Reduced Relative Clauses
接触節（せっしょくせつ）
FUN FACT: "Kanji is not particularly taught at school past the 8th grade (JHS grade 2)." (source, pg 5)
DEFINITION: A reduced relative clause is also referred to as a Zero Clause or in many EFL environments as a Contact Clause. Do not be confused; all three terms mean the exact same thing. To put it simply, this grammar point simply removes the most basic of relative pronouns (that/which/who) from the relative clause and the sentence still makes sense: "This is the book that I bought at the bookstore."
Also, if the sentence is in passive form, along with the relative pronoun, the helping verb ('be' verb) can also be removed: "The people that are answering the telephones are operators."
My JTE has a unique mathlish way of explaining this grammar point to her students but it seems to sink into their heads. Take the following example sentence:
The circled words (a pen) are defined as the 'main role' (主役 しゅやく) of the sentence and it is directly connected to a subject (I) and verb (lost). NOTE: the 'subject' and 'verb' underlined are not the main subject and verb of the sentence, rather the subject and verb of the reduced relative clause. Finally, my JTE told her students these kinds of sentences are translated in the following order: main subject, RRC subject, RRC verb, main role, and finally the main verb.（これは私が昨日亡くしたペンです。）
OFF-SITE DEFINITION
