Who

Hi Taka

One difference is that it is clear to me is that in the second sentence the speaker has exactly two daughters.

In your first sentence, the speaker might have only two daughters, or there might be more than two. However, no matter how many daughters there are, only two of the daughters became musicians.

In other words, if you have only two daughters, you cannot use the first sentence?

You can use either sentence if there are exactly two daughters.

However, in my opinion, if there were three daughters, you could only use the first sentence. The first sentence could possibly be a reference to "two of my three daughters", for example.

YankeeYou can use either sentence if there are exactly two daughters. 

How come it's possible to use the restricted 'who' when you have exactly two daughters, no more?

Hi Taka

This is how I look at things:

"I have two daughters, who are muscians."
The phrase "who are musicians" is extra information (i.e. non-restricting). Thus, first you have a simple statement of fact:
I have two daughters.
Then you basically have an afterthought which amounts to something like this:
Oh, and by the way, both of m

In your examples, you have six kids and then identifed the two daughers by using the restrictive 'who'.

You said, even if I had only two daughers, no more, I could still use the restrictive 'who'. I wonder what kind of case it could be used for.

One possible scenario I can imagine for "I have two daughters who are musicians" being a statement about someone's only two daughters OR about two of several daughters might be a conversation something like this:

A: Do you have any kids?

B: Yes, a son, who we're very proud of. He's a musician, and he just got accepted at Juilliard on a full scholarship.

A: Wow! That's i

I'm trying to figure out why in your example that restrictive who works. Is the feel of the restrictive usage behind the statement of your A something like 'Yes, I have two daughters. They do not do usual jobs. They are, like your son, also musicians (i.e. not just two daughters but two who are both musicians')?

Hi Taka

My feeling is that the sentence "I have two daughters who became musicians" would probably be more often used in a situation in which there are more than two daughters in total. I can't really say that with any kind of certainty, though. It's just a feeling. However, I really had no trouble at all coming up with a context in which there might be exactly two OR there might

YankeeIn my imaginary conversation, the fact that someone had already mentioned a child who is a musician made it easy for me to work your sentence into the conversation.

I'm still trying to understand what makes the restrictive usage possible in your imaginary conversation even if A has only two daughters...Only two and restrictive...

Amy, could you