scholarly journals Internally-headed and doubly-headed relatives in Japanese -- How are they related to each other?

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chisato Kitagawa ◽  
Shigeru Miyagawa
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Discourse Function ◽  
Island Constraints ◽  
Construction Type

Grosu & Hoshi (2019:20), in their rejoinder to Kitagawa (2019), propose that apparent violations of island constraints in the so-called internally-headed relative clauses are accounted for by considering them as reduced doubly-headed relative clauses. This paper shows that this claim by Grosu and Hoshi is not empirically sustainable, and further that it misses the discourse function of doubly-headed relative clauses. A discussion of gapless light-headed externally-headed relative clauses is also presented so as to identify how this construction type interrelates with internally-headed relative clauses and doubly-headed relative clauses.

Extraction constraints

2020 ◽  
pp. 49-121
Author(s):  
Rui P. Chaves ◽  
Michael T. Putnam
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
States Of Affairs ◽  
Detailed Survey ◽  
Island Constraints ◽  
Unbounded Dependency ◽  
Island Phenomena

This chapter offers a detailed survey of the constraints that restrict filler-gap dependencies (island constraints), and argues that there are several different kinds of island constraints, due to different combinations of independently motivated factors. Most importantly, it argues that most islands are not cross-constructionally active. That is, most island phenomena are restricted to certain kinds of unbounded dependency constructions (e.g. interrogatives, or relative clauses). In particular, several island types are primarily caused by drawing the hearer’s attention to a fronted referent that is not at-issue, and is of little consequence to what the utterance convey. Such an account emerges naturally from the observation that not all propositions express equally likely states of affairs and that different constructions come with different biases with respect to how information structure is packaged, and consequently, to which referents it is pragmatically licit to single out. The chapter concludes with a discussion of resumption and supposed island effects in other types of construction.

Postmodifying verb-second clauses in spoken German

2012 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-264
Author(s):  
Regina Weinert
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Language Model ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Corpus Analysis ◽  
Direct Result ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Discourse Function ◽  
Form Part ◽  
Clause Combining

This usage-based and corpus-based study examines the use of verb-second clauses as restrictive postmodifiers of noun phrases in spoken German (ich kenn leute die haben immer pech ‘I know people they are always unlucky’) in relation to verb-final relative clauses. Previous accounts largely work with de-contextualised and constructed data and stop short of accounting for the discourse function of verb-second postmodifying structures. The ratio of verb-final relative clauses to postmodifying verb-second clauses does not indicate a shift towards main clause syntax. Rather, the verb-second clauses form part of a set of existential or presentational and ascriptive copular constructions which serve to highlight properties of entities and/or introduce discourse topics. Relative clauses can be used for such functions, but this is not as common. The syntactic and semantic features associated with postmodifying verb-second clauses can be seen as a direct result of their discourse function, which only a corpus analysis could reveal. The paper also comments on the wider related aspects of verb position, clause combining and pronoun use in spoken German from the perspective of a usage-based language model.

scholarly journals Relativizzazione e restrittività: alcuni criteri distintivi in russo

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Milani
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clause ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Colloquial Language ◽  
Island Constraints ◽  
Restrictive Relative Clauses ◽  
National Corpus

This work discusses issues related to the syntax and semantics of relative clauses in contemporary Russian. More precisely, the study explores some differences between restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses on the basis of data drawn from the Russian National Corpus and, additionally, on the basis of native speakers’ judgments. It will show the occurrences of the relative introducers čto and kotoryj investigating the nature of their possible antecedents (animacy feature), the Case-marking strategy and the Resumption phenomenon, which has been tested in colloquial language. My observations appear to support the hypothesis on a relationship, in Russian, between the Resumption strategy (that only čto-relatives license) and the non-restrictive interpretation of the relative clause, if island-constraints are not present.

scholarly journals On the nature of escapable relative islands

2014 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken Ramshøj Christensen ◽  
Anne Mette Nyvad
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clause ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Small Clause ◽  
Clause Structure ◽  
Island Constraints ◽  
Structural Contrast

It is generally assumed that universal island constraints block extraction from relative clauses. However, it is well-known that such extractions can be acceptable in the Scandinavian languages. Kush & Lindahl (2011) argue that the acceptability in Swedish is illusory; relative clauses that allow extraction have a different structure (small clause structure) from those that block extraction (true relatives, CPs). We present data from an acceptability survey of relative clause extraction in Danish. In the survey, extraction significantly decreased acceptability but we found no statistically significant effect of the ability of the verb to take a small-clause complement. We also found no difference betweensom‘that/who/which’ andder‘that/who/which’, both of which can head a relative clause while onlysomcan head a small clause. We argue that our results do not warrant the stipulation of a structural contrast between acceptable and unacceptable extractions, and that variation in acceptability stems from processing.

scholarly journals Topic and focus in local subject extractions in Danish

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Bjerre
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Structural Constraints ◽  
Discourse Function ◽  
Asymmetrical Distribution ◽  
Structural Point

The present paper proposes an analysis of the asymmetrical distribution of der, 'there', in embedded interrogative and relative clauses, respectively, in standard Danish. The analysis sets itself apart from previous analyses in integrating information structural constraints. We will show that the discourse function of the extracted subject in the clauses in question determines whether der insertion takes place in standard Danish. The analysis will further be shown to support the position that der in interrogative and relative clauses is an expletive subject filler, and that from an information structural point of view, the der in existential, presentational, passives and relative clauses is indeed the same der.

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