法語以及漢語分屬不同語系，然如何在這兩種不同的語系中得到共通的『關係子句』的理論與描述，這是本文研究的主題。此文先從法語的角度來分析何謂關係子句。雖然漢語裡沒有關係代名詞，但漢語詞素「的」卻有法語關係代名詞的功能之一。本研究最主要採用了法國語言學家Christian Touratier在2005年所出版的Analyse et Théorie syntaxiques一書中所提出的分辨『限定性關係子句』及『解釋性關係子句』的論點：前者是名詞的附加結構而後者的附加結構是名詞詞組。因此，漢語裡不但有「限定性關係子句」還有「解釋性關係子句」，其結構可簡寫為：SP：（SN）＋SV＋的。SP如果是名詞的附加結構，那麼此SP就是一個「限定性關係子句」；如果SP是名詞詞組的附加結構那麼此SP就是一個「解釋性關係子句」。

This study starts with anglicizing what is the French relative clause. And then we find the definition of the French relative clause is not valid for the Chinese one, because there is no morpheme of relative pronoun in Chinese. Although there is no the category of relative pronoun in Chinese, the morpheme ＂de＂ (的) has one of functions of the French relative pronoun. Other words, the Chinese ＂de＂ can make a phrase (P) being the expansion of a noun phrase or another noun phrase. When the construction of ＂P+de＂ (SP) is the expansion of a noun, this construction can be considered as the Chinese determinative relative clause; if the construction of ＂P+de＂ (SP) is the expansion of another noun phrase, it is the Chinese descriptive relative clause.