kind of relative clause, the separation marks such as comma and dash are not put between
the antecedent and the relative clause. In addition to defining relative clause, according to Murcia and Freeman
1999, the basic structural relationship of the clauses in the matrix clause is that the relative clause subordinate clause is embedded to the main clause. Now, it is
obviously seen that, the relative clause “whose record has been amazing” from example 1 is embedded to the noun phrase NP coach in the main clause of
example 1 and limits the meaning of the antecedent .
2 Non-Defining Relative Clause
Thomson and Martinet 1986 mention that “non–defining relative clauses are placed after nouns which are
definite already”. The non-defining relative clauses are not essential in the sentences and can be omitted. Unlike defining
relative clause which never puts the separation mark to separate the relative clause from the noun the relative clause explains or modifies, in non-defining relative
clause, putting the separation mark is a must. For the information value inside the relative clause, Murphy 1985 mentions that the non-defining relative clause only
gives extra information about the antecedent. L et’s take a look from the example
below: PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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She wanted Tom, whom she liked, as a partner; but got Jack Thomson Martinet, 1986.
In example 3, If we omit the relative clause whom she liked, people will not get confused. They still recognize who Tom is. The non-defining relative clause here
only functions to provide or add extra information, but not to identify the antecedent.
In distinguishing the defining and non-defining relative clauses, the separation markers such as comma and dash in the reading materials or pauses in
the speeches really do matter. Let us see the examples below to see how they are different.
4 The travellers who knew about the floods took another road Thomson
Martinet, 1986. 5
The travellers, who knew about the floods, took another road Thomson Martinet, 1986.
The relative clause who knew about the floods in example 4 is a defining relative clause. It tells us that only some travellers who knew about the floods took
another road. There might be 10 travellers but not all of them knew the floods and then took the other road. Those who did not know about the floods still took the
same road. Conversely, the relative clause who knew about the floods in example 5 is a non-defining relative clause. The non-defining relative clause convinces us
that all of the travellers knew about the floods and all of them took another road. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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b. Syntactic Functions of the Relative Clauses
