Relative pronoun

In some languages, such as German , Serbo-Croatian , Latin , where in the declension of nouns there are categories of gender, number and case, the relative pronoun is consistent in gender and number with the antecedent , while the case shows its relation to the verb in the subordinate or main offer. In some languages, relativity is an immutable word (cf. English ).

Words used as relative pronouns often had other functions from the very beginning. So, for example, in English which is also a question word . This suggests that relative sentences are probably a relatively late development in many languages. In some languages ​​(for example, in Welsh ) there are no relative pronouns.

Relative pronouns in Russian

Relative pronouns in the Russian language are the words which , what , which , who , what , how much , whose , what , etc. Thus, relative pronouns coincide with interrogative pronouns .

• A pronoun who refers to animate nouns. A pronoun who can be combined with words in the singular and in the plural: I do not know who told you. But those who did this will answer for their words. Words related to the pronoun who are used in masculine gender: I don’t know who told you that.
• A pronoun that indicates inanimate nouns. The pronoun that is used in the singular: It is not audible that it makes noise. Words related to the pronoun that are used in the middle gender: No matter what happens, people will help.
• Who , what , how much - do not have a number and gender, vary by case.
• Which , whose , which - vary by gender, numbers and cases by type of adjectives.

In terms of grammatical and semantic features, relative pronouns as a whole do not differ from interrogative ones , but some differences are still found. For example, the koi pronoun will not have the nominative singular form of the feminine gender, and when it acts as the subject, it is inclined as a possessive adjective .

Relative pronouns in English

In English, an example of relativity is the word that in the sentence this is the house that Jack built ("This is the house that Jack built "). Here is the relative pronoun that marks the subordinate clause that Jack built ("which Jack built"), which defines the noun house in the main sentence. That refers to the word house in the main sentence and combines 2 sentences: this is a house (“this is the house”) and Jack built the house (“Jack built the house”), where the object “house” is the same for both sentences.

Combining the subordinate clause and the main clause, the relative pronoun is similar in function to a subordinate conjunction . However, unlike the subjunctive union, the relative pronoun not only marks the subordinate clause, but also plays the role of a noun in the sub clause . For example, in the sentence that Jack built, the pronoun “that” plays the role of an object of the built verb.

Lack of relative pronoun

Not all relative subordinates have relative pronouns. In some languages, such as, for example, Chinese , there are no relative pronouns at all, and in this language other methods are used to create relative relative clauses (or their equivalents). So, a relative subordinate is usually a complex definition to a vertex noun; in this case, the relative subordinate is put before the definable noun and is made out with the help of the particle de . Another method is the expression of the relative subordinate through the predicate. The general formula for such a proposal is as follows:

"The subject + shi (" is, is ") + predicate (relative subordinate + particle de)."

In English, you can also create relative clauses without relativities: The man you saw yesterday was my uncle ("the man you saw yesterday is my uncle"), where in the relative clause you saw yesterday there is no relative pronoun (we can say that for the verb saw there is a zero position of the object).

The element of the main sentence, to which the relative in the subordinate clause belongs, is called the antecedent of this pronoun. In many cases, the antecedent is a noun or noun group, but there may be cases where the pronoun refers to the whole proposition :

The train was late, which annoyed him greatly

“The train was late, which annoyed him greatly”

In a free relative sentence, a relational has no antecedent; the subordinate clause plays the role of the core element in the main clause. The relative pronoun used in this way is often called the fusional relative pronoun , since the antecedent merges with the pronoun:

I like what you did

“I like what you did.”

A construction is considered a relative clause if it is a clause that either alone or in combination with a noun denotes an object and if this designated object has a semantic role within the relative clause. If there is a noun outside the relative clause that defines the object and is also determined by the clause, then this noun will be considered the top of the relative clause.

There are classes of languages ​​with different relativization strategies.

The 2 main types of relative sentences are

• 1) languages ​​in which the relative sentence follows the noun:

a. English

  the book [that I am reading]  
        N rel 
    “The book I am reading”

b. maybrat ^[1]

  Aof [ro ana m-fat] 
  sago [REL3PL3 OBJ-fell]
  'the sago tree that they felled' 
  "The sago tree that they cut down"

• 2) languages ​​in which the relative sentence precedes the noun:

Alamblac ^[2]

  [ni hik-r-fë] yima-r 
   [2SG follow-IRREAL-IMMED.PST] person-3SG.M
   'a man who would have followed you' 
   "The man who would follow you"

A special type is the correlation relative relative clauses, as in the Bamana language:

bambara ^[3]

  [muso min taara], o ye fini san 
   [woman REL leave] 3SG PST cloth buy 
   'The woman who left bought the cloth.' 
   “The woman who left bought the fabric”

Correlation sentences are, strictly speaking, a subtype of relative subordinate clauses with an inner vertex, since the vertex noun is also inside the relative clause, but differs in that the clause is outside the main clause and is anaphorically connected with the noun phrase in the main clause.

Subject Relativization

For the subject, the first strategy is the so-called strategy of relative pronoun: the relativized position is marked inside the relative by using the pronoun element, and this pronoun is case-marked to show the role of the vertex noun within the relative subordinate.

German language :

  Der Mann, [der mich begrüßt hat], war ein Deutscher.
      man.NOM REL.NOM me greet.PTCP has be.3SG.PST one German
      'The man who greeted me was a German.'
      “The man who greeted me is a German”

However, it should be noted that the presence of a relative pronoun is not enough to consider a case as a strategy of relative pronoun, since this relative pronoun can, for example, be case-labeled not to show its role in a relative subordinate, but to be consistent with the case of a vertex noun in the main sentence.

Another important relativization strategy for subjects is the preservation of the pronoun. In languages ​​with such a strategy, a relativized position is explicitly indicated using a generalizing personal pronoun.

Babungo ^[4]

  mǝ̀ yè wǝ́ ntɨ́ǝ ƒáŋ ŋwǝ́ sɨ́ sàŋ ghɔ̂
   I see.pfv person that who he pst2 beat.pfv you
   'I have seen the man who has beaten you.'
   “I saw the man who beat you”

Relativization of Indirect Supplements

The first group of languages ​​is languages ​​with a relative pronoun strategy. One of these languages ​​is Russian:

Russian language :

I lost the knife with which I sliced ​​bread.

Another important relativization strategy for indirect additions is the pronoun conservation strategy:

Persian language ^[5]

  mardhâi [ke ketâbhâ-râ be ânhâ dâde bud-id]
     men that books-acc to them given were-2sg
    'the men that you had given the books to'
     “Men to whom you gave books”

Relativization of other syntactic positions

With the help of relative pronouns, other arguments can be relativized, namely:

• Adverbial : Hunter is the boy who kissed Jessica . Hunter is the boy who kissed Jessica.

• Indirect Supplement : Hunter is the boy to whom Jessica gave a gift . Hunter is the boy to whom Jessica gave a present.

• Suggested expansion : Jack built the house in which I now live . Jack built the house I live in now.

• Possessor : Jack is the boy whose friend built my house . Jack is the boy whose friend built my house.

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• Bruce, Les. The Alamblak Language of Papua New Guinea (East Sepik). - Canberra: Australian National University, 1984.
• Comrie, Bernard. Rethinking the typology of relative clauses. - Language Design, 1998.
• Comrie, Bernard; Kuteva, Tania. The World Atlas of Language Structures Online. - Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 2013.
• Dol, Philomena. A Grammar of Maybrat: A Language of the Bird's Head, Irian Jaya, Indonesia. - University of Leiden, 1999.
• Dryer, Matthew S. The World Atlas of Language Structures Online. - Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 2013.
• Schaub, Willi. Babungo. - London: Croom Helm, 1985.