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In semantics, a modifier is said to be restrictive (or ''defining'') if it restricts the reference of its head. For example, in "the red car is fancier than the blue one", ''red'' and ''blue'' are restrictive, because they restrict which cars ''car'' and ''one'' are referring to. ("The car is fancier than the one" would make little sense.) By contrast, in "John's beautiful mother", ''beautiful'' is non-restrictive; "John's mother" identifies her sufficiently, whereas "beautiful" only serves to add more information. Restrictive modifiers are also called ''defining'', ''identifying'', ''essential'', or ''necessary''; non-restrictive ones are also called ''non-defining'', ''non-identifying'', ''descriptive'', or ''unnecessary'' (though this last term can be misleading). In certain cases, generally when restrictiveness is marked syntactically through the lack of commas, restrictive modifiers are called ''integrated'' and non-restrictive ones are called ''non-integrated'' or ''supplementary''. ==Restrictiveness in English== (詳細はrelative clauses: non-restrictive ones are set off in writing by using commas, and in speech through intonation (with a pause beforehand and an uninterrupted melody), whereas restrictive ones are not. Furthermore, although restrictive clauses are often headed by the relative pronoun ''that'' or by a zero relative pronoun, non-restrictive clauses are not. For example: *Restrictive: ''We saw two puppies this morning: one that was born yesterday and one that was born last week. The one that (''or'' which *) was born yesterday is tiny.'' *Non-restrictive: ''We saw a puppy and a kitty this morning. The puppy, which was born yesterday, was tiny.'' ( *In formal American English, the use of ''which'' as a restrictive pronoun is often considered to be incorrect. See That or which.) Although English does not consistently mark ordinary adjectives for restrictiveness, they can be marked by moving them into relative clauses. For example, "the red car is fancier than the blue one" can be rewritten as "the car that's red is fancier than the one that's blue." "John's beautiful wife" can be rewritten as "John's wife, who is beautiful", to avoid the suggestion of disambiguation between John's various wives. English speakers do not generally find such locutions necessary, however. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Restrictiveness」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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