Relative pronoun
A
relative pronoun marks a relative clause; it has the same referent in the main clause of a sentence that the relative clause modifies. An example is the English word
that in the sentence "This is the house that Jack built," Here the relative pronoun
that marks the relative clause "that Jack built," which modifies the noun
house in the main sentence.
That refers to house in the main clause and links two imagined sentences "This is a house" and "Jack built the house", where house is the same in both sentences. Not all instances of the word
that are relative pronouns. In providing a link between a subordinate clause and a main clause, a relative pronoun is similar in function to a subordinating conjunction. Unlike a conjunction, however, a relative pronoun does not simply mark the subordinate clause, but also plays the role of a noun within that clause. For example, in the relative clause "that Jack built" given above, the pronoun "that" functions as the object of the verb "built".