My friend who's japanese
a. My friend, who's Japanese, is coming.
b. My friend who's japanese is coming.
We can paraphrase [a] 'My friend is coming and, by the way, she is Japanese', whereas will communicate that 'My friend who is Japanese, not my friend who is Chinese, is coming'.
A BOOK REFERRED TO
George Yule, Explaining English Grammar
I'm confused because I was told that If you use a possessive determiner before a noun (my, your, his, her, our, their), don't use a restrictive relative clause after that noun. I don't know why 'My friend' above does not prevent a identifying relative clause.
Top answer
Perhaps you simply misunderstood what you were told.
- Perhaps you simply misunderstood what you were told.
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anonymousMy friend who is Japanese
Much better: My Japanese friend
CJ
0anonymousI don't know why 'My friend' above does not prevent a identifying relative clause.
'my friend' doesn't give enough information to make the referent unique.
If it were 'my father', it would be a different story.
CJ
0
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