Arelative clause is aclause that modifies anoun ornoun phrase[1] and uses some grammatical device to indicate that one of the arguments in the relative clause refers to the noun or noun phrase. For example, in the sentenceI met a man who wasn't too sure of himself, thesubordinate clausewho wasn't too sure of himself is a relative clause since it modifies the nounman and uses the pronounwho to indicate that the same "MAN" is referred to in the subordinate clause (in this case as itssubject).
In many languages, relative clauses are introduced by a special class ofpronouns calledrelative pronouns,[2] such aswho in the example just given. In other languages, relative clauses may be marked in different ways: they may be introduced by a special class of conjunctions calledrelativizers, the main verb of the relative clause may appear in a special morphological variant, or a relative clause may be indicated by word order alone.[3] In some languages, more than one of these mechanisms may be possible.
Abound relative clause, the type most often considered, qualifies an explicit element (usually anoun ornoun phrase) appearing in the main clause, and refers back to that element by means of some explicit or implicit device within the relative clause.
The relative clause may also function as anembedded clause within a main (or higher-level) clause, thereby forming amatrix sentence.[4] The noun in the main clause that the relative clause modifies is called thehead noun, or (particularly when referred back to by a relative pronoun) theantecedent.
For example, in the English sentence "The person whom I saw yesterday went home", the relative clause "whom I saw yesterday" modifies the head nounperson, and the relative pronounwhom refers back to the referent of that noun. The sentence is equivalent to the following two sentences: "I saw a person yesterday. The person went home". The shared argument need not fulfill the same role in both clauses; in this example the same person is referred to by thesubject of the matrix clause, but thedirect object of the relative clause.
Afree relative clause (orfused relative[5]), on the other hand, does not have an explicit antecedent external to itself. Instead, the relative clause itself takes the place of an argument in the matrix clause. For example, in the English sentence "I like what I see", the clausewhat I see is a free relative clause, because it has no antecedent, but itself serves as theobject of the verblike in the main clause. Alternatively, one could argue that the free relative clause hasa zero as its antecedent.(See alsoEnglish relative clauses § Fused relative constructions)
Bound relative clauses may or may not berestrictive. Arestrictive relative clause is a relative clause that functions as arestrictive modifier. Anon-restrictive relative clause is a relative clause that is not a restrictive relative clause. Whereas anon-restrictive ornon-defining relative clause merely provides supplementary information, arestrictive ordefining relative clause modifies the meaning of its head word (restricts its possible referent). For example:
In speaking, it is natural to make slight pauses around non-restrictive clauses, and in English this is shown in writing bycommas (as in the examples). However, many languages distinguish the two types of relative clauses in this way only in speaking, not in writing. Another difference in English is that only restrictive relative clauses may be introduced withthat or use the "zero" relative pronoun (seeEnglish relative clauses for details).
A non-restrictive relative clause may have a whole sentence as its antecedent rather than a specific noun phrase; for example:
Here,which refers not to the bed or the cat but to the entireproposition expressed in the main clause, namely the situation of the cat being allowed on the bed.
Languages differ in many ways in how relative clauses are expressed:
For example, the English sentence "The person that I saw yesterday went home" can be described as follows:
The following sentences indicate various possibilities (only some of which are grammatical in English):
There are four main strategies for indicating the role of the shared noun phrase in the embedded clause.[citation needed] These are typically listed in order of the degree to which the noun in the relative clause has been reduced, from most to least:
In this strategy, there is simply a gap in the relative clause where the shared noun would go. This is normal in English, for example, and also in Chinese and Japanese. This is the most common type of relative clause, especially inverb-final languages with prenominal relative clauses, but is also widespread among languages with postnominal externally headed relative clauses.
There may or may not be any marker used to join the relative and main clauses. (Languages with a case-marked relative pronoun are technically not considered to employ the gapping strategy even though they do in fact have a gap, since the case of the relative pronoun indicates the role of the shared noun.) Often the form of the verb is different from that in main clauses and is to some degree nominalized, as in Turkish and in Englishreduced relative clauses.[8][9]
In non-verb-final languages, apart from languages likeThai andVietnamese with very strong politeness distinctions in their grammars[citation needed], gapped relative clauses tend, however, to be restricted to positions high up in the accessibility hierarchy. With obliques and genitives, non-verb-final languages that do not have politeness restrictions on pronoun use tend to use pronoun retention. English is unusual in thatall roles in the embedded clause can be indicated by gapping: e.g. "I saw the person who is my friend", but also (in progressively less accessible positions cross-linguistically, according to theaccessibility hierarchy described below) "... who I know", "... who I gave a book to", "... who I spoke with", "... who I run slower than". Usually, languages with gapping disallow it beyond a certain level in the accessibility hierarchy, and switch to a different strategy at this point.Classical Arabic, for example, only allows gapping in the subject and sometimes the direct object; beyond that, a resumptive pronoun must be used. Some languages have no allowed strategies at all past a certain point—e.g. in manyAustronesian languages, such asTagalog, all relative clauses must have the shared noun serving the subject role in the embedded clause. In these languages, relative clauses with shared nouns serving "disallowed" roles can be expressed bypassivizing the embedded sentence, thereby moving the noun in the embedded sentence into the subject position. This, for example, would transform "The person who I gave a book to" into "The person who was given a book by me". Generally, languages such as this "conspire" to implement general relativization by allowing passivization fromall positions — hence a sentence equivalent to "The person who is run slower than by me" is grammatical. Gapping is often used in conjunction with case-marked relative pronouns (since the relative pronoun indicates the case role in the embedded clause), but this is not necessary (e.g. Chinese and Japanese both using gapping in conjunction with an indeclinable complementizer).
This is a type of gapped relative clause, but is distinguished by the fact that the role of the shared noun in the embedded clause is indicated indirectly by the case marking of the marker (therelative pronoun) used to join the main and embedded clauses. All languages which use relative pronouns have them in clause-initial position: though one could conceivably imagine a clause-final relative pronoun analogous to an adverbial subordinator in that position, they are unknown.
Some languages have what are described as "relative pronouns" (in that they agree with some properties of the head noun, such as number and gender) but which do not actually indicate the case role of the shared noun in the embedded clause.Classical Arabic has "relative pronouns" which are case-marked, but which agree in case with thehead noun. Case-marked relative pronouns in the strict sense are almost entirely confined toEuropean languages[citation needed], where they are widespread except among theCeltic family andIndo-Aryan family. The influence of Spanish has led to their adaption by a very small number ofNative American languages, of which the best known are theKeresan languages.[10]
In this type, the position relativized is indicated by means of apersonal pronoun in the same syntactic position as would ordinarily be occupied by a noun phrase of that type in the main clause—known as aresumptive pronoun. It is equivalent to saying "The woman who I sawher yesterday went home". Pronoun retention is very frequently used for relativization of inaccessible positions on the accessibility hierarchy. InPersian andClassical Arabic, for example, resumptive pronouns are required when the embedded role is other than the subject or direct object, and optional in the case of the direct object. Resumptive pronouns are common in non-verb-finallanguages of Africa and Asia, and also used by the Celtic languages of northwest Europe andRomanian ("Omul pe carel-am văzut ieri a mers acasă"/"The man who I sawhim yesterday went home"). They also occur in deeply embedded positions in English, as in "That's the girl that I don't know whatshe did",[11] although this is sometimes considered non-standard.
Only a very small number of languages, of which the best known isYoruba, have pronoun retention as their sole grammatical type of relative clause.
In the nonreduction type, unlike the other three, the shared noun occurs as afull-fledged noun phrase in the embedded clause, which has the form of a full independent clause. Typically, it is the head noun in the main clause that is reduced or missing. Some languages use relative clauses of this type with the normal strategy of embedding the relative clause next to the head noun. These languages are said to haveinternally headed relative clauses, which would be similar to the (ungrammatical) English structure "[You see the girl over there] is my friend" or "I took [you see the girl over there] out on a date". This is used, for example, inNavajo, which uses a special relative verb (as with some other Native American languages).
A second strategy is thecorrelative-clause strategy used byHindi and otherIndo-Aryan languages, as well asBambara. This strategy is equivalent to saying "Which girl you see over there, she is my daughter" or "Which knife I killed my friend with, the police found that knife". It is "correlative" because of the corresponding "which ... that ..." demonstratives or "which ... she/he/it ..." pronouns, which indicate the respective nouns being equated. The shared noun can either be repeated entirely in the main clause or reduced to a pronoun. There is no need to front the shared noun in such a sentence. For example, in the second example above, Hindi would actually say something equivalent to "I killed my friend with which knife, the police found that knife".
Dialects of some European languages, such as Italian, do use the nonreduction type in forms that could be glossed in English as "The person just passed us by, she introduced me to the chancellor here."
In general, however, nonreduction is restricted to verb-final languages, though it is more common among those that arehead-marking.
The following are some of the common strategies for joining the two clauses:
The positioning of a relative clause before or after a head noun is related to the more general concept ofbranching in linguistics. Languages that place relative clauses after their head noun (so-calledhead-initial orVO languages) generally also have adjectives andgenitive modifiers following the head noun, as well as verbs preceding their objects.French,Spanish andArabic are prototypical languages of this sort. Languages that place relative clauses before their head noun (so-calledhead-final orOV languages) generally also have adjectives andgenitive modifiers preceding the head noun, as well as verbs following their objects.Turkish andJapanese are prototypical languages of this sort. Not all languages fit so easily into these categories. English, for example, is generally head-first, but has adjectives preceding their head nouns, andgenitive constructions with both preceding and following modifiers ("the friend of my father" vs. "my father's friend").Chinese has theVO order, with verb preceding object, but otherwise is generally head-final.
Various possibilities for ordering are:
The antecedent of the relative clause (that is, the noun that is modified by it) can in theory be the subject of the main clause, or its object, or any otherverb argument. In many languages, however, especially rigidlyleft-branching,dependent-marking languages with prenominal relative clauses,[12] there are major restrictions on the role the antecedent may havein the relative clause.
Edward Keenan andBernard Comrie noted that these roles can be ranked cross-linguistically in the following order from most accessible to least accessible:[13][14]
Ergative–absolutive languages have a similar hierarchy:
This order is called theaccessibility hierarchy. If a language can relativize positions lower in the accessibility hierarchy, it can always relativize positions higher up, but not vice versa. For example,Malagasy can relativize only subject andChukchi only absolutive arguments, whilstBasque can relativize absolutives, ergatives and indirect objects, but not obliques or genitives or objects of comparatives. Similar hierarchies have been proposed in other circumstances, e.g. for pronominal reflexes.
English can relativize all positions in the hierarchy. Here are some examples of the NP and relative clause usage from English:
| Position | With explicit relative pronoun | With omitted relative pronoun | In formal English |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subject | That's the woman [who ran away]. | — | That's the woman [who ran away]. |
| Direct object | That's the woman [who I saw yesterday]. | That's the woman [I saw yesterday]. | That's the woman [whom I saw yesterday]. |
| Indirect object | That's the person [who I gave the letter to]. | That's the person [I gave the letter to]. | That's the person [to whom I gave the letter]. |
| Oblique | That's the person [who I was talking about]. | That's the person [I was talking about]. | That's the person [about whom I was talking]. |
| Genitive | That's the woman [whose brother I know]. | — | That's the woman [whose brother I know]. |
| Obj of Comp | That's the woman [who I am taller than]. | That's the woman [I am taller than]. | That's the woman [than whom I am taller]. |
Some other examples:
| Position | Example |
|---|---|
| Subject | The girl [who came late] is my sister. |
| Direct object | I gave a rose to the girl [that Kate saw]. |
| Indirect object | John knows the girl [I wrote a letter to]. |
| Oblique | I found the rock [which the robbers had hit John over the head with]. |
| Genitive | The girl [whose father died] told me she was sad. |
| Obj of Comp | The first person [I can't run faster than] will win a million dollars. |
Languages that cannot relativize directly on noun phrases low in the accessibility hierarchy can sometimes use alternativevoices to "raise" the relevant noun phrase so that it can be relativized. The most common example is the use ofapplicative voices to relativize obliques, but in such languages as Chukchiantipassives are used to raise ergative arguments to absolutive.
For example, a language that can relativize only subjects could say this:
But not:
These languages might form an equivalent sentence bypassivization:
These passivized sentences get progressively more ungrammatical in English as they move down the accessibility hierarchy; the last two, in particular, are so ungrammatical as to be almost unparsable by English speakers. But languages with severe restrictions on which roles can be relativized are precisely those that can passivize almost any position, and hence the last two sentences would be normal in those languages.
A further example is languages that can relativize only subjects and direct objects. Hence the following would be possible:
The other ungrammatical examples above would still be ungrammatical. These languages often allow an oblique object to be moved to the direct object slot by the use of the so-calledapplicative voice, much as thepassive voice moves an oblique object to the subject position. The above examples expressed in an applicative voice might be similar to the following (in not necessarily grammatical English):
Modern grammars may use the accessibility hierarchy to order productions—e.g. inHead-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar the hierarchy corresponds to the order of elements on thesubcat list, and interacts with other principles in explanations of binding facts. The hierarchy also figures inLexical Functional Grammar, where it is known as Syntactic Rank or the Relational Hierarchy.
In English, a relative clause follows the noun it modifies. It is generally indicated by a relative pronoun at the start of the clause, although sometimes simply by word order. If the relative pronoun is the object of the verb in the relative clause, it comes at the beginning of the clause even though it would come at the end of an independent clause ("She is the womanwhom I saw", not "She is the woman I sawwhom").
The choice of relative pronoun can be affected by whether the clause modifies a human or non-human noun, by whether the clause is restrictive or not,[15] and by the role (subject, direct object, or the like) of the relative pronoun in the relative clause.
In English, as in some other languages (such as French; see below),non-restrictive relative clauses are set off with commas, but restrictive ones are not:
The status of "that" as a relative pronoun is not universally agreed. Traditional grammars treat "that" as a relative pronoun, but not all contemporary grammars do: e.g. theCambridge Grammar of the English Language (pp. 1056–7) makes a case for treating "that" as a subordinator instead of a relative pronoun; and theBritish National Corpus treats "that" as a subordinating conjunction even when it introduces relative clauses. One motivation for the different treatment of "that" is that there are differences between "that" and "which" (e.g., one can say "in which" but not "in that", etc.).
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The system of relative pronouns inFrench is in similar in many ways to the system in English, but typically does not distinguish between human and non-humans.
When the pronoun is to act as the subject of the relative clause,qui is generally used, thoughlequel may be used instead for precision. This is less common than the use oflequel with direct objects, however, since many common verbs in French, but not regular verbs or the imperfect tense, have different forms even in speech depending on the grammatical number of their third person subjects.
Contrary to English, the relative pronoun can never be omitted in French, not even when the relative clause is embedded in another relative clause.
When the pronoun is to act as the direct object of the relative clause,que is generally used.
As mentioned before,lequel, which is inflected for grammatical gender and number, is sometimes used in order to give more precision. For example, any of the following is correct and would translate to "I talked to his/her father and mother, whom I already knew":
However, in the first sentence, the clause refers only to the mother; in the second, it refers to both parents; and in the third, as in the English sentence, it could refer either only to the mother, or to both parents.
When the pronoun is to act in a possessive sense, where the prepositionde (of/from) would normally be used, the pronoundont ("whose", "of which", "of whom") is used, but does not act as adeterminer for the noun "possessed":
This construction is also used in non-possessive cases where the pronoun replaces an object marked byde:
More generally, in modern French,dont can signal the topic of the following clause, without replacing anything in this clause:
When the pronoun is to act as the object of a preposition (other than whendont is used),lequel is generally used, thoughqui can be used if the antecedent is human.
There exists a further complication when the antecedent is a non-human indefinite pronoun. In that case,lequel cannot be used because it must agree in gender with its head, and an indefinite pronoun has no gender. Instead,quoi, which usually means "what", is used.
The same happens when the antecedent is an entire clause, also lacking gender.
The preposition always appears before the pronoun, and the prepositionsde andà (at/to) contract withlequel to formduquel andauquel, or withlesquel(le)s to formdesquel(le)s andauxquel(le)s.
Manyest-ce que questions in French underlyingly use relative clauses.
Aside from their highly inflected forms,German relative pronouns are less complicated than English. There are two varieties. The more common one is based on the definite articleder,die,das, but with distinctive forms in the genitive (dessen,deren) and in the dative plural (denen). Historically this is related to Englishthat. The second, which is more literary and used for emphasis, is the relative use ofwelcher,welche,welches, comparable with Englishwhich. As in most Germanic languages, including Old English, both of these varieties inflect according to gender, case and number. They take their gender and number from the noun which they modify, but the case from their function in their own clause.
The relative pronoundem is neuter singular to agree withHaus, but dative because it follows a preposition in its own clause. On the same basis, it would be possible to substitute the pronounwelchem.
However, German uses the uninflectingwas ('what') as a relative pronoun when the antecedent isalles,etwas ornichts ('everything', 'something', 'nothing').
In German, all relative clauses are marked with commas.
Alternatively, particularly in formal registers, participles (both active and passive) can be used to embed relative clauses in adjectival phrases:
Unlike English, which only permits relatively small participle phrases in adjectival positions (typically just the participle and adverbs), and disallows the use of direct objects for active participles, German sentences of this sort can embed clauses of arbitrary complexity.
InLatin, relative clauses follow the noun phrases they modify, and are always introduced using relative pronouns. Relative pronouns, like other pronouns in Latin, agree with their antecedents ingender andnumber, but not incase: a relative pronoun's case reflects its role in the relative clause it introduces, while its antecedent's case reflects the antecedent's role in the clause that contains the relative clause. (Nonetheless, it is possible for the pronoun and antecedent to be in the same case.) For example:
In the former example,urbēs andquae both function assubjects in their respective clauses, so both are in the nominative case; and due to gender andnumber agreement, both are feminine and plural. In the latter example, both are still feminine and plural, andurbēs is still in the nominative case, butquae has been replaced byquās, its accusative-case counterpart, to reflect its role as thedirect object ofvīdī.
For more information on the forms of Latin relative pronouns,seethe section on relative pronouns in the article on Latin declension.
Ancient Greek follows (almost) the same rules as Latin.
αἱ
hai
πόλεις,
póleis,
ἃς
hàs
εἶδον,
eîdon,
μεγάλαι
megálai
εἰσίν.
eisin.
αἱπόλεις,ἃς εἶδον, μεγάλαι εἰσίν.
haipóleis,hàs eîdon, megálai eisin.
Thecities,which I saw are large.
However, there is a phenomenon in Ancient Greek calledcase attraction, where the case of the relative pronoun can be "attracted" to the case of its antecedent.
ἄξιοι
áxioi
τῆς
tês
ἐλευθερίας
eleutheríās
ἧς
hês
κέκτησθε
kéktēsthe
ἄξιοι τῆςἐλευθερίαςἧς κέκτησθε
áxioi têseleutheríāshês kéktēsthe
Worthyof the freedom (lit. 'of which') you have obtained. = Worthy of the freedom which you have obtained.
In this example, although the relative pronoun should be in the accusative case, as the object of "obtain", it is attracted to the genitive case of its antecedent ("of the freedom...").
The Ancient Greek relative pronoun ὅς, ἥ, ὅ (hós, hḗ, hó) is unrelated to the Latin word, since it derives fromProto-Indo-European*yos: inProto-Greek,y before a vowel usually changed toh (debuccalization).Cognates includeSanskrit relative pronounsyas, yā, yad (whereo changed to shorta).[16]
The Greek definite article ὁ, ἡ, τό (ho, hē, tó) has a different origin, since it is related to the Sanskrit demonstrativesa, sā andLatinis-tud.[17]
Information that in English would be encoded with relative clauses could be represented with complex participles in Ancient Greek. This was made particularly expressive by the rich suite of participles available, with active and passive participles in present, past and future tenses. This is calledthe attributive participle.
Serbo-Croatian uses exactly the same principle as Latin does.[18] The following sentences are the Latin examples translated to Serbo-Croatian (the same sentences apply to the Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin standard variants of thepluricentric language):
se.
itself:REFL
Gradovi,koji su veliki, vide se.
{the cities:NOM.M.PL} which:NOM.M.PL are:PR.3.PL large:NOM.M.PL see:PR.3.PL itself:REFL
"The cities, which are large, are being seen."
Gradovi,koje sam vidio, bili su veliki.
{the cities:NOM.M.PL} which:ACC.M.PL {I am:AUX.1.SG} saw:AP.M.SG were:AP.M.PL are:AUX.3.PL large:NOM.M.PL
"The cities, which I saw, were large."
In the first sentence,koji is in thenominative, and in the secondkoje is in theaccusative. Both words are two case forms of the samerelative pronoun, that is inflicted forgender (here: masculine),number (here: plural), andcase.
An alternative relativizing strategy is the use of the non-declinable wordšto 'that' to introduce a relative clause.[19] This word is used together with aresumptive pronoun, i.e. apersonal pronoun that agrees in gender and number with theantecedent, while its case form depends on its function in the relative clause.[20] The resumptive pronoun never appears in subject function.
što
that
ga
him:ACC
Onaj poznanikšto siga pozdravio...
that:NOM.M.SG acquaintance:NOM.M.SG that be:AUX.2.SG him:ACC greet:AP.M.SG
"That acquaintance that (whom) you have said 'hello' to..."
Relative clauses are relatively frequent in modern Serbo-Croatian[19] since they have expanded as attributes at the expense of theparticiples performing that function.[21] The most frequently used relative pronoun iskoji.[22] There are several ongoing changes concerningkoji. One of them is the spread of the genitive-accusativesyncretism to the masculine inanimate of the pronoun.[23] The cause lies in the necessity to disambiguate thesubject and theobject bymorphological means. The nominative-accusative syncretism of the formkoji is inadequate, so the genitive formkojeg is preferred:[24]
Autokoji je udario autobus
car:NOM/ACC.M.SG which:NOM/ACC.M.SG be:AUX.3.SG hit:AP.M.SG bus:NOM/ACC.M.SG
Autokojeg je udario autobus
car:NOM/ACC.M.SG which:ACC/GEN.M.SG be:AUX.3.SG hit:AP.M.SG bus:NOM/ACC.M.SG
"Car hit by bus"
TheCeltic languages (at least the modernInsular Celtic languages) distinguish two types of relative clause: direct relative clauses and indirect relative clauses. A direct relative clause is used where the relativized element is the subject or the direct object of its clause (e.g. "the manwho saw me", "the manwhom I saw"), while an indirect relative clause is used where the relativized element is a genitival (e.g. "the manwhose daughter is in the hospital") or is the object of a preposition (e.g. "the manto whom I gave the book"). Direct relative clauses are formed with arelative pronoun (unmarked for case) at the beginning; a gap (in terms of syntactic theory, atrace, indicated by (t) in the examples below) is left in the relative clause at the pronoun's expected position.
an
the
fear
man
chonaic
saw
(t)
mé
me
an fear a chonaic (t) mé
the man DIR-REL saw {} me
"the man who saw me"
The direct relative particle "a" is not used with "mae" ("is") in Welsh; instead the form "sydd" or "sy'" is used:
y
the
dyn
man
blewog
hairy
iawn
very
y dyn sy'n blewog iawn
the man {DIR-REL + is} hairy very
"the man who is very hairy"
There is also a defective verb "piau" (usually lenited to "biau"), corresponding to "who own(s)":
y
the
dyn
man
piau
castell
castle
anferth
huge
y dyn piau castell anferth
the man {DIR-REL + owns} castle huge
"the man who owns a huge castle"
Indirect relative clauses are formed with arelativizer at the beginning; the relativized element remainsin situ in the relative clause.
an
the
fear
man
bhfuil
is
a
his
iníon
daughter
san
in the
ospidéal
hospital
an fear a bhfuil a iníon san ospidéal
the man IND-REL is his daughter {in the} hospital
"the man whose daughter is in the hospital"
y
the
dyn
man
rhois
I gave
y
the
llyfr
book
iddo
to him
y dyn y rhois y llyfr iddo
the man IND-REL {I gave} the book {to him}
"the man to whom I gave the book"
Although both the Irish relative pronoun and the relativizer are 'a', the relative pronoun triggers lenition of a following consonant, while the relativizer triggers eclipsis (seeIrish initial mutations).
Both direct and indirect relative particles can be used simply for emphasis, often in answer to a question or as a way of disagreeing with a statement. For instance, the Welsh example above, "y dyn a welais" means not only "the man whom I saw", but also "it was the man (and not anyone else) I saw"; and "y dyn y rhois y llyfr iddo" can likewise mean "it was the man (and not anyone else) to whom I gave the book".
InBiblical Hebrew, relative clauses were headed with the wordasher, which could be either arelative pronoun or arelativizer. In later times,asher became interchangeable with the prefixshe- (which is also used as a conjunction, with the sense of Englishthat), and inModern Hebrew, this use ofshe- is much more common thanasher, except in some formal, archaic, or poetic writing. In meaning, the two are interchangeable; they are used regardless of whether the clause is modifying a human, regardless of their grammatical case in the relative clause, and regardless of whether the clause is restrictive.
Further, because Hebrew does not generally use its word foris,she- is used to distinguish adjective phrases used in epithet from adjective phrases used in attribution:
(This use ofshe- does not occur with simple adjectives, as Hebrew has a different way of making that distinction. For example,Ha-kise adom means "The chair [is] red", whileHa-kis'e ha-adom shavur means "The red chair is broken"—literally, "The chair the red [is] broken.")
Since 1994, the official rules of Modern Hebrew (as determined by theAcademy of the Hebrew Language) have stated that relative clauses are to be punctuated in Hebrew the same way as in English (described above). That is, non-restrictive clauses are to be set off with commas, while restrictive clauses are not:
Nonetheless, many speakers of Modern Hebrew still use the pre-1994 rules, which were based on the German rules (described above). Except for the simple adjective-phrase clauses described above, these speakers set off all relative clauses, restrictive or not, with commas:
One major difference between relative clauses in Hebrew and those in (for example) English is that in Hebrew, what might be called the "regular" pronoun is not always suppressed in the relative clause. To reuse the prior example:
More specifically, if this pronoun is the subject of the relative clause, it is always suppressed. If it is the direct object, then it is usually suppressed, though it is also correct to leave it in. (If it is suppressed, then the special prepositionet, used to mark the direct object, is suppressed as well.) If it is the object of a preposition, it must be left in, because in Hebrew—unlike in English—a preposition cannot appear without its object. When the pronoun is left in,she- might more properly be called arelativizer than a relative pronoun.
TheHebrewrelativizershe- 'that' "might be a shortened form of the Hebrew relativizer‘asher 'that', which is related toAkkadian‘ashru 'place' (cf. Semitic *‘athar). Alternatively,Hebrew‘asher derived fromshe-, or it was a convergence of Proto-Semiticdhu (cf. Aramaicdī) and‘asher [...] WhereasIsraelishe- functions both ascomplementizer and relativizer,ashér can only function as a relativize."[25]
InModern Standard andClassical Arabic there is a relative pronoun (in Arabic:الاسم الموصولal-ism al-mawṣūl)allaḏī (masculine singular), feminine singularallatī, masculine pluralallaḏīna, feminine pluralallawātī, masculine dualallaḏānī (nominative) /allaḏayni (accusative and genitive), feminine dualallatānī (nom.) /allataynī (acc. and gen.).
Its usage has two specific rules: it agrees with the antecedent in gender, number and case, and it is used only if the antecedent is definite. If the antecedent is indefinite, no relative pronoun is used. The former is calledjumlat sila (conjunctive sentence) while the latter is calledjumlat sifa (descriptive sentence).
الفتى
al-fatā
الذي
(a)lladhi
رأيته
ra’aytuhu
في
fī
الصف
(a)ṣ-ṣaffi
أمس
’amsi
غائب
ġā’ibun
اليوم
al-yawma
الفتى الذي رأيته في الصف أمس غائب اليوم
al-fatā (a)lladhi ra’aytuhu fī (a)ṣ-ṣaffi ’amsi ġā’ibun al-yawma
"The boy I saw in class yesterday is missing today". (relative pronoun present)
هذا
hāḏā
فتًى
fatan
رأيته
ra’aytu-hu
في
fī
الصف
(a)ṣ-ṣaffi
أمس
’amsi
هذا فتًى رأيته في الصف أمس
hāḏā fatan ra’aytu-hu fī (a)ṣ-ṣaffi ’amsi
"This is a boy I saw in class yesterday". (relative pronoun absent)
In Colloquial Arabic the multiple forms of the relative pronoun have been levelled in favour of a single form, a simple conjunction, which in most dialects isilli, and is never omitted. So in Palestinian Arabic the above sentences would be:
As in Hebrew, the regular pronoun referring to the antecedent is repeated in the relative clause - literally, "the boy whom I sawhim in class..." (the-hu inra'aituhu and the-ō inshuftō). The rules of suppression in Arabic are identical to those of Hebrew: obligatory suppression in the case that the pronoun is the subject of the relative clause, obligatory retention in the case that the pronoun is the object of a preposition, and at the discretion of the speaker if the pronoun is the direct object. The only difference from Hebrew is that, in the case of the direct object, it is preferable to retain the pronoun rather than suppress it.
Japanese does not employ relative pronouns to relate relative clauses to their antecedents. Instead, the relative clause directly modifies the noun phrase as anattributive verb, occupying the same syntactic space as an attributive adjective (before the noun phrase).
この
kono
おいしい
oishii
天ぷら
tempura
この おいしい 天ぷら
kono oishii tempura
"this delicious tempura"
天ぷら
tempura
tempura
姉が 作った 天ぷら
ane-ga tsukutta tempura
sister-SUBJ make-PAST tempura
"the tempura [that] my sister made"
人
hito
person
天ぷらを 食べた 人
tempura-o tabeta hito
tempura-OBJ eat-PAST person
"the person who ate the tempura"
In fact, since so-calledi-adjectives in Japanese can be analyzed as intransitive stative verbs,[citation needed] it can be argued that the structure of the first example (with an adjective) is the same as the others. A number of "adjectival" meanings, in Japanese, are customarily shown with relative clauses consisting solely of a verb or a verb complex:
光っている
hikatte-iru
lit-be
ビル
biru
building
光っている ビル
hikatte-iru biru
lit-be building
"an illuminated building"
濡れている
nurete-iru
get_wet-be
犬
inu
dog
濡れている 犬
nurete-iru inu
get_wet-be dog
"a wet dog"
Often confusing to speakers of languages which use relative pronouns are relative clauses which would in their own languages require a preposition with the pronoun to indicate the semantic relationship among the constituent parts of the phrase.
淹れる
ireru
make
ため
tame
purpose
に
ni
for
沸かした
wakashita
boiled
やかん
yakan
kettle
紅茶を 淹れる ため に お湯を 沸かした やかん
kōcha-o ireru tame ni oyu-o wakashita yakan
tea-OBJ make purpose for hot-water-OBJ boiled kettle
"the kettle I boiled waterin for tea"
Here, the preposition "in" is missing from the Japanese ("missing" in the sense that the corresponding postposition would be used with the main clause verb in Japanese). Common sense indicates what the meaning is in this case, but the "missing preposition" can sometimes create ambiguity.
作った
tsukutta
made
人
hito
person
天ぷらを 作った 人
tempura-o tsukutta hito
tempura-OBJ made person
(1) "the person who made the tempura"
(2) "the person [someone] made the tempurafor"
In this case, (1) is the context-free interpretation of choice, but (2) is possible with the proper context.
書いた
kaita
wrote
レストラン
resutoran
restaurant
僕が 記事を 書いた レストラン
boku-ga kiji-o kaita resutoran
I-SUBJ article-OBJ wrote restaurant
(1) "a restaurantabout which I wrote an article"
(2) "a restaurantin which I wrote an article"
Without more context, both (1) and (2) are equally viable interpretations of the Japanese sentence.
InGeorgian, there are two strategies for forming relative clauses. The first is similar to that of English or Latin: the modified noun is followed by a relativizer that inflects for its embedded case and may take a postposition. The relativized noun may be preceded by a determiner.
პარკში
ṗarḳ=ši
park=to
წავიდა,
c̣avida,
he.went
კითხულობს
ḳitxulobs
he.reads.it
(ის) კაცი, რომელიც პარკში წავიდა, გაზეთს კითხულობს
(is) ḳac-i, romel-i-c ṗarḳ=ši c̣avida, gazet-s ḳitxulobs
(that.NOM) man-NOM which-NOM-REL park=to he.went newspaper-DAT he.reads.it
"the man who went to the park is reading the newspaper."
დავუწერ,
davuc̣er,
I.will.write.it.to.her
თბილისში
tbilis=ši
Tbilisi-in
ცხოვრობს
cxovrobs
she.lives
(ის) ქალი, რომელსაც წერილს დავუწერ, თბილისში ცხოვრობს
(is) kal-i, romel-sa-c c̣eril-s davuc̣er, tbilis=ši cxovrobs
(that.NOM) woman-NOM which-DAT-REL letter-DAT I.will.write.it.to.her Tbilisi-in she.lives
"the woman who I will write a letter to lives inTbilisi."
ვზივარ,
vzivar,
I.sit
იყიდა
iqida
she.bought.it
ნინომ (ის) სკამი, რომელზეც ვზივარ, იყიდა
Nino-m (is) sḳam-i, romel=ze-c vzivar, iqida
Nino-ERG (that.NOM) chair-NOM which=on-REL I.sit she.bought.it
"Nino bought the chair I am sitting in."
A second, more colloquial, strategy is marked by the invariant particle რომrom. This particle is generally the second word of the clause, and since it does not decline, is often followed by the appropriately cased third-person pronoun to show the relativized noun's role in the embedded clause. A determiner precedes the relativized noun, which is also usually preceded by the clause as a whole.
დავუწერ,
davuc̣̣er,
I.will.write.it.to.her
თბილისში
tbilis=ši
Tbilisi-in
ცხოვრობს
cxovrobs
she.lives
წერილს რომ მას დავუწერ, ის ქალი თბილისში ცხოვრობს
c̣̣eril-s rom mas davuc̣̣er, is kal-i tbilis=ši cxovrobs
letter-DAT REL 3S.DAT I.will.write.it.to.her that.NOM woman-NOM Tbilisi-in she.lives
"the woman who I will write a letter to lives inTbilisi."
ვზივარ,
vzivar,
I.sit
იყიდა
iqida
she.bought.it
მე რომ მასზე ვზივარ, ის სკამი ნინომ იყიდა
me rom mas=ze vzivar, is sḳam-i Nino-m iqida
1S REL 3S.DAT=on I.sit that.NOM chair-NOM Nino-ERG she.bought.it
"Nino bought the chair I am sitting in."
Such relative clauses may be internally headed. In such cases, the modified noun moves into the clause, taking the appropriate declension for its role therein (thus eliminating the need for the third person pronouns in the above examples), and leaves behind the determiner (which now functions as a pronoun) in the matrix clause.
დავუწერ,
davuc̣̣er,
I.will.write.it.to.her
თბილისში
tbilis=ši
Tbilisi-in
ცხოვრობს
cxovrobs
she.lives
ქალს რომ წერილს დავუწერ, ის თბილისში ცხოვრობს
kal-s rom c̣̣eril-s davuc̣̣er, is tbilis=ši cxovrobs
woman-DAT REL letter-DAT I.will.write.it.to.her 3S.NOM Tbilisi-in she.lives
"the woman who I will write a letter to lives inTbilisi."
Indonesian, azero-copula language that does not mark verb tense, allows a variety of types of relative clause, normally restrictive.[26] They are usually introduced by the relative pronounyang, which stands for "who"/"which"/"what"/"that".
orang
person
yang
who
membangun
build
rumah
house
itu
that
orang yang membangun rumah itu
person who build house that
"the person who built/is building that house"
Yang is not allowed as the object of a relative clause, so that Indonesian cannot exactly reproduce structures such as "the house that Jack built". Instead, a passive form of construction must be used:
rumah
house
yang
that
dibangun
built
[by]
Jack
Jack
rumah yang dibangun {} Jack
house that built [by] Jack
Relative clauses with no antecedent toyang are possible:
yang
what
paling
most
mengejutkan
surprising
warnanya
its-colour
yang paling mengejutkan warnanya
what most surprising its-colour
"what is most surprising is its colour"
yang
what
didengarnya
heard-by-him
mengejutkan
surprising
sekali
very
yang didengarnya mengejutkan sekali
what heard-by-him surprising very
"what he heard was very surprising"
Tagalog uses thegapping strategy to form relative clauses, with thecomplementizer,na /=ng 'that', separating the head, which is the noun being modified, from the actual relative clause. In (1a) below,lalaki 'man' serves as the head, whilenagbigay ng bigas sa bata 'gave rice to the child' is the relative clause.
lalaki
man
=ng
nagbigay
____
ng
bigas
rice
sa
bata
child
lalaki =ng nagbigay ____ ng bigas sa bata
man COMP ACT.gave {} ACC rice DAT child
"man that gave rice to the child"
Nagbigay
ang
lalaki
man
ng
bigas
rice
sa
bata.
child
Nagbigayanglalaki ng bigas sa bata.
ACT.gave NOM man ACC rice DAT child
"The man gave rice to the child."
The gap inside the relative clause corresponds to the position that the noun acting as the head would have normally taken, had it been in adeclarative sentence. In (1a), the gap is in subject position within the relative clause. This corresponds to the subject position occupied byang lalaki 'the man' in the declarative sentence in (1b).
There is a constraint in Tagalog on the position from which a noun can be relativized and in which a gap can appear: A noun has to be the subject within the relative clause in order for it to be relativized. The phrases in (2) are ungrammatical because the nouns that have been relativized are not the subjects of their respective relative clauses. In (2a), the gap is in direct object position, while in (2b), the gap is in indirect object position.
*
bigas
rice
na
nagbigay
ang
lalaki
man
____
sa
bata
child
*bigas na nagbigay ang lalaki ____ sa bata
{} rice COMP ACT.gave NOM man {} DAT child
for: "rice that the man gave to the child"
*
bata
child
=ng
nagbigay
ang
lalaki
man
ng
bigas
rice
____
*bata =ng nagbigay ang lalaki ng bigas ____
{} child COMP ACT.gave NOM man ACC rice {}
for: "child that the man gave rice to"
The correct Tagalog translations for the intended meanings in (2) are found in (3), where the verbs have been passivized in order to raise the logical direct object in (3a) and the logical indirect object in (3b) to subject position. (Tagalog can have more than onepassive voice form for any given verb.)
bigas
rice
na
ibinigay
ng
lalaki
man
sa
bata
child
bigas na ibinigay ng lalaki sa bata
rice COMP PAS.gave GEN man DAT child
"rice that the man gave to the child"
(or: "rice that was given to the child by the man")
bata
child
=ng
binigyan
gave.PAS
ng
lalaki
man
ng
bigas
rice
bata =ng binigyan ng lalaki ng bigas
child COMP gave.PAS GEN man ACC rice
"child that the man gave rice to"
(or: "child that was given rice to by the man")
Tagalog relative clauses can be left-headed, as in (1a) and (3), right-headed, as in (4), or internally headed, as in (5).
nagbigay
ng
bigas
rice
sa
bata
child
na
lalaki
man
nagbigay ng bigas sa bata nalalaki
ACT.gave ACC rice DAT child COMP man
"man that gave rice to the child"
nagbigay
na
lalaki
man
ng
bigas
rice
sa
bata
child
nagbigay nalalaki ng bigas sa bata
ACT.gave COMP man ACC rice DAT child
"man that gave rice to the child"
nagbigay
ng
bigas
rice
na
lalaki
man
sa
bata
child
nagbigay ng bigas nalalaki sa bata
ACT.gave ACC rice COMP man DAT child
"man that gave rice to the child"
In (4), the head,lalaki 'man', is found after or to the right of the relative clause,nagbigay ng bigas sa bata 'gave rice to the child'. In (5), the head is found in some position inside the relative clause. When the head appears to the right of or internally to the relative clause, the complementizer appears to the left of the head. When the head surfaces to the left of the relative clause, the complementizer surfaces to the right of the head.
There are exceptions to the subjects-only constraint to relativization mentioned above. The first involves relativizing thepossessor of a noun phrase within the relative clause.
bata
child
=ng
nasugatan
injured.PAS
ang
daliri
finger
____
bata =ng nasugatan ang daliri ____
child COMP injured.PAS NOM finger {}
"child whose finger was injured"
In (6), the head,bata 'child', is the owner of the injured finger. The phraseang daliri 'the finger' is the subject of the verb,nasugatan 'was injured'.
Another exception involves relativizing theoblique noun phrase.
ospital
hospital
(na)
saan
where
ipinanganak
si
Juan
Juan
ospital (na) kung saan ipinanganak si Juan
hospital COMP Q-COMP where PAS.bore NOM Juan
"hospital where Juan was born"
Nagtanong
saan
where
ipinanganak
si
Juan.
Juan
Nagtanong siya kung saan ipinanganak si Juan.
ACT.asked 3SG.NOM Q-COMP where PAS.bore NOM Juan
"She asked where Juan was born."
Ipinanganak
si
Juan
Juan
sa
ospital.
hospital
Ipinanganak si Juansaospital.
PAS.bore NOM Juan LOC hospital
"Juan was born at the hospital."
Saan
where
ipinanganak
si
Juan?
Juan
Saan ipinanganak si Juan?
where PAS.bore NOM Juan
"Where was Juan born?"
When an oblique noun phrase is relativized, as in (7a),na 'that', the complementizer that separates the head from the relative clause, is optional. The relative clause itself is also composed differently. In the examples in (1a), and in (3) to (6), the relative clauses are simple declaratives that contain a gap. However, the relative clause in (7a) looks more like anindirectquestion, complete with theinterrogative complementizer,kung 'if', and a pre-verbally positionedWH-word likesaan 'where', as in (7b). The sentence in (7c) is the declarative version of the relative clause in (7a), illustrating where the head,ospital 'hospital', would have been "before" relativization. The question in (7d) shows the direct question version of thesubordinate indirect question in (7b).
Relative clauses inHawaiian[27] are avoided unless they are short.
If in English a relative clause would have a copula and an adjective, in Hawaiian the antecedent is simply modified by the adjective: "The honest man" instead of "the man who is honest". If the English relative clause would have a copula and a noun, in Hawaiian an appositive is used instead: "Paul, an apostle" instead of "Paul, who was an apostle".
If the English relative pronoun would be the subject of an intransitive or passive verb, in Hawaiian a participle is used instead of a full relative clause: "the people fallen" instead of "the people who fell"; "the thing given" instead of "the thing that was given". But when the relative clause's antecedent is a person, the English relative pronoun would be the subject of the relative clause, and the relative clause's verb is active and transitive, a relative clause is used and it begins with the relative pronounnana:The one who me (past) sent = "the one who sent me".
If in English a relative pronoun would be the object of a relative clause, in Hawaiian the possessive form is used so as to treat the antecedent as something possessed:the things of me to have seen = "the things that I saw";Here is theirs to have seen = This is what they saw".
punchu
poncho
thuquñap punchu
dance-INF-3.POSS poncho
"the poncho he is dancing with"
InMandarin Chinese, the relative clause is similar to other adjectival phrases in that it precedes the noun that it modifies, and ends with the relative particlede (的). If the relative clause is missing a subject but contains an object (in other words, if the verb is transitive), the main-clause noun is the implied subject of the relative clause:[28]
种
zhòng
grow
水果
shuǐguǒ
fruit
农人
nóngrén
farmer
(種水果的農人。)
种 水果 的 农人
zhòng shuǐguǒ de nóngrén
grow fruit PTCL farmer
"the fruit-growing farmer" or "the farmer who grows fruit"
If the object but not the subject is missing from the relative clause, the main-clause noun is the implied object of the relative clause:
他们
tāmen
they
种
zhòng
grow
水果
shuǐguǒ
fruit
(他們種的水果。)
他们 种 的 水果
tāmen zhòng de shuǐguǒ
they grow PTCL fruit
"the by-them-grown fruit" or "the fruit that they grow"
If both the subject and the object are missing from the relative clause, then the main-clause noun could either be the implied subject or the implied object of the relative clause; sometimes which is intended is clear from the context, especially when the subject or object of the verb must be human and the other must be non-human:
(用)今天
jīntiān
today
赢
yíng
win
钱
qián
money
来
fù
pay
付
fáng
house
房租
zū
rent
((用)今天贏的錢來付房租。)
(用)今天 赢 的 钱 来 付 房租
jīntiān yíng de qián fù fáng zū
today win PTCL money pay house rent
"the won-today money pays the rent" or "the money that was won today pays the rent"
But sometimes ambiguity arises when it is not clear from the context whether the main-clause noun is intended as the subject or the object of the relative clause:
昨天
zuótiān
yesterday
批评
pīping
criticize
人
rén
person
都
dōu
all
不
bu
not
在
zài
at
这里
zhèlǐ
here
(昨天批評的人都不在這裡。)
昨天 批评 的 人 都 不 在 这里
zuótiān pīping de rén dōu bu zài zhèlǐ
yesterday criticize PTCL person all not at here
"the people who criticized [others] yesterday are all not here" or "the people whom [others] criticized yesterday are all not here"
However, the first meaning (in which the main-clause noun is the subject) is usually intended, as the second can be unambiguously stated using a passive voice marker:
昨天
zuótiān
yesterday
批评
pīping
criticize
人
rén
person
都
dōu
all
不
bu
not
在
zài
at
这里
zhèlǐ
here
(昨天被批評的人都不在這裡。)
昨天 被 批评 的 人 都 不 在 这里
zuótiān bèi pīping de rén dōu bu zài zhèlǐ
yesterday PASS criticize PTCL person all not at here
"the people who were criticized yesterday are all not here"
Sometimes a relative clause has both a subject and an object specified, in which case the main-clause noun is the implied object of an implied preposition in the relative clause:
我
wǒ
I
写
xiě
write
信
xìn
letter
毛笔
máobǐ
brushpen
(我寫信的毛筆。)
我 写 信 的 毛笔
wǒ xiě xìn de máobǐ
I write letter PTCL brushpen
the brushpen that I write letters with
It is also possible to include the preposition explicitly in the relative clause, but in that case it takes a pronoun object (apersonal pronoun with the function of a relative pronoun):[29]
我
wǒ
I
替
tì
for
他
tā
her/him
画
huà
draw
画
huà
picture
人
rén
person
(我替他畫畫的人。)
我 替 他 画 画 的 人
wǒ tì tā huà huà de rén
I for her/him draw picture PTCL person
"the person for whom I drew the picture"
Free relative clauses are formed in the same way, omitting the modified noun after the particlede. As with bound relative clauses, ambiguity may arise; for example,吃的;chī de "eat (particle)" may mean "that which is eaten", i.e. "food", or "those who eat".[30]
InHawaiian Creole English, an English-basedcreole also called Hawaiian Pidgin or simply Pidgin, relative clauses work in a way that is similar to, but not identical to, the way they work in English.[31] As in English, a relative pronoun that serves as the object of the verb in the relative clause can optionally be omitted: For example,
Ai
I
neva
never
si
see
da
the
buk
book
daet
that
Lisa
Lisa
wen
(past)
bai
buy
Ai neva si da buk daet Lisa wen bai
I never see the book that Lisa (past) buy
I didn't see the book that Lisa bought
can also be expressed with the relative pronoun omitted, as
Ai
I
neva
never
si
see
da
the
buk
book
Lisa
Lisa
wen
(past)
bai
buy
Ai neva si da buk Lisa wen bai
I never see the book Lisa (past) buy
I didn't see the book Lisa bought
However, relative pronouns serving as the subject of a relative clause show more flexibility than in English; they can be included, as is mandatory in English, they can be omitted, or they can be replaced by another pronoun. For example, all of the following can occur and all mean the same thing:
Get
There's
wan
one
nada
other
grl
girl
hu
who
no
no
kaen
can
ste
stay
stil
still
Get wan nada grl hu no kaen ste stil
There's one other girl who no can stay still
There's another girl who cannot stay still
Get
There's
wan
one
nada
other
grl
girl
no
no
kaen
can
ste
stay
stil
still
Get wan nada grl no kaen ste stil
There's one other girl no can stay still
Get
There's
wan
one
nada
other
grl
girl
shi
she
no
no
kaen
can
ste
stay
stil
still
Get wan nada grl shi no kaen ste stil
There's one other girl she no can stay still
InGullah, an English-based creole spoken along the southeastern coast of the United States, no relative pronoun is normally used for the subject of a relative clause. For example:
Duh
It
him
him
cry
cry
out
out
so
so
Duh him cry out so
It him cry out so
It's he who cries out so
Enty
Ain't
duh
it
dem
them
shum
saw him
dey?
there?
Enty duh dem shum dey?
Ain't it them {saw him} there?
Isn't it they who saw him there?
