02 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, AriSy and Letters. 



III. THE EESTEICTIYE SELATIVE CLAUSE. 



(1) Its Opportunity. 



To illustrate this, if ^'^vlen die yearly of cholera" expresses to 

 my satisfaction what I intend, I shall let well-enough alone and 

 use no other words of any sort. But if my statement is inade- 

 quate, if for example I further wish you to know what kind of 

 men or how many or which, I am likely to use linguistic means 

 to effect my desire. Of these, which are many, the restrictive 

 relative clause alone is of momentary interest. Of it in par- 

 ticular it may then be noted, that its opportunity is the inade- 

 quacy of the principal clause. 



(2) Its Warrant. 



Supposing such an opportunity to exist, the right or warrant 

 of the restrictive relative to utilize it may be illustrated as fol- 

 lows. Suppose that, meeting you at a social gathering, I wish 

 to tell you that one of its members, a Mr. Brown, is the son of my 

 brother. My natural impulse is to say that '^Brown is my 

 nephew." But I recall that you do not know his name. His 

 specific designation being therefore unavailable, the best remain- 

 ing single word for him is possibly ''guest," which at least ex- 

 cludes the host, the family, servants, reporters, and all beings 

 not human. But from this word vou cannot learn which one of 

 many persons I intend. Casting about me for a remedy, I note 

 an exchange of salutations between mv kinsman and one Smith, 

 at the very moment when your eyes are on the former. I solve 

 at once all difficulties by designatino; the person I intend as "The 

 guest who bowed to Smith." 



In doing so I am not to be understood as attaching special im- 

 portance to the salutation. Any other distinctive act would have 

 served as well. Thus, overlooking a mere aesthetic preference 

 for the comely, I might with equal clearness say ''The gniest who 

 stretched his legs" or "The guest who yawned so dangerously 

 is my nephew." But had any other person bowed to Smith or 

 yawned or stretched while Brown Avas doing the same, I should 

 have neglected each of these acts, for the reason that no one of 



