Article

The Fall and Rise of Universals on Relativization

Mark De Vries 1
Author Information & Copyright
1University of Groningen

Copyright ⓒ 2016, Sejong University Language Research Institue. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Published Online: Jan 01, 2017

Abstract

This article discusses linguistic universals concerning relative clause constructions, which are relatively well-studied, both by typologists and theoreticians. It turns out that several universal statements formulated in the past—e.g., in Downing’s (1978) seminal work— must be weakened to tendencies or less on the basis of present knowledge. Following Odden (2003), statistical universals are rejected for the reason that cross-linguistic statistics is inherently unreliable, and may have nonlinguistic causes. However, some absolute universals and universal implications concerning relativization still stand; moreover, some interesting new ones can be formulated. If these universals can be maintained, they constitute (indirect) hypotheses concerning the human language faculty, which need to find an explanation within a specific linguistic model.

Keywords: universals; tendencies; relative clauses

References

1.

Andrews, A. 1975. Studies in the Syntax of Relative and Comparative Clauses. Doctoral Dissertation, Cambridge, MA: MIT.

2.

Bakker, D. & K. Hengeveld. 1999. Relatieve Zinnen in Typologisch Perspectief. Gramma/TTT 7, 191-214.

3.

Basilico, D. 1996. Head Position and Internally Headed Relative Clauses. Language 72, 498-533.

4.

Bianchi, V. 2002. Headed Relative Clauses in Generative Syntax, Part I and II. Glot International 6, 197-204 & 235-247.

5.

Carlson, G. 1977. Amount Relatives. Language 53, 520-542.

6.

Comrie, B. 1981. Language Universals and Linguistic Typology. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

7.

Cole, P. 1987. Internally Headed Relative Clauses. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 5, 277-302.

8.

Culy, C. 1990. The Syntax and Semantics of Internally Headed Relative Clauses. Doctoral Dissertation, Stanford, CA: Stanford University. Dekkers, J. 1999. Derivations and Evaluations. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Amsterdam. Utrecht: LOT.

9.

Del Gobbo, F. 2003. Appositives at the Interface. Doctoral Dissertation, Irvine, CA: University of California.

10.

Downing, B. 1978. Some Universals of Relative Clause Structure. In J. Greenberg (ed.), Universals of Human Language 4, 375-418. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

11.

Givón, T. (1984). Syntax, a Functional-Typological Approach. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

12.

Grosu, A. & F. Landman. 1998. Strange Relatives of the Third Kind. Natural Language Semantics 6, 125-170.

13.

Grosu, A. 2002. Strange Relatives at the Interface of Two Millennia. Glot International 6, 145-167.

14.

Itô, J. 1986. Head Movement at LF and PF: The Syntax of Head-Internal Relatives in Japanese. University of Massachusetts Occasional Papers in Linguistics 11, 109-138.

15.

Jacobson, P. 1995. On the Quantificational Force of English Free Relatives. In E. Bach et al. (eds.), Quantification in Natural Languages 451-486. Dordrecht: Kluwer.

16.

Karlsson, F. 1972. Relative Clauses in Finnish. In P. Peranteau et al. (eds.), The Chicago which Hunt. Papers from the Relative Clause Festival 106-114. Chicago, IL: Chicago Linguistic Society.

17.

Kayne, R. 1994. The Antisymmetry of Syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

18.

Keenan, E. 1985. Relative Clauses. In T. Shopen (ed.), Language Typology and Syntactic Description 2, 141-170. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

19.

Keenan, E. & B. Comrie. 1977. Noun Phrase Accessibility and Universal Grammar. Linguistic Inquiry 8, 63-99.

20.

Lehmann, C. 1984. Der Relativsatz. Tübingen: Gunter Narr.

21.

Mahajan, A. 2000. Relative Asymmetries and Hindi Correlatives. In A. Alexiadou et al. (eds.), The Syntax of Relative Clauses 201-229. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

22.

Odden, D. 2003. Languages and Universals. Journal of Universal Language 4, 33-74.

23.

Peranteau, P. et al. (eds.). 1972. The Chicago Which Hunt. Papers from the Relative Clause Festival. Chicago, IL: Chicago Linguistic Society.

24.

Sells, P. 1984. Syntax and Semantics of Resumptive Pronouns. Doctoral Dissertation, Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts.

25.

Smits, R. 1988. The Relative and Cleft Constructions of the Germanic and Romance Languages. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Tilburg. Dordrecht: Foris.

26.

Srivastav, V. 1991. The Syntax and Semantics of Correlatives. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 9, 637-686.

27.

Vries, M. De. 2001. Patterns of Relative Clauses. Linguistics in the Netherlands 18, 231-243.

28.

Vries, M. De. 2002. The Syntax of Relativization. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Amsterdam. Utrecht: LOT.

29.

Vries, M. De. 2004. Head-internal Relative Clauses in Dutch? Linguistics in the Netherlands 21, 193-204.

30.

Vries, M. De. To appear. The Syntax of Appositive Relativization: On Specifying Coordination, False Free Relatives and Promotion. Linguistic Inquiry.

31.

Williamson, J. 1987. An Indefiniteness Restriction for Relative Clauses in Lakhota. In E. Reuland & A. ter Meulen (eds.), The Representation of (In)definiteness 168-190. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.