Of the following three sentences, I think (2) is wrong, because the sentence sounds like there are other scientists who wrote "Silent Spring".
Is that right?

1. Carson is the scientist who wrote "Silent Spring".
2. Carson is a scientist who wrote "Silent Spring".
3. Carson is the scientist, who wrote "Silent Spring".

Apple

This message has been edited. Last edited by: M.T.,

Yes, (2) is wrong for the reason you state: "a scientist" would mean that she was one scientist among others who wrote "Silent Spring."

(We happen to know that only one scientist, Rachel Carson, wrote "Silent Spring.")
_______

Sentence (1) is correct as it is:

"¢ Carson is the scientist who wrote "Silent Spring."
_______

Sentence (3) is not correct as it is written. "Who wrote 'Silent Spring" is an essential clause. It is essential to the meaning of the sentence. The sentence can't be just "Carson is the scientist"; it needs more information to identify the scientist and to complete the sentence.

Essential clauses are not separated from the rest of the sentence by commas. So, the sentence has to be:

"¢ Carson is the scientist who wrote "Silent Spring."

Non-essential clauses – those that add extra information – do, as you know, have commas. The sentence could be:

"¢ The scientist is Rachel Carlson, who wrote "Silent Spring."
_______

Here are two essential clauses following the nouns they modify from recent issues of the New York Times:

"¢ "He taught that the art involves more than just physically arranging a tree; it demands spiritual involvement by the creator. A good bonsai reflects the person who made it."

"¢ Katzenbach named Hoover as the person who had authorized the illegal bugging.

Here are two non-essential clauses, adding extra information, from the New York Times as well:

"¢ As a result, senators have to try to forecast the behavior of a nominee like Judge Alito, who comes with a clear record of opposition to abortion rights and strong support from the anti-abortion movement.

"¢ Mr. Bush called Mr. Olmert to express his concern over the condition of Mr. Sharon, who remained in a medically induced coma with no significant changes in his condition, according to Hadassah-Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem.

Rachel

I'd like to add a different response to Rachel's answer about Sentence 2, "Carson was a scientist who wrote "Silent Spring." Rachel wrote:

"Yes, (2) is wrong for the reason you state: "a scientist" would mean that she was one scientist among others who wrote "Silent Spring.""

I see Sentence 2 as correct"”in the appropriate context. Its acceptability depends on the amount of background knowledge of the intended reader.

Sentence 1, with "Carson was the scientist who...," tells us that, out of all the scientists in the world, Rachel Carson was the one who wrote the book "Silent Spring." It selects her from a large set ("scientists") as the author of a particular book. The writer assumes that we already know that she was a scientist. Sentence 1 gives us one piece of "new" information: the identity of the author of a well-known book. You could reverse the order of the clauses:

"”The scientist who wrote "Silent Spring" was Carson

Sentence 2, in contrast, gives us two new pieces of information: 1) that Rachel Carson was a scientist and 2) that she wrote the book "Silent Spring."

It's of course easy to find the "a" construction of Sentence 2 with non-specific, general actions in the relative clause. Google examples:

"”[Rachel] Carson was a scientist who wrote with the soul of a poet, breaking down the complicated facts of industrial contamination into adages understandable ...
http://www.lehigh.edu/~infolios/becky/teachresources.htm

"”But Rachel Carson was also a marine biologist who wrote brilliantly about the sea. Listen. Fish Counts (5/28/98) There are two ways to count fish. ...
http://www.seaweb.org/campaigns/OR1998.html

"”Omar Khayyam (1048–1131) was a mathematician and poet who wrote on the binomial theorem and on geometry. In algebra he presented the first systematic ...
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/event.asp?PageId=39&EventId=378

"”[Washington Irving] was a prolific essayist who wrote widely respected biographies of George Washington, Muhammad, and others, and he wrote a number of books on 15th century ...
http://www.answers.com/topic/washington-irving

What's different about Sentence 2, I think, is that the relative clause contains a unique action, that of having written a particular book. I would, however, consider it natural in the right context. For example, the sentence would be very natural in a context like this:

"”One of the most influential American figures of the 1950s was Rachel Carson. Carson was a scientist who wrote "Silent Spring," a book which provoked a major public outcry against the manufacture and use of the insecticide DDT.

This passage tells the profession of the grammatical subject and then tells what she did that was special. Both pieces of information are "new." The relative clause is used to avoid writing two separate sentences ("Carson was a scientist. Carson wrote "Silent Spring.") or joining the two statements with "and" ("Carson was a scientist and she wrote "Silent Spring").

Google offers similar examples, in which the grammatical subject performed a unique action:

"”The Borders brothers opened a small used-book store in Ann Arbor, Mich. in 1971, before moving on to new books. Tom Borders was a college English instructor, who focused on service and selection. Louis was an entrepreneur who created the Borders Inventory System, designed to help independent booksellers compete with mall bookstores then dominating the business.

"”Ben [Franklin] was a scientist who discovered the nature of lightning. Find out more about the real Benjamin Franklin in this fun and exciting illustrated biography. ...
http://www.gardenofpraise.com/ibdfrank.htm

"”Gilbert Stuart was a famous portrait artist who painted the well-known, but unfinished, portrait of George Washington that appears on the dollar bill. ...
http://www.teachersfirst.com/share/states/states.cfm?state=ri

"”Jeffrey Satinover is a psychiatrist who wrote the pro-codes book "Cracking the Bible Code". Barry Simon is IBM Professor of Mathematics and Theoretical ...
cs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/dilugim/people/

"”Way back at the end of the 3rd century, Hypatia of Alexandria was a scientist who invented the plane astrolabe used to measure the position of the sun and stars ...
http://www.vheadline.com/printer_news.asp?id=5280

"”Gabriel Fahrenheit (Fair - En - Height) was a scientist who invented the mercury
thermometer in 1714. He also came up with the Fahrenheit temperature scale. ...
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/kids/ environment/story1/fahrenheit.htm

"”Wendy grew up in Los Angeles, in a musical family. Her father, Fred Steiner, is a composer who wrote, among other things, the famous "Perry Mason" theme.
http://www.wendywaldman.com/wendybio.html

In sum, then, I would say that Sentence 2 is acceptable if the intended reader doesn't know either the profession/occupation (or other classifying label) of the grammatical subject or what s/he did/does that is unique.

Marilyn

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