Non-restrictive clause

A non-restrictive clause is a clause in which a noun phrase is used to avoid repetition (as the referent of an anaphor, meaning that it is substituted by another word but refers to the same noun) is determined by its antecedent where the dependent is peripheral (non-essential) in the secondary constituent, as opposed to a restrictive clause, where the dependent is central (essential) to its primary constituent. A non-restrictive clause does not identify the referent of its noun, but only provides information about it.

Restrictive example:

The officer helped the civilians who had been shot.

or

The officer helped those civilians who had been shot.

In this example, there is no comma before "who". Therefore, what follows is a restrictive clause (not all of the civilians had been shot).

Non-restrictive example:

The officer helped the civilians, who had been shot.

Here, there is a comma before "who". Therefore, what follows is a non-restrictive clause. It changes the sentence to mean that all the civilians had been shot.^[1]

See also

• Relative pronoun
• Relative clause
• English relative clauses
• Apposition

References

External links

• Clauses - Restrictive and Nonrestrictive, Professor Marc A. Grinker
• What Is a Non-restrictive Clause? (with Examples), Grammar-Monster.com