Headless Relative Clauses Research Articles

Headless relative clauses with a gap: a typological trait of Mesoamerican languages

Abstract This paper has two main goals. One is to introduce a type of “headless” (or “antecedentless”) relative clause that presents a gap strategy and that has not been sufficiently discussed in the typological literature. The other is to show that this type of headless relative clause with a gap is a characteristic trait of Mesoamerican languages, since it exists in many languages of the Mesoamerican linguistic area as an important constructional option in their relativization syntax, independently of the genetic relationships of the language in question. Two types of headless relative clauses are well known to date: one involving a relativization strategy with a relative pronoun (e.g., I wore what you asked me to wear) and another with a light head, introduced by Citko (2004. On headed, headless, and light-headed relatives. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 22. 95–126), somewhat comparable to I wore the one that you asked me to wear. The third type of headless relative clause discussed here presents a gap (i.e., there is no manifestation of the relativized term in the relative clause). It would be equivalent to saying ‘I wore you asked me to wear’. The phenomenon we study here is interesting both from a typological and areal point of view.

Type-shifting in headless relative clauses

Research on the (in)definiteness of bare nouns has developed various proposals regarding which type-shifters exist in human language and which principles are needed to govern their distribution (Carlson 1977; Partee 1987; Chierchia 1998; Dayal 2004; i.a.). At the same time, literature on headless relative clauses (HRCs), primarily focusing on free relatives (FRs) in Indo-European languages, has also developed type-shifting principles (Jacobson 1995; Caponigro 2003, 2004). The type-shifting principles from the FR literature, however, are fundamentally different than those found in proposals for bare nouns. Here, we present case studies from two Mayan languages which diverge from one another in the behavior of bare nouns, and which possess several different kinds of headless relative clauses. We show that “super-free relative clauses” (Caponigro et al. 2021; Caponigro 2022), which lack a wh-word, pattern in ways parallel to bare nouns in the respective languages. We also demonstrate that HRCs headed by a wh-word—i.e., FRs—diverge from bare nouns; they pattern similarly to one another across the languages under investigation, and in ways similar to what has been reported for FRs crosslinguistically. We provide evidence that there is a dedicated FR type-shifter (FR-ι) used as a post-syntactic mechanism to repair a type-mismatch at the CP level, building on work by Caponigro (2004). Our novel contribution is that this type-shifter is available regardless of the presence or absence of other type-shifters in a language. This paper adds new data to our understanding of the range and applicability of different definiteness-related type-shifters as well as captures certain typological tendencies regarding HRCs.

Referring and quantifying without nominals: headless relative clauses across languages

Nominals can be used to refer to or quantify over individuals, while clauses convey propositional content, with the exception of set-denoting restrictive headed relative clauses. This well-attested crosslinguistic syntax/semantics mapping needs to be broadened. Recent crosslinguistic findings show that headless relative clauses—embedded argument or adjunct clauses with a missing constituent—are widely attested and are used to refer to or quantify over individuals, similar to nominals. The present work contributes to the investigation of the syntax/semantics interface of different varieties of headless relative clauses and begins to develop a much-needed close comparison with the syntax/semantics interface of nominals in order to establish which principles are at play in both families of constructions.

Бурятские эквативно-симилятивные конструкции со сказуемым адли ‘похожий; такой же’

The Buryat equative-similative word adli ‘similar; the same’ can be used as a nominal predicate expressing a comparison between persons, objects, abstract notions, or events. The components can be NPs or clauses. The construction variants form a system primarily determined by information structure. The subject position is held by the equation component in the focus of attention: it can be the comparee, both the comparee and the standard, or the parameter of comparison. When the comparee is in focus, the standard is marked by either the dative-locative (the pattern ‘A is similar to B’) or the comitative (to express metaphoric equation and equation of events). When both equation components are in focus, the subject is either a generalizing term in the plural or a pair of coordinated NPs or clauses (the pattern ‘A and B are similar’/‘They are similar’). The parameter of comparison in both variants can be expressed by an NP in an instrumental case (‘…similar in (lit. with) size’). When it is in focus, it takes the subject position, with both equation components (verbalized with a plural term encom-passing both or through a coordinated pair) realized as attributes in the genitive (‘Their/A and B’s size is similar’). The corpus data indicate that this construction is mostly used for the comparison of persons and objects (expressed by nouns, extremely rarely by headless relative clauses); comparison of events (expressed by clauses, extremely rarely by event nouns) is less frequent. One specific variant with an auxiliary quotation verb is used for equative comparison of an event with a cultural stereotype (through citing proverbs, etc.).

Conveying content questions without wh-words: evidence from Abaza

We argue that Abaza, a polysynthetic language from the Northwest Caucasian family, exhibits a syntax-semantics mapping that has not been observed in any other languages before. We show that Abaza lacks wh-words and, as a consequence, matrix and embedded wh- interrogative clauses, and conveys direct and indirect content question meaning by means of headless relative clauses. We propose a compositional semantic analysis of these headless relative clauses that assigns them the same meaning as concealed question DPs, i.e. individual concepts. When occurring as matrix clauses and conveying direct question meaning, these headless relative clauses require the relative verbal form to contain a clause typing affix from a specific set. We show that these affixes cannot be analyzed as “incorporated” or “cliticized” wh- words, but rather as operators turning individual concepts into questions, i.e., sets of propositions.

Determiners and the Development of Grammatical Nominalization in Nivaĉle*

AbstractNivaĉle, a Mataco‐Mataguayan language of the South American Chaco, exhibits right branching syntax often involving determiners. The determiners express visibility, proximity, existence, have temporal implications, and mark abstract referents and nominalized clauses. This paper proposes that headless relative clauses arose by using determiners in grammatical nominalization via an amalgam source construction, while a certain complement clause structure may have arisen by using a determiner as a cataphoric pronoun before a co‐referent clause. As background for the historical argument, we first introduce the determiners and predicating versus referring expressions. We then discuss the role of the determiners in grammatical nominalization to create headless relatives, and then the complement clause structure headed by ka=. Employing comparative Mataguayan data, we propose historical scenarios that may have yielded the two constructions.

Introduction

Introduction

Participial Ordinal Numbers in Menominee

This article describes a previously unknown set of ordinal numbers in Menominee, originally recorded in the mid-nineteenth century by the missionary Antoine-Marie Gachet. The numbers are complex, and follow two broad (but related) patterns. Both appear to be participial forms of verbs of quantity, functioning as headless relative clauses. The article provides an analysis of all elements of the ordinal numbers, and because one of the goals of the article is to contribute to Menominee language revitalization, suggests reconstructions for the missing forms.

Quem cala consente: abordagem funcional-construcionista de relativas sem antecedente introduzidas por 'quem'

Neste trabalho, investigamos o uso da oração relativa sem antecedente introduzida por “quem” em adágios populares, a exemplo de “Quem casa quer casa”, considerando suas formas de organização morfossintática, padrões de estrutura argumental instanciados, aspectos semânticos, cognitivos e interacionais a ela relacionados. O estudo é de caráter quali-quantitativo e fundamenta-se teoricamente na Linguística Funcional Centrada no Uso (FURTADO DA CUNHA; BISPO, 2013) e na Gramática de Construções (GOLDBERG, 2006; TRAUGOTT; TROUSDALE, 2013). O banco de dados desta pesquisa compõe-se de 100 adágios identificados com a ajuda do site de busca Google. Os resultados mostram que a configuração morfossintática das orações que integram os adágios em estudo se relaciona a fatores semânticos (contraponto/jogo de ideias; relação causa-efeito), interacionais (inferência pragmática, inter/subjetividade) e cognitivos (projeções metafóricas e metonímicas).

Relativization in Guiqiong

Abstract Guiqiong, like most Sino-Tibetan languages, presents a rich array of relativization constructions. Based on both natural oral texts and elicited material, the present paper describes all attested types of relatives in Guiqiong, including prenominal, head-internal, headless, and double-headed relative clauses, as well as nominalized and non-nominalized relative clauses. It provides a case by case account of the possible constructions for all syntactic roles including various types of obliques. This paper will also discuss different relativization strategies used in Guiqiong. To conclude, this paper will discuss the importance and the relevance of this study to Sino-Tibetan linguistics.

A new case for structural intervention: evidence from Wenzhounese relative clauses

This paper is the first investigation of relative clauses (RCs) in Wenzhounese (a variety of Wu spoken in Southern Zhejiang province, China). We provide a raising analysis of Wenzhounese RCs and discuss two main families of hypotheses for the subject preference observed in postnominal RCs, namely the linear intervention hypothesis and the hierarchical intervention hypothesis. To examine the validity of these two hypotheses, we tested fifty-six children (aged 3–6) and twenty-six adults on their production of Wenzhounese RCs. Head-external (prenominal) RCs, head-internal RCs, doubling RCs and headless RCs were elicited. The results show a subject preference in the production of head-external and headless RCs in both groups, but an object preference in the production of head-internal and doubling RCs. These findings support the notion that intervention in movement chains is computed hierarchically, not linearly.

Headless Relative Clauses in Modern Japanese and the Relevancy Condition

Proceedings of the 2nd Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society (1976), pp. 269-279

Pseudocleft constructions in Marshallese wh- questions

This paper argues for an analysis of Marshallese wh- questions comparable to other Austronesian languages and claims that Marshallese questions with an initial wh- word do not involve wh- movement in the traditional sense. Rather, I argue that this type of question is a pseudocleft and consists of a headless relative clause subject and a wh- predicate that is base generated in the normal predicate position. The wh- predicate then moves to an initial functional projection within the left periphery. In support of this analysis, I discuss (i) the existence of non-identity effects, (ii) the absence of island effects, (iii) the existence of resumptive pronouns, (iv) the appearance of the relative clause complementizer, and (v) the word order of possessive phrases in wh- questions. Further, relevant diagnostics—which include the existence of headless relative clauses in argument positions, the possibility of dummy heads in the relative clause, and the absence of pied piping of non-locative prepositional phrases—also support the conclusion that these questions are pseudoclefts rather than clefts.

Some syntactic and semantic properties of the existential construction in Malagasy

The existential construction with the predicate – isy in Malagasy is shown to have an unaccusative structure in which the predicate may take either (i) a DP-complement, with an optional locative adjunct and an optional PP or (ii) an IP-complement. The structure is empirically supported by various facts about adverb placement, coordination, word-order, extraction, certain cases of tense-matching between – isy and a following thematic predicate, as well as the lack of the stage-level vs individual-level predicate distinction in the construction. It is argued that the predicate – isy introduces an existential quantifier binding (i) a variable that certain DPs or the locative phrase can in principle provide or (ii) the event or unprojected arguments of a thematic predicate. The definiteness effect arises from existential quantification interacting with the structure of headless relative clauses and the constraint barring strong quantifiers in predicate position.

Relative clauses in Asheninka Perene (Arawak)

We argue that existing syntactic typologies of relative clauses which distinguish between two categories of relatives, i.e. headed and headless relative clauses, based on the presence or absence of head NP in the main clause, do not include externally headed relative clauses with reduced and light heads such as demonstratives, pronominal person clitics, classifiers, plural number markers, etc. The Ashéninka Perené data show that the third syntactic category of intermediate heads such as demonstratives, indefinite terms, numerals, pronominal verbal clitics and classifiers should be included in syntactic typology of relatives to more accurately represent variability of headed relatives in individual languages.

Relative embeddings: a Circassian puzzle for the syntax/semantics interface

This paper documents and analyzes the pattern used in the Northwest Caucasian language Adyghe (Circassian) to express what the following five different constructions convey in other languages: headed and headless relative clauses, embedded declaratives, embedded polar interrogatives, and embedded constituent interrogatives. We argue that Adyghe encodes the meanings of all these embedded structures by means of the same syntactic construction, a relative clause. This pervasive use of relative clauses is possible due to mechanisms that are independently attested not just in Adyghe but also in more familiar languages like English. These mechanisms include concealed questions, polarity operators, and nominals such as fact and question that can connect propositional attitude verbs or interrogative verbs with embedded clauses. We suggest that this extensive use of relative clauses in Adyghe is triggered by the absence of non-relative complementizer. We further show that this use is facilitated by their morphological visibility: a relativizer realized as a prefix on the verb, verbal affixation, a rich system of applicative heads hosting indirect arguments, and the availability of a case marker suffixed to headless relatives. We conclude by discussing the implications of the Adyghe system for the general design of embedding and subordination in natural language.

English Grammar: A Function-Based Introduction

Part 1 Introduction: grammar and communication whose grammar? grammar for communication theme and variation in syntactic description parsing - tree diagrams deep structure, surface structure and meaning. Part 2 Vocabulary - words and morphemes: preliminaries lexical vs. grammatical vocabulary the morphemic status of English vocabulary lexical word-classes minor word classes. Part 3 Simple verbal clauses: preliminaries parsing and tree diagrams - recapitulation classification of verbs and simple clauses multiple membership in verb classes verbs that incorporate prepositions summary of the structure of simple clauses. Part 4 Verbal inflections - tense, aspect, modality and negation: tense aspect modality communicative and cognitive aspects of tense-aspect-modality the syntax of tense-aspect-modality negation. Part 5 Reference and definiteness: reference definiteness generic subjects, definiteness and reference definiteness, reference and text processing - a cognitive overview. Part 6 Noun phrases: nouns and modifiers ordering of elements within the noun phrase restrictive vs. non-restrictive modifiers modifiers used as anaphoric pronouns scattered noun phrases complex noun phrases. Part 7 Verbal complements: the semantics of event integration the syntax of clause integration modality verbs for-to complements if complements WH-complements post-posed P-C-U verbs non-verbal predicates with verbal complements. Part 8 Voice and de-transitivization: functional dimensions of voice the frequency-distribution of voice in text the syntax of de-transitive clauses other de-transitive constructions the antipassive voice reciprocal constructions reflective clauses. Part 9 Relative clauses: functional aspects of relativization the syntax or relativization the syntax of non-restrictive REL-clauses headless relative clauses subject REL-clauses with the main verb be extraposed relative clauses relativization and syntactic complexity non-finite relative clauses. Part 10 Contrastive focus constructions: functional aspects of contrastive focus contrastive grammatical devices the discourse-pragmatics of contrast focus attraction, assertion scope and contrastive focus other focus-attracting grammatical devices strong contrastive focus and relativization restrictions on clefting some cognitive considerations. Part 11 Topicalizing constructions: functional aspects of topicality the variety of topicalizing constructions.

Headless Relative Clauses in Quechua

Previous articleNext article No AccessHeadless Relative Clauses in QuechuaPeter Cole, Wayne Harbert, and Gabriella HermonPeter Cole Search for more articles by this author , Wayne Harbert Search for more articles by this author , and Gabriella Hermon Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by International Journal of American Linguistics Volume 48, Number 2Apr., 1982 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/465723 Views: 30Total views on this site Citations: 3Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1982 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Rosmin Mathew Head Movement in Syntax, 224 (Sep 2015).https://doi.org/10.1075/la.224Willem F. H. Adelaar, Pieter C. Muysken The Languages of the Andes, 42 (Sep 2009).https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511486852Peter Cole The structure of internally headed relative clauses, Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 5, no.22 (May 1987): 277–302.https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00166587