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Dear Eric,
 
You're right--the first sentence has in it a noun clause serving as the
direct object of the main clause.  The second sentence has an adjective
clause functioning as a modifier of "girl," the direct object of the main
clause.
 
JVB
 
>"I don't know who(m) I saw last night".
>
>"I like the girl who(m) i saw last night.
>
>ok, the above two, to my feeble understanding, both contain relative
>clauses which are,
>1-defining
>2-and both have the relative pronoun as object
>
>therefore they should, in both cases, be capable of being omitted. Doesn't
>seem to work with sentence one.
>ok, so it looks like, in sentence one, that the relative clause is the
>object of the verb itself (know), but still, isn't it a relative clause
the
>object of the verb "saw" being "who(m)??
>
>thanks,   eric
 
 
 
 
James Vanden Bosch                      (616) 957-6592
Department of English                   [log in to unmask]
Calvin College                                     fax: (616) 957-8508
Grand Rapids, MI 49546              http://www.calvin.edu/~vand/