著者

Sonoda Kenji

出版者

長崎大学

雑誌

保健学研究 (ISSN:18814441)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.19, no.1, pp.1-5, 2006

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Today, normally the relative that is not used in nonrestrictive relative clauses. But, even today there are times when one comes across the relative that used nonrestrictively. In fact, one sees it surprisingly often, especially in BrE. Historically, in nonrestrictive clauses, not only which but also that has been used for hundreds of years, but early in the 20th century, using that nonrestrictively ceased to be popular, although writers like D. H. Lawrence continued using it. The objective of my article is to point out that, despite its limited instances, the nonrestrictive that has been used in much the same way as which. To be specific, which has been used in nonrestrictive clauses when its antecedents are definite, indefinite, and when the antecedents have general reference, and all of this seems to have been the case with that too. The antecedents of the nonrestrictive which are noun phrases, adjective phrases, verb phrases, part of the previous clause, or a whole clause, and that seems to take the same kinds of antecedents as which. My study is based upon more than sixty examples of the nonrestrictive relative that ranging from the beginning of the 20th century to the present.