Feature GB330: Are there correlative relative clauses?

Patrons: Jakob Lesage

Description ⇫

Summary

Are there relative clauses that require an anaphoric pronoun in the main clause? For example, [The woman who has a green hat] she is tall.

Procedure

  1. Code 1 if a source mentions that there are correlative relative clauses or that there are relative clauses with an anaphoric pronoun in the main clause.
  2. Code 1 if you find examples of relative clauses with an anaphoric pronoun in the main clause.
  3. Code 0 if a source mentions that there are no correlative relative clauses or that relative clauses never have an anaphoric pronoun in the main clause.
  4. Code 0 if a source comprehensively describes relative clauses but does not discuss correlative relative clauses (or anaphoric pronouns in main clauses in the context of relative clauses).
  5. Code ? if there are examples that contain potential correlative relative clauses but the analysis is inconclusive.
  6. Code ? if the source does not treat relative clauses in much detail and may have missed correlative relative clauses.

Examples

Hindi (ISO 639-3: hin, Glottolog: hind1269)

Hindi has a correlative relative clause construction, where an anaphoric demonstrative is used in the main clause to link the relative clause and the main clause together (cf. Srivastav 1991). Hindi would be coded 1 for this feature.

jo  laRkii  khaRii    hai  vo  lambii  hai
REL girl    standing  is   DEM tall    is
‘The girl who is standing (she) is tall.’

Egyptian Arabic (ISO 639-3: arz, Glottolog: egyp1253)

In Egyptian Arabic, there is no anaphoric pronoun in the main clause coreferencing the relativized noun. This language is coded 0.

šuft   ilwilaad  illi  gaabu     lgawabaat
I.saw  the.boys  REL   bring:3PL letters
‘I saw the boys who brought the letters.’ (Abdel-Massih 1979: 234–235)

Kam (ISO 639-3: kdx, Glottolog: kamm1249) and Bambara (ISO 639-3: bam, Glottolog: bamb1269)

Some other clear examples of languages with correlative relative clauses are Kam and Bambara.

A correlative relative clause in Kam:

àwàn  ā    míŋ        ə́ŋꜜgwɔ́g   â,   ú     də́   rə́     ɲì     rīg.
king  REL  build:PFV  house     REL  3SG   be   with   thing  POSS
‘the king who built this house (he) is rich’ (Lesage 2020: 328)

Kam is coded 1 in Grambank.

A correlative relative clause in Bambara:

muso   min   taara,  o    ye    fini   san
woman  REL   leave   3SG  PST   cloth  buy
‘The woman who left (she) bought the cloth.’ (Bird & Kante 1976: 9)

Bambara would be coded 1 in Grambank.

Further reading

Dryer, Matthew S. 2013. Order of relative clause and noun. In Matthew S. Dryer & Martin Haspelmath (eds), The world atlas of language structures online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Lehmann, Christian. 1986. On the typology of relative clauses. Linguistics 24(4). 663–680.

References

Abdel-Massih, Ernest T. 1979. A reference grammar of Egyptian Arabic. Ann Arbor: Center for Near Eastern and North African Studies, University of Michigan.

Bird, Charles & Mamadou Kante. 1976. An Kan Bamanakan Kalan: Intermediate Bambara. Bloomington: Indiana University Linguistics Club.

Lesage, Jakob. 2020. A grammar and lexicon of Kam (àŋwɔ̀m), a Niger-Congo language of central eastern Nigeria. Paris: INALCO. (Doctoral dissertation.)

Srivastav, Veneeta. 1991. The syntax and semantics of correlatives. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 9(4). 637–686.


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Name Glottocode Family Macroarea Contributor Value Source Comment