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		Grammar and Linguistics > What are "that" and "what" called in a noun clause?     
			
		 What are "that" and "what" called in a noun clause? 
		
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 ironik
 
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							| What are "that" and "what" called in a noun clause? 
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							| I hope people interested in linguistics can help me with this. You know in a relative clause, the words "who, which, that" and so on are called "relative pronouns" What about a noun clause? What do we call the words "what, that, whether" and so on? I looked at grammar reference books, Thornbury, Google but maybe I �m not looking at the correct place, can you help me?  |  13 May 2015      
					
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 Gi2gi
 
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							| Hi,   I would call the words "relative pronouns" just as they are called in adjective clauses (relative clauses).   Here �s a source that claims the same  
 Sometimes they are referred to as "adverb pronouns", as well 
 
 I  would also like to hear what other members suggest |  13 May 2015     
					
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 ironik
 
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							| Thank you, Giorgi and Mary.  Teaching English for all these years and I �ve never thought what these are called before. |  13 May 2015     
					
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 nasreddine Sarsar
 
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							| I don �t agree with you guys, and sorry for that. Noun clause markers is not a technical name for the words used to introduce a noun clause. Also relative pronouns and adverb pronouns are not the only words that introduce a noun clause. Noun clauses are introduced by: 1. relative pronouns: Who stole the money is not known by the police. 2. relative adverbs: where he hid the money is a mystery.  3. Subordinating Conjunctions: I don �t know if he is coming.   Who, where, and if mentioned in the examples above are referred to as noun clause markers, but technically speaking, that �s not the technical term used in grammar.  |  13 May 2015     
					
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 Matthew@ELSP
 
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							| Interesting. I would have liked to know the sources you checked and what the technical term is though, nasreddine Sarsar
 so I could feel a little more confident in making a decision or being nearer to doing so.
 I am going to read up on this now, as I feel it �s rather poor that I cannot answer the question myself.
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 nasreddine Sarsar
 
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							|  The source is the TOEFL books I am implementing in my courses and the linguistics courses I took when I was a university student. You can conduct a search about what I typed in my answer. There is no technical term that brings all the words that introduce a noun clause together. Some of them are called relative pronouns. Others are called relative adverbs, and still others are called subordinating conjunctions. 
 |  13 May 2015     
					
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