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Lecture 10: Relative clauses

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1 Lecture 10: Relative clauses
Syntax Lecture 10: Relative clauses

2 Introduction The relative clause is a non-interrogative wh-clause that modifies a noun: [DP the man [CP who you might recognise]] We therefore need to recap wh-clauses and modifiers

3 Wh-clause recap A Wh- phrase moves to specifier of CP
In main clauses, inversion will take place (I to C movement) Who will you will meet who

4 Modifiers = adjuncts Modifiers are adjoined to what they modify
Same mother and sister Modifiers are adjoined to what they modify An adjunct’s mother is the same as its sister If a relative clause is a modifier of a noun, it is adjoined to the NP adjunct Adjoined to NP Relative clause

5 Restrictive and Non-restrictive Relative clauses
Non-restrictive relative clauses provide accidental non-essential information about the noun being modified: It was surprising that she was wearing shoes, which were red There is a pause before the relative clause (comma) They always start with a wh-phrase

6 Restrictive and Non-restrictive Relative clauses
Restrictive relative clauses provide more important information which distinguish the object in question from other possibilities: It was surprising that she was wearing shoes which/that were red You can only enter through the door which/that is marked ‘entrance’ (as opposed to any other door) There is no pause between the noun and the relative clause. They don’t always start with a wh-phrase

7 3 kinds of restrictive relatives
Wh-relatives: Begin with a wh-phrase The man [whose mother works at the factory] That-relatives Begin with ‘that’ The house [that I used to live in] Zero-relatives Begin with the subject A man [I know]

8 Wh-relatives Wh-relatives are virtually the same as wh-interrogatives:
I asked [who John knows] The man [who John knows] There is some difference between them in what wh-phrase can be involved: I wonder [what he bought] * The book [what he bought] I don’t remember [which (tool) he used] The hammer [which (*tool) he used]

9 Wh-relatives No inversion in relative clauses
* the writer [ whose book will Mary read] But relative clauses are always embedded and we never get inversion in any embedded clause * I don’t know [whose book will Mary read] We can therefore assume that wh-relatives are structurally the same as wh-interrogatives

10 That-relatives What is the word ‘that’ which starts a that-relative?
Traditionally it is called a relative pronoun The same as the wh-phrases that start wh-relatives If this is true, then the ‘that’ undergoes wh-movement:

11 That-relatives But there is reason to believe that this is not the case: the man [who I spoke to who] The man [to whom I spoke to whom] The man [that I spoke to that] * The man [ to that I spoke to that]

12 That-relatives Another possibility is that the ‘that’ is a complementiser. But note, the relative clause (like all relative clauses) contains a gap What causes the gap?

13 The gap in the relative clause
In a wh-relative, the gap is caused by the wh-phrase moving: The rock star [who he admired who] If nothing moves in a that-relative, why is there a gap? One possibility is that something does move, but it is also phonologically empty: The worker [who that he fired who] From this perspective, that-relatives are just like wh-relatives, except that one has a pronounced complementiser and an unpronounced wh-phrase, while the other has a pronounced wh-phrase and an unpronounced complementiser

14 A comparison between wh- and that-relatives

15 Zero-relatives The obvious analysis for the zero-relative is the same as the others but with both the complementiser and the wh-phrase unpronounced: Note – zero relatives also contain gaps.

16 Evidence that all relative clause involve a wh-phrase
In general, no wh-phrase can be moved out of a sentence with a wh-phrase in its specifier: Who do you think [ Mary gave the money to who] * who do you wonder [ why Mary gave the money to who] The same is true for a wh-relative: You met the man [who Mary gave the money to who] * what did you meet the man [who Mary gave what to who] Importantly, the same movement is impossible for all relatives: * what did you meet the man [that Mary gave to] * what did you meet the man [Mary gave to] This is accounted for if these relatives also have a wh-phrase in their specifiers

17 Summary The three restrictive relative clauses are analysed like:
The man [who e John knows who] The man [who that John knows who]

18 Summary This leaves one more possibility: But this is ungrammatical!
The man [who that John knows who] But this is ungrammatical! Why can’t we pronounce the wh-phrase and the complementiser at the same ? I won’t try to answer this question, but I will point out that it is part of a more general fact: I asked [if Mary met Bill] I asked [who e Mary met who] * I asked [who if Mary met who] It seems that we cannot have a wh-phrase in specifier of CP with a pronounced complementiser in all wh-clauses.


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