Relative clauses vs nominative clauses

Question

The mere fact that you come to me in my hour of need proves that you are my friend.

This is the key that opens the garage.

what is the grammatical form and function of the underlined clauses? How do we identify a relative clauses from a nominative clause?

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

JigneshbharatiHow do we identify a relative clauses from a nominative clause?

Well, you have to know what the functions of a noun are in order to make the identification.

A noun can be the subject of a verb, the complement or object of a verb, the object of a preposition and a few other things.

If a clause serves one of these functions, then it is a nominal (noun) clause.

If a clause serves to describe or qualify another noun, it is usually a relative clause.

For example, take this sentence:

The key was lost yesterday.

"Key" is a noun. Add a relative clause to identify or describe the key.

The key that opened the safe was lost yesterday.

Now you can put a nominal clause to be the subject of the verb "was lost."

What was lost yesterday was the key.

This sentence has three clauses; the main clause, the nominal clause subject and the relative clause after "key."

What was lost yesterday was the key that opened the safe.

You can read more here:

https://www.thoughtco.com/noun-nominal-clause-1691440

BillJ · Answer

The mere fact that you come to me in my hour of need proves that you are my friend.

The underlined expressions are not relative clauses because there is no element, either present or understood, that obtains its meaning from an antecedent.

Although it's tempting to say that the first that clause refers to "fact", and therefore must be a relative clause, that's not the case. Nevertheless, "the fact (that)" is special in that it takes declarative content clauses as complement to form noun phrases that can occupy any position that an ordinary noun phrase can, such as subject in your example, or direct object as in You can't ignore the fact that he was drunk.

Nevertheless the underlined clause is called a declarative content clause functioning as complement of "fact".

The second underlined element is again a declarative content clause, this time functioning as complement of the verb "proves".

This is the key [that ___ opens the garage].

Here, "that opens the garage" is a relative clause. We know this because if we insert the noun "key" in the subject position marked by ___, it makes sense: The key opens the garage.

Relative clauses vs nominative clauses

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