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“Gap” matters: reflections on the notion of “gap” of relative clauses

  • Tong Wu , Yaohua Luo and Renfei Xiao EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: February 21, 2024

Abstract

This study aims to re-examine the essential notion of “gap” in the studies of relative clauses. Following Creissels’ (Creissels, Denis. 2006. Syntaxe générale: une introduction typologique. Paris: Hermès; Creissels, Denis. 2019. Remarks on the typology of noun-modifying clause constructions. Paper presented at the Conference of Complex Sentences, Central China Normal University, 26–29 July) discussion, we argue that there are at least three types of gaps in terms of their respective compositions, namely the gap corresponding to a zero-marked constituent, the gap corresponding to a case-marked constituent, and the gap corresponding to an adposition-marked constituent. This classification, which is not based on the grammatical relation of the relativized constituent in the relative clause but focuses on the composition of the gap, can better explain the existence of the so-called “enlarged gap”, a special type of gap that has been almost completely ignored so far. Moreover, this marking-based approach can shed new light on Keenan and Comrie’s (Keenan, Edward & Bernard Comrie. 1977. Noun phrase accessibility and universal grammar. Linguistic Inquiry 8(1). 63–99) Accessibility Hierarchy. In particular, we argue that some interplay of the syntactic position and the morphological marking of a syntactic object determines whether the constituent can be relativized.


Corresponding author: Renfei Xiao, Central China Normal University, 152, Luoyu Road, Hongshan District, Wuhan, Hubei Province, P.R. China, E-mail:

Funding source: Key Project of the Sino Foreign Language Cooperation and Exchange Center of the Ministry of Education

Award Identifier / Grant number: 22YH44B

Funding source: 2021 Project Supported by the National Social Science Foundation in the Later Stage

Award Identifier / Grant number: 21FYYB022

Funding source: Central China Normal University High Level Later Stage Funding Project Cultivation Special Project

Award Identifier / Grant number: 30106220212

Funding source: 2023 National Social Science Fund of China

Award Identifier / Grant number: 23FYYB015

Acknowledgments

We would especially like to thank Professor Denis Creissels, with whom we discussed data and analysis, and the editorial office of PSiCL for proofreading and stylistic improvement. Our thanks also go to the editors and the anonymous reviewers of PSiCL for their comments and suggestions. If any imperfections remain, we are entirely to blame.

  1. Research funding: This study is financed by Key Project of the Sino Foreign Language Cooperation and Exchange Center of the Ministry of Education (22YH44B), 2021 Project Supported by the National Social Science Foundation in the Later Stage (21FYYB022), Central China Normal University High Level Later Stage Funding Project Cultivation Special Project (30106220212) and 2023 National Social Science Fund of China (23FYYB015).

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Received: 2022-06-25
Accepted: 2023-10-18
Published Online: 2024-02-21
Published in Print: 2024-03-25

© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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