Nonrestrictive vs restrictive 2

Question

Hi, please help me."The President's Award will go to him who generated sales of more than 10 million yen during the period."Is it possible to put a comma between "him" and "who"? If it is OK, is there any difference in meaning?

Miriam · Accepted Answer

Hello, Tashiro.

You can indeed use a comma, but you would need a change of pronoun, and yes: the meaning of the sentence would change, too.

Compare the following:

1.Restricted relative clause (no commas) and use of a subjective pronoun ("he" instead of "him" because "he" is the subject of a noun clause):

"The President's Award will go to he who generated sales of more than 10 million yen during the period."

This means "to the person/man who generated..." His name may not be known yet.

2. Non-restrictive relative clause (between commas) and use of an objective pronoun ("him" instead of "he" because the pronoun would be the object of the preposition "to"):

"The President's Award will go to him, who generated sales of more than 10 million yen during the period."

In this sentence, perhaps the man in question is beingpointed to or his name has been already been mentioned, and "him" is used so as not to repeat the name again.

I hope you can see the difference in meaning between both sentences. But, if you don't, please ask for clarification.

Cheers!

Miriam

Tashiro · Answer

Thank you.

Anonymous · Answer

Hi. I looked up the phrase "will go to him who did" at Google Book Search and came up with 3 hits and none came up for the phrase "will go to he who did." Why do you think that is?

I think I have seen sentences in print where an object pronoun like "him" is modified by a restrictive clause without the comma between the pronoun and restrictive clause.

Hrsanei · Answer

Will go to he is incorrect,you need object pronoun in that context.

Nonrestrictive vs restrictive 2

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