28.15: Part 1: 14 THE RELATIVE CLAUSE (LA PROPOSITION RELATIVE)

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14 THE RELATIVE CLAUSE (LA PROPOSITION RELATIVE)

14.1 The Relative Clause: General

Form

The relative clause is a sentence-type construction composed of a subject and predicate in which the subject, direct object, indirect object, or object of a preposition is a relative pronoun. That relative pronoun always comes first (exc ept for its preposition if any) in the relative clause, thus often disturbing the normal order of constituents. (See Section 14.2 for a table of the relative pronouns.)

L'homme qui pilote l'avion est mon père.

The man who is piloting the plane is my father.

(qui is subject, so normal word order prevails in the relative clause)

L'homme que vous avez vu hier est mon père.

The man (that) you saw yesterday is my father.

(que is direct object, so normal word order is disturbed: object comes before subject, but the rest is standard)

The following examples (under "Function") clearly show what the word order is with the various relative pronouns.

Function

The relative clause functions in its entirety (that is, the whole construction! as a modifier of the noun that is the antecedent of the relative pronoun in that relative clause.

L'homme que vous avez vu hier est mon père.

The man (that) you saw yesterday is my father.

(The relative clause is: que vous avez vu hier. It describes the man mentioned in the main sentence, helps the reader identify the person that the speaker is talking about. The relative pronoun is: que. Its antecedent is l'homme.)

Le monsieur dont la fille est malade est allé chercher le médecin.

The man whose daughter is sick went to find the doctor.

(The relative clause is: dont la fille est malade. It describes the man mentioned in the main sentence, identifies him for the listener. The relative pronoun is: dont, "of whom", its antecedent is l'homme.)

14.2 The Relative Clause: Relative Pronouns (Pronoms relatifs)

Form

The relative pronoun has distinct forms corresponding, on two dimensions, (1) to its function within the relative clause (subject, direct object, indirect object, object of a preposition), and (2) to its antecedent (whether it is human or not). The following table summarizes that information:¹¹

Function of the Relative Pronoun in the Relative Clause	Antecedent is:
Function of the Relative Pronoun in the Relative Clause	HUMAN	NOT HUMAN
SUBJECT	qui	qui
DIRECT OBJECT	que	que
INDIRECT OBJECT	qui	(none, unless personified; then = qui)
OBJECT OF PREPOSITION (other than de)	qui*	LQL (lequel, laquelle...)*
OBJECT OF DE	dont	dont

¹¹ A form of LQL may be used to replace any of the qui/que forms (except dont) but, in general, students at the first-year level should follow this table.

* * Remember that the preposition must precede the pronoun object.

Function

We'll give examples of each function starting with the left column of the FORM table, that is, with human antecedents for the relative pronoun.

Subject

Le chef qui a inventé ce plat est renommé.

The chef who invented this dish is renowned.

Direct Object

Le garçon que vous avez frappé est mon fils.

The boy that you hit is my son.

Indirect Object

La femme à qui je parlais est une chanteuse célèbre.

The woman to whom I was speaking is a famous singer.

Object of a Preposition

L'étudiant devant qui tu es assis est malade.

The student in front of whom you are seated is sick.

Object of the Preposition "de"

Le prof dont je me plains ne veut pas me voir.

The professor I'm complaining about doesn't want to see me.

This second set of examples is for the right column of the FORM section, for which the antecedent of the relative pronoun is not human.

Subject

Le livre qui est sur la table est rouge.

The book (that is) on the table is red.

Direct Object

La voiture que j'ai achetée est noire.

The car that I bought is black.

Indirect Object

Le chat auquel¹² tu donnes le lait est gros.

The cat you're giving the milk to is fat.

¹² See the footnote to the table of relative pronouns. This is a in which the LQL form seems preferable to the qui/que form.

Object of a Preposition

J'ai perdu la serviette dans laquelle tu as mis ces copies.

I lost the briefcase in which you put those papers.

Object of the Preposition "de"

L'église dont je parle est Saint-Eustache.

The church I'm talking about is Saint-Eustache.

14.3 The Compound Relative Pronoun

Instead of functioning as an adjectival clause, the relative clause can function as a subject or direct object noun phrase. In that case, it has a "dummy" antecedent, ce, and we call it a compound relative. We'll give examples of just a few of these constructions—those you may meet in reading or possibly in dictations or aural comprehensions. We will not ask you to produce any of these forms on your own.

The compound relative clause construction as subject:¹³

Ce que tu as dit n'est pas vrai.	What you said is not true.
Ce qui est sur la table est à moi.	What is on the table is mine.

¹³ Note that we specify that the construction is being used as the subject, that is, subject of the main clause. The relative pronoun itself is either subject or object of the verb within its own clause.

The compound relative clause construction as object:

Je ne crois pas ce qu'il dit.	I don't believe what he says.
As-tu vu ce qui était dans la salle?	Did you see what was in the room?