Open Journal of Modern Linguistics
2013. Vol.3, No.4, 356-359
Published Online December 2013 in SciRes (http://www.scirp.org/journal/ojml) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ojml.2013.34046
Open Access
356
A Comparative Study of “as” and “Which” in Non-Restrictive
Relative Clauses
Jiancheng Wang, Jun hong Tang
Foreign Language Department of Baoding Unive rsity, Baoding, China
Received September 17th, 2013; revised October 19th, 2013; acc ept ed Oct obe r 27th, 2013
Copyright © 2013 Jiancheng Wang, Junhong Tang. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative
Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly cited.
Both “as” and “which” can introduce a non-restrictive relative clause. But each of them has its own par-
ticular function in meaning, part of speech and sentence structure. Therefore sometimes they can have
similar usage in a certain situation, while most often they are quite different and can not be used alterna-
tively.
Keywords: Non-Restrictive Relative Clause; Relative Words; As; Which
Introduction
In any grammar book, the usage of “as” and “which” is illus-
trated, but the students are still confused in many cases an d can
not use them correctly in context. The usage of these two rela-
tive words is far more complicated and needs a detailed study
of the different special and distinctive features.
Part of Speech and Meaning
In a non-restrictive relative clause, the use of “which” is not
so complicated. It is used as a relative pronoun, the meaning of
which is determined by the antecedent it refers to, and it can be
interpreted as “that”, “those things”, “that case”, and so on.
“As” is much complicated both in the part of speech and in
meaning. Traditionally, just like “which”, it is usually defined
as a relative pronoun, as Professor Bo (2005: p. 536) and Pro-
fessor Wang (2005: p. 491) put it. Some English dictionary also
put it into pronoun category.
Defining “as” as a pronoun can make people understand eas-
ily which word it refer to, but can not make clear the meaning
of it in context.
Actually, “as” can not be understood so simply as a replace-
ment for a word or words in the main clause, because it can has
a special meaning in a certain situation .
So the 4th edition of Longman dictionary (2004) regards “as”
as a conjunction:
Example 1. David, as you know, has not been well lately (as:
used to say that what you are saying is already known or has
been stated before).
And in the Oxford English-Chinese dictionary (1997) there is
no pronoun to define “as”, with the following examples used as
conjunctions:
Example 2. Cyprus, as you know, is an island in the Medi-
terranean (as: a fact which).
Example 3. She’s unusually tall, as are both her parents (as:
and so too).
The 6th edition Oxford dictionary (2004) interprets “as” as:
“used to make a comment or to add information about what you
have just said” with the following two examples:
Example 4a. She’s very tall, as is her mother.
Example 4b. As you know, Julia is leaving soon.
Therefore “as”, when introducing a non-restrictive relative
clause, serves syntactic function as a special relative pronoun
with the function of a conjunction. It can be used to refer to
something in the main clause in some case, and meanwhile to
add some special information to the main clause, such as
“manner”, “reason”, and so on, according to the context.
Syntax and Structure Function
Both “as” and “which” can be used in a non-restrictive rela-
tive clause to refer to a part or the whole main clause. In some
situation, they can be used alternatively. But sometimes can not.
The following principles should be considered.
Principle of Contextual Meaning
The meaning of the contextual clauses is the key point in
choosing “as” or “which” in the relative clause. Since “as” has
its own special meaning, the clause it introduced is a supple-
ment to the main clause and the meaning of the main clause and
the non-restrictive relative clause should not be against each
other. Quirk (1985: p. 1117) regards this type of clause as a
comment clause which needs a requirement that “the as-clause
must be semantically congruent with its matrix clause” (the
following examples with * is not correct):

J. C. WANG, J. H. TANG
Open Access 357

*as was unexpected.
which was unexpected.
5.She has married again,*as was disgraceful.
which was disgraceful. Quirk,1989p.1117
Example






:
Zhang (1997) puts it further that the as-clause must be af-firmative while which-clause can be a negative:

whichIcan't bear
6. Mummy treats me just like a baby,*asIcan't bear. p.1406 Example 




So according to such a principle of meaning, the “as” or
“which” in the following examples can not be replaced by an-
other.
Example 7. David works hard, as do my brothers (Longman
Dictionary, 1978: p. 48).
Example 8. He never keeps his promise, which we don’t like
at all (Zhang & Sun, 2006: p. 340).
Example 9. He walks for an hour each morning, which would
bore me (Quirk, 1985: p. 1118).
Principle of Grammatical Structure
1) If the relative words are used as a predicative or an object
in the relative clause, both “as” and “which” can be used to
introduce a non-restrictive relative clause.
Example 10. He wants to be useful, which (or as) he has
never been (The antecedent here is “useful”) (Zhang & Wen,
1998: p. 359).
Example 11. He is fond of music, which/as I’m glad to hear
(Zhang, 1997: p. 1406) (The relative word here refers to the
whole main clause).
Example 12. He witnessed a boa, as he had never dreamed of
in his childhood (Du, 2002: p. 601) (The antecedent of “as” is
the whole clause “he witnessed a boa”).
(But if “which” is used in the example 12, the meaning of the
sentence is ambiguous. The sentence “He witnessed a boa,
which he had never dreamed of in his childhood” can mean the
same with example 13 that he had never had such a strange
dream, but also has the meaning of “He witnessed a boa one
day but he never had dreamed of a boa before”).
2) When the relative words is used as an subject in the non-
restrictive relative clause, and the predicate in the relative
clause is a non-transitive verb, “be” or other copula, both “as”
and “which” can be used. Otherwise, “which” is a correct
choice.
Example 13. The ships were frozen in, as/which not infre-
quently happens in those regions (Zhang, 1997: p. 1406).

as was/seemed natural .
as was expected.
14. She has married again,*as delighted us. Quirk, 1985: p.1117
which delighted us.
Example








*as made me very angry.
15. He changed his mind,which made me very angry. Zhang, 2005: p.413 Example 




Principle of Position
As-clause is quite flexible about position, at the beginning, in
the middle or in the end of a sentence, while the which-clause is
usually in the end of a sentence. The followings are more ex-
amples bedside the previous ones.

As was natural, he mar ried her.
16.*Which was natural, he m a r ried her.Zhang, 1997: p.1407 Example 




Example 17. As
*Whi c h


 is known to the world, Mark Twain
is a great writer (Zhang, 2005: p. 414).
But when the antecedent of “which” is one word in the main
clause, the position of “which” depends on the position of the
antecedent. And when “which” refers to a clause, which-clause
can be in the middle of a sentence functioned as a parenthesis.
Example 18. His speech, which bored everyone, went on and
on (Zhang, 1997: p. 1385).
Example 19. They were, which/as was a great honour to them,
invited to the wedding ceremony (Du, 2002: p. 579).
Special Usage of “Which”
“Which” can be used after a preposition to be an object and
before a noun to be a determiner, while “as” can not.
Example 20. There are many books, some of which are Mal-
colm’s (Wang, 2005: p. 665).
Example 21. He is old, which fact is important (Zhang, 1997:
p. 1405).
Example 22. He may come, in which case I’ll ask him

J. C. WANG, J. H. TANG
Open Access 358
(Zhang, 1997: p. 1405).
REFERENCES
Bo, B. (2004). An advanced English grammar. Beijing: World Knowl-
edge Press.
Du, Y. (2002). A new complete analysis on English grammar. Beijing:
Encyclopedia of China Publishing Hou se.
Longman dictionary of contemporary English (4th ed., 2004). Beijing:
Foreign Language and Research Press.
Oxford advanced learner’s English and Chinese dictionary (4th ed.,
1997). Beijing: Commercial Press.
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English (6th ed.,
2004). Beijing: Commercial Press.
Procter, P. (1978). Longman dictionary of contemporary English. Lon-
don: Longman Gr oup Limited.
Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., & Svartvik, J. (1985). A compre-
hensive grammar of the English language. New York : Longman Inc.
Wang, G. D. (2005). Advanced college English grammar. Beijing:
Tsinghua University Press.
Zhang, D., & Wen, Z. (1998). A Comprehensive English Grammar. Vol.
1. Beijing: Foreign Language Teac hing and Research Press.
Zhang, K. (2005). A new English grammar (2nd ed.). Beijing: Higher
Education Press.
Zhang, Z., & Sun, J. (2006). Modern English grammar in use. Beijing:
Peking University Press.
Zhang, Z. (1997) A new English grammar (3rd ed.). Shanghai: Shang-
hai Foreign Language Education Press.

J. C. WANG, J. H. TANG
Open Access 359
Appendix
For a better understanding, the Chinese translations of the
examples are given for Chinese learners:
Example 1. David, as you know, has not been well lately. 你
知道，戴维最近一直身体不好。
Example 2. Cyprus, as you know, is an island in the Medi-
terranean. 如你所知，塞浦路斯是地中海的岛国。
Example 3. She’s unusually tall, as are both her parents. 她
特别高，她父母也都那么高。
Example 4 a. She’s very tall, as is her mother. 她很高, 她妈
妈也这样。
Example 4 b. As you know, Julia is leaving soon. 正如你所
知，朱丽叶很快就要离开。
*a s was une xpected.
which was unexpected.
5.She has married again,*a s was disgraceful.
which was disgraceful./
Example






她又结婚了,这点很出人意料 丢面子。
which I can't bear.
6. Mummy treats me just like a baby,*as I can't bear. Example 

妈妈待我就像小孩子一样,这让我受不了。
Example 7. David works hard, as do my brothers. 戴维工作
很努力，我的兄弟们也一样。
Example 8. He never keeps his promise, which we don’t like
at all. 他从不遵守诺言，这一点我们非常讨厌。
Example 9. He walks for an hour each morning, which would
bore me. 他每天早晨散步一个小时，而我却不喜欢这样做。
Example 10. He wants to be useful, which (as) he has never
been. 他想做个有用的人，从前他也一直这样想的。
Example 11. He is fond of music, which/as I’m glad to hear.
他喜欢音乐，我很高兴听到这事。
Example 12. He witnessed a boa, as he had never dreamed of
in his childhood. 他亲眼看见一条蟒蛇，童年时代他做梦也
不曾梦到他会亲眼看见一条蟒蛇。
Example 13. The ships were frozen in, as/which not unfre-
quently happens in those regions. 船只都冻在水里了，这种现
象在那片水域经常发生。

as was/seemed natural.
as was expected.
14. She has married again,*as delighted us.Quirk, 1985: p.1117
which delighted us.//
Example






她又结婚了,这似乎很自然 这正如人们所料 这使人们很高兴。
*as made me ver y angry
15. He changed his mind,which ma de me very angr y. Example 

他改了主意,这使我很生气。
As was natural, he married her.
16. *Which was natural, he married her. Example 

很自然,他和她结婚了。
Example 17. As
*Whi c h


 is known to the world, Mark Twain
is a great writer. 正像人们知道的那样，马克吐温是位伟大的
作家。
Example 18. His speech, which bored everyone, went on and
on. 他的演讲很烦人，但他却说起来没完没了。
Example 19. They were, which/as was a great honour to them,
invited to the wedding ceremony. 他们被邀请参加那场婚礼，
这对他们来说是极大的光荣。
Example 20. There are many books, some of which are Mal-
colm’s. 桌上有许多书，其中有些是马尔科姆的。
Example 21. He is old, which fact is important. 他老了，这
一事实很重要。
Example 22. He may come , in which case I’ll ask him. 他也
许来，这样的话，我会问问他。