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.