Relative Clause Constructions Research Articles

Internally Headed Relative Clauses in Japanese and E-Type Anaphora

This paper examines the so-called internally headed relative clause construction in Japanese, with particular focus on new data that involve quantificational NPs and wh-phrases. The data provide arguments for representations in which the internal head remains internal at LF. Furthermore, it is shown that the interpretation of this construction involves E-type anaphora, providing evidence for Hoshi's (1995) suggestion. An explicit mechanism for compositional interpretation is proposed, which also derives a restriction on possible internal heads. This study has the cross-linguistic implication that the constructions called "internally headed relative clauses" in various languages do not form a homogeneous class.

Strange Relatives of the Third Kind

In this paper, we argue that there are more kinds of relative clause constructions between the linguistic heaven and earth than are dreamed of in the classical lore, which distinguishes just restrictive relative clauses and appositives. We start with degree relatives. Degree, or amount, relatives show restrictions in the relativizers they allow, in the determiners that can combine with them, and in their stacking possibilities. To account for these facts, we propose an analysis with two central, and novel, features: First, we argue that the standard notion of degree (a number on a measuring scale) needs to be replaced by a notion of structured degree, which keeps track of the object measured. Second, we argue that at the CP-level of degree relatives an operation of (degree) maximalization takes place. We show that the observed facts concerning degree relatives follow from these assumptions. We then broaden the discussion to other relative clause constructions. We propose that the operation of maximalization takes place in relative clauses when the head noun is semantically interpreted CP-internally, while syntactically the CP is part of a DP that also contains CP-external material. Based on this, we argue that degree relatives form part of a linguistically coherent class of relative clause constructions -- we call them maximalizing relatives -- which all show restrictions similar to those observed for degree relatives, and which differ semantically (and often also syntactically) both from restrictive relative clauses and from appositives. We discuss free relatives, internally-headed relatives, and correlatives.

Relative Clauses in a Minimalist Framework.

In this paper, we will discuss relative clause constructions within the minimalist framework developed by Chomsky (1993). Although it is observed that there are many syntactic and semantic contrasts between restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses, we will show that they come from the following points: (i) restrictive relative clauses are attached to NPs while non-restrictive relative clauses occur in the right of DP, and (ii) only non-restrictive relative clauses are operationally raised to matrix CP at LF. After stating these points, we will give a principled account for the contrasts between them.

English relative clause constructions

This paper sketches a grammar of English relative clause constructions (including infinitival and reduced relatives) based on the notions of construction type and type constraints. Generalizations about dependency relations and clausal functions are factored into distinct dimensions contributing constraints to specific construction types in a multiple inheritance type hierarchy. The grammar presented here provides an account of extraction, pied piping and relative clause ‘stacking’ without appeal to transformational operations, transderivational competition, or invisible (‘empty’) categories of any kind.

Demonstratives and reinforcers in Romance and Germanic languages

Abstract Recent work on the internal structure of noun phrases has argued that several word order differences between Romance and Germanic languages may be explained by the presence of syntactic movement of the noun in Romance, and by the relative absence of this movement in Germanic. This paper examines constructions consisting of demonstrative and reinforcer elements. It is argued that prenominal deictic demonstratives in Romance and Germanic languages, generated in a specifier position below DP (Giusti, 1993a,b), raise to D overtly. In several languages the demonstrative may be ambiguous between a deictic interpretation and what is labelled an indefinite specific interpretation. A deictic demonstrative must raise up into the DP projection overtly; with an indefinite specific, only covert feature movement to D takes place. With respect to the demonstrative reinforcement construction, both the demonstrative and its reinforcer precede the noun in Germanic languages, while the demonstrative precedes, and the reinforcer follows, the noun (plus modifiers) in Romance. Under the assumption that the demonstrative and its reinforcer are base-generated as the specifier and head, respectively, of a functional projection FP, the pattern in Romance is argued to involve syntactic movement of a phrasal category to the left of FP, deriving the postnominal position of the reinforcer. The Germanic pattern is explained by the absence of this movement. The behavior of demonstratives and reinforcers in relative clause constructions is also examined.

Theoretical Issues in Korean Linguistics. Edited by Young-Key Kim-Renaud. Stanford: CSLI Publications, 1994. xvi, 555 pp. $55.00 (cloth); $29.95 (paper).

Introduction Young-Key Kim-Renaud Part I. Phonology and Morphology: 1. On peripherality: a molecular approach Sang-Cheol Ahn 2. Verbal compounds in Korean Young-mee Yu Cho 3. Post-obstruent tensification in Korean and geminate inalterability Young-mee Yu Cho and Sharon Inkelas 4. A prosodic analysis of Korean compounding Eunjoo Han Liquid representation in Korean Gregory K. Iverson and Hyang-Sook Sohn The status of the lenis stop voicing rule in Korean Sun-Ah Jun On the obligatory contour principle related to sonority Hyunsoon Kim Onset analysis of Korean on-glides Yongsung Lee A re-analysis of consonant cluster simplification and s-neutralization Mira Oh Variation of vowel length in Korean Jeong-Woon Park The thematic nature of agentive Eykey in Korean Sung-Ho Ahn and Jung-Tag Lee The semantics of conditionals Sung-Yun Bak Functional projections and verb movement Dong-In Cho On scrambling: reconstruction, crossover and anaphor binding Jai-Hyoung Cho Syntactic WH-movement in Korean and licensing Hyon Sook Choe A non-spurious account of 'spurious' Korean plurals Yookyung Kim Definite/specific and case marking in Korean Chungmin Lee An event-structure analysis of the stative/non-stative distinction in periphrastic causative and Mit-type verb constructions in Korean Myung-Kwan Park Korean classifiers Barbara Unterbeck Pseudo-double negation Jae-Hak Yoon Part II. Historical Linguistics: Aspiration and voicing in old Sino-Korean obstruents Ik-sang Eom On the relation between Hyangchal and Kwukyel Pung-hyun Nam The accentuation of nominal stems in proto-Korean John B. Whitman Part III. Discourse, Pragmatics and Acquisition: The grammar of null arguments in early child Korean Sook Whan Cho Information flow and relative-clause constructions in Korean discourse Alan Hyun Oak Kim and Hyon-Sook Shin 'Speech-act' adverbial clauses in Korean Haeyeon Kim Discourse-pragmatic functions of sentence-type suffixes in informal discourse in Korean Hyo Sang Lee Contributors Index.

Korean relative clause constructions: Conspiracy and pragmatics

Korean relative clause constructions: Conspiracy and pragmatics

Agreement in CP

Chomsky (1986) argues that SPEC-head agreement takes place in IP and in CP. This paper examines the possibility that SHA in CP, which I label as Agreement in COMP (AIC), is variable in its formulation, and is central to explaining the variable that-trace effect (Perlmutter 1968, Kayne 1981, Sobin 1987), as well as a variety of other phenomena involving SpecCP, C, and traces, both in complement constructions and in relative clause constructions. I argue that AIC is crucially limited in its applicability by features of wh-ness ([+ / - WH]) and indexicality ([+ / - i]). In particular, AIC is triggered by an element which is [+ phonetic/ ∝ WH/ ∝i]. When AIC applies, the result is to transfer index from SpecCP to the complementizer, which in turn may antecedent- govern a subject (SpecIP) position. When AIC does not apply, the Minimality condition blocks proper government of such a subject position. This proposal leads to an extension of the conditions under which a category is L-marked and to rejection of the proposal that a ‘featureless’ head allows the absence of a minimality barrier X' (Chomsky 1986: 48). However, it retains the proposal that a minimality barrier X' may be absent when SpecXP is absent (Chomsky 1986: 4).

The role of pragmatics in Japanese relative clause constructions

Japanese relative clause constructions (RCCs) are of ‘gap-type’ (in Comrie's (1981) term), yet they cannot be explained solely in terms of a reference-binding relationship between the head noun and a syntactic gap in the RC. Examination of a wide range of RCCs indicates the necessity for more pragmatic considerations in the interpretation of the participant role of the head noun with respect to the relative clause. A fixed accessibility hierarchy of syntactic/semantic roles, motivated by that of Keenan and Comrie (1977), has generally been assumed. This paper (1) demonstrates the dependence of interpretation on context, thus illustrating the limitations of such a hierarchy, and (2) suggests that a more semantically/pragmatically based principle which utilizes both the notion of frame (in which participant roles comprise an unordered set) and the Griccan maxims can better predict acceptability judgements of relative clause constructions with particular intended meanings. I also address the significant role played by pragmatics in the generation and construal of relative clauses in Japanese.

A Discourse Explanation of the Grammar of Relative Clauses in English Conversation

In the process of communicating, conversationalists constantly make decisions about their interlocutors' state of knowledge, and on the basis of these decisions make lexical, grammatical, and intonational choices about how to manage the 'flow' of information. This paper focuses on how such decision-making affects choices in relative clause constructions in American English conversations. On the basis of a quantitative analysis of a corpus of natural conversations, we show that the structural choices in relative clause constructions are best explained as symptoms of interactants' attention to information flow.*

Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar

Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar

Deficient syntactic control in poor readers: Is a weak phonetic memory code responsible?

ABSTRACTGroups of good and poor readers at second-grade level were tested for comprehension of adjectival constructions of the John is eager/easy to please types and of center-embedded relative clause constructions. The poor readers were inferior to good readers in understanding O-type adjectives (easy) but not S-type (eager). As well, they were poorer at comprehending embedded sentences, but only when the sentences described improbable events, ones which reversed the normal subject/object roles. When either noun could, on pragmatic grounds, assume either role, both groups fared equally well. The results are interpreted as casting doubt on recent assertions that deficient use of a phonetic memory code underlies the syntactic inferiority often seen in poor readers. A more pervasive linguistic immaturity is suggested as being involved.

Children's comprehension of relative clauses.

A review of the literature on children's use of relative clause constructions reveals many contradictory findings. The suggestion is that some studies fail to take into account the two factors of embeddedness (role of complex noun phrase within the sentence) and focus (role of head noun in the relative clause). The experiment reported here attempted to reconcile the disparate findings and extend the range of constructions examined. 114 children between the ages of 3 and 7 served as subjects in a test of comprehension using an act-out procedure of 9 different relative clause sentences that exhaust the possible combinations of 3 roles of the complex noun phrase in the sentence and 3 roles that the head noun plays within the relative clause (in each case, subject, direct object, and indirect object). All constructions were understood better with increasing age of the children; sex and sentence set were nonsignificant variables. The results reveal a difficulty in ordering of the 9 types of construction that is in keeping with a prediction based on surface structure processing strategies.

Relative clause structure, relative clause perception, and the change from SOV to SVO

This study presents a view of diachronic change in language, according to which one of the fundamental factors motivating syntactic change is to be found in the conflicting interaction of principles determining the language organization. Specifically, it will be argued that principles of structural nature and principles of perceptual nature are in conflict in languages of the SOV type, because of the relative clause construction. The way in which a relative clause is structured in an SOV language is an obstacle to its effective perceptual processing. It will be argued that this conflict is one of the major factors determining the diachronic change of a language from an OV to a VO typology.