Would "in my area" be a non-restrictive clause in the sentence, "These are the only two parks I know, in my area"?
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2 Answers
Edited and corrected, thanks to @AlanCarmack:
"In my area" is not a clause, it's a prepositional phrase. "In my area" doesn't have a subject-verb combination and does not form a predicate. Instead, it provides additional context to the clause it is in. "In" is the preposition in this case.
On that note, I think that the comma is incorrect here. The sentence should be, "These are the only two parks I know in my area." In speech, there may be a pause before, "in my area", but this should not be signified by a comma in writing.
You could also write it as "These are the only two parks in my area that I know.
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1With the pause, or the comma that represents it, I would take the restriction as an afterthought: "These are the only two parks I know ... wait, I can't say that, it's nonsense that I only know two parks, I'd better clarify .. in my area". Oct 24, 2016 at 20:32
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@AlanCarmack, but can't it be considered as the elided form of "which are in my area"? And so the restrictive/nonrestrictive distinction applies, like it does to appositives? // Also, what do you you think of Colin Fine's comment? Wouldn't you consider a comma appropriate there then? Jan 18, 2020 at 10:29
In my area is a prepositional phrase. It is not a clause. The whole idea of restrictive and non-restrictive clauses refers only to relative clauses as far as I know, and the insertion of commas is largely stylistic in regard to prepositional phrases. I would never use a comma after know in
These are the only two parks I know in my area
because a comma would totally break up the flow of the sentence.
The true relative clause in this sentence is
[that] I know in my area
and leaving out the relative pronoun that and a comma before it makes the clause restrictive.
answered Oct 27, 2016 at 16:21
