semantics Semantics is the study of linguistic Meaning (philosophy), meaning. It examines what meaning is, how words get their meaning, and how the meaning of a complex expression depends on its parts. Part of this process involves the distinction betwee ...

, a modifier is said to be restrictive (or ''defining'') if it restricts the

reference A reference is a relationship between objects in which one object designates, or acts as a means by which to connect to or link to, another object. The first object in this relation is said to ''refer to'' the second object. It is called a ''nam ...

of its

head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple ani ...

. For example, in "the red car is fancier than the blue one", ''red'' and ''blue'' are restrictive, because they restrict which cars ''car'' and ''one'' are referring to. ("The car is fancier than the one" would make little sense.) By contrast, in "John's beautiful mother", ''beautiful'' is non-restrictive; "John's mother" identifies her sufficiently, whereas "beautiful" only serves to add more information. Restrictive modifiers are also called ''defining'', ''identifying'', ''essential'', or ''necessary''; non-restrictive ones are also called ''non-defining'', ''non-identifying'', ''descriptive'', or ''unnecessary'' (though this last term can be misleading). In certain cases, generally when restrictiveness is marked syntactically through the lack of commas, restrictive modifiers are called ''integrated'' and non-restrictive ones are called ''non-integrated'' or ''supplementary''.

Restrictiveness in English

English does not generally mark modifiers for restrictiveness, with the exception of

relative clause A relative clause is a clause that modifies a noun or noun phrase and uses some grammatical device to indicate that one of the arguments in the relative clause refers to the noun or noun phrase. For example, in the sentence ''I met a man who wasn ...

s: non-restrictive ones are set off in speech through intonation (with a pause beforehand and ) and in writing by using commas, whereas restrictive clauses are not. Furthermore, although restrictive clauses can be headed by any of the

relative pronoun A relative pronoun is a pronoun that marks a relative clause. An example is the word ''which'' in the sentence "This is the house which Jack built." Here the relative pronoun ''which'' introduces the relative clause. The relative clause modifies th ...

s ''who(m)'', ''which'', ''that'' or by a

zero 0 (zero) is a number representing an empty quantity. Adding (or subtracting) 0 to any number leaves that number unchanged; in mathematical terminology, 0 is the additive identity of the integers, rational numbers, real numbers, and compl ...

, non-restrictive clauses can only be headed by ''who(m)'' or ''which''. For example: *Restrictive: ''We saw two puppies this morning: one that was born yesterday and one that was born last week. The one that (''or'' which) was born yesterday is tiny.'' *Non-restrictive: ''We saw a puppy and a kitty this morning. The puppy, which was born yesterday, was tiny.'' Although English does not consistently mark ordinary

adjective An adjective (abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that describes or defines a noun or noun phrase. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives are considered one of the main part of speech, parts of ...

s for restrictiveness, they can be marked periphrastically by moving them into relative clauses. For example, "John's beautiful wife" can be rewritten as "John's wife, who is beautiful", to avoid the suggestion of disambiguation between John's various wives. A sentence unmarked for restrictiveness, like "The red car is fancier than the blue one," can—if necessary—be rephrased to make it explicitly restrictive or non-restrictive: *Restrictive: ''The car that's red is fancier than the one that's blue.'' *Non-restrictive: ''The car, which is red, is fancier than the other, which is blue.'' English speakers do not generally find such locutions necessary, however.

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* On the intonation question, see Beverly Colins and Inger M. Mees (2003), ''Practical Phonetics and Phonology'', London: Routledge, . {{formal semantics Semantics Grammar

Restrictiveness in English

See also

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