John Benjamins Publishing Company
Relativization strategies in the languages of Europe
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Abstract
This paper examines the relativization patterns found in twenty-six languages of Europe, focusing on the strategies used to encode the relativized item. We provide a critical overview of extant classifications of these strategies, and discuss the distribution of these strategies across different syntactic roles. We present data on roles less accessible to relativization, such as possessors, or not included in the Accessibility Hierarchy for relativization, such as time circumstantials. These data can be accounted for in terms of a number of factors related to the syntax and semantics of the head noun, rather than the syntactic role of the relativized item as such. These factors also account for a number of recurrent parallelisms between the relativization of time circumstantials and temporal clauses.
Abstract
This paper examines the relativization patterns found in twenty-six languages of Europe, focusing on the strategies used to encode the relativized item. We provide a critical overview of extant classifications of these strategies, and discuss the distribution of these strategies across different syntactic roles. We present data on roles less accessible to relativization, such as possessors, or not included in the Accessibility Hierarchy for relativization, such as time circumstantials. These data can be accounted for in terms of a number of factors related to the syntax and semantics of the head noun, rather than the syntactic role of the relativized item as such. These factors also account for a number of recurrent parallelisms between the relativization of time circumstantials and temporal clauses.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
- Foreword ix
- Trends in the diachronic development of Semitic verbal morphology in typologically different contexts 1
- Demonstratives in the languages of Europe 25
- Internal structure of verbal stems in the Germanic languages 49
- Relativization strategies in the languages of Europe 63
- The spread and decline of indefinite man -constructions in European languages 95
- Mediating culture through language: Contact-induced phenomena in the early translations of the Gospels 133
- Inalienability and emphatic pronominal possession in European and Mediterranean languages 159
- Conjunctive, disjunctive and adversative constructions in Europe: Some areal considerations 183
- Complex nominal determiners: A contrastive study 215
- Relativisation strategies in insular Celtic languages 245
- Canonical and non-canonical marking of core arguments in European languages 289
- Re: duplication. Iconic vs counter-iconic principles (and their areal correlates) 317
- Index of Languages 351
- Index of Names 355
- Index of Subjects 361
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
- Foreword ix
- Trends in the diachronic development of Semitic verbal morphology in typologically different contexts 1
- Demonstratives in the languages of Europe 25
- Internal structure of verbal stems in the Germanic languages 49
- Relativization strategies in the languages of Europe 63
- The spread and decline of indefinite man -constructions in European languages 95
- Mediating culture through language: Contact-induced phenomena in the early translations of the Gospels 133
- Inalienability and emphatic pronominal possession in European and Mediterranean languages 159
- Conjunctive, disjunctive and adversative constructions in Europe: Some areal considerations 183
- Complex nominal determiners: A contrastive study 215
- Relativisation strategies in insular Celtic languages 245
- Canonical and non-canonical marking of core arguments in European languages 289
- Re: duplication. Iconic vs counter-iconic principles (and their areal correlates) 317
- Index of Languages 351
- Index of Names 355
- Index of Subjects 361
