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The way (that) he eats amuses me.

I found the way (that) leads out of here.

I love ice-cream in the same way (that) I love my mom.

1) The part of speech of the word that is conjunction in all three sentences?

2) Are all three parts in bold that-clauses/noun clauses? The second one seems to be missing a subject to qualify as a clause.

3) The parts in bold, are they appositives or complements? If the latter, are they subject or object complements?

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  • These are NOT appositives. "That" serves as a subordinating conjunction on all of these sentences. They won't naturally be subject or object complements UNLESS their function serves as a noun. If they serve as adjectival or adverbial complements they won't be objective complements.
    – Karlomanio
    Feb 25, 2020 at 21:35
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    These are all relative clauses modifying way. How can't be used as a relative pronoun (*the way how he did it), but it can be deleted, or that can be used instead (the way he did it, the way that he did it). But since way is always used in this construction, the sense can be easily reconstructed. Much the same is true of why -- it can be used to head a relative clause, but only if it modifies the word reason.
    – John Lawler
    Feb 25, 2020 at 22:36
  • @JohnLawler So that is a relative pronoun here and not a conjunction? Also can you elaborate on why its not an appositive or complement here?
    – Joe
    Feb 26, 2020 at 3:49
  • It's a relative clause, so it's not an appositive; I wouldn't call them complements, because I only use that term for noun clauses. The question of whether that in relative clauses is a relative pronoun or not has vexed people for ages. It's in the final stages of turning into one. That used to be a complementizer (not a conjunction) introducing tensed subordinate clauses. It still works that way for complements, and occasionally for adverbials; in relatives it's been conflated with the relative pronoun, and now is complementary with the wh-words. If it walks like a pronoun, ...
    – John Lawler
    Feb 26, 2020 at 16:05
  • See this answer for an example of complementizer that with adverb clauses.
    – John Lawler
    Feb 26, 2020 at 16:09

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