Literary notes about Relative (AI summary)
The word “relative” is deployed with remarkable versatility, serving both literal and abstract functions across literary contexts. In familial or social terms, it directly identifies kinship or interpersonal connections, as when a character is welcomed by a close kin [1, 2] or questioned about a near relative’s presence [3]. In a technical or scientific framework, “relative” qualifies positions, measurements, or comparisons—illustrating how systems behave under various forces [4, 5, 6] or pointing to disparities in size, merit, or importance [7, 8]. Additionally, its role in grammar is underscored by its use in introducing clauses that modify a noun, thereby shaping sentence structure and meaning [9, 10, 11]. Moreover, in philosophical discourse, “relative” expresses the idea that truth and value are not absolute but depend on context and perspective [12].
- “Why to Lord Mount-James?” “Godfrey is an orphan, and Lord Mount-James is his nearest relative—his uncle, I believe.”
— from The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - Amar greeted his relative with affectionate relief.
— from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda - Really? Your mother, no doubt, or some female relative of advanced years, resides here also?
— from The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People by Oscar Wilde - Re-statement of the theorem relative to the work done by gravity upon a system of bodies connected or otherwise.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - Relative motion of two points whose absolute motions are given graphically à priori .
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - The wing of an aeroplane is normally set at an angle horizontally (or rather at an angle to the relative wind) varying from 0° to 4°.
— from The New Gresham Encyclopedia. A to Amide by Various - We are made aware that magnitude of material things is relative, and all objects shrink and expand to serve the passion of the poet.
— from Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson - The molars also differ much in the two animals in relative size and structure.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin - An adjective clause may be introduced by a relative pronoun or a relative adverb .
— from An Advanced English Grammar with Exercises by Frank Edgar Farley and George Lyman Kittredge - The relative pronouns in English are who, whose, whom, which, what, that .
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - The clause introduced by a relative pronoun is an adjective clause , since it serves as an adjective modifier of the antecedent ( § 143 ).
— from An Advanced English Grammar with Exercises by Frank Edgar Farley and George Lyman Kittredge - On this I must first remark, that the conception of nothing is essentially relative, and always refers to a definite something which it negatives.
— from The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3) by Arthur Schopenhauer
