International Journal of Social Sciences and Management Review

TYPOLOGICAL VARIATION IN RELATIVE CLAUSES

Authors: Burcu Başoğlu Saritaş & Cankut Saritaş

ABSTRACT

According to Foley and Hall (2003), relative clauses are subordinate clauses that refer to the noun of the main clause, identifying it, or adding extra information. This research aims to illustrate how languages vary in the relativization strategies they utilize. It also explains the effects of relative clause structure on L2 acquisition and problems for ESL/EFL students. Now let me start with the characteristics of English Relative Clauses first and then gradually explain the other languages’ relative clauses.

Keywords: relative clauses, relativization strategies, L2 acquisition

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alexiadou, A. & Hall, T.A. (1997). Studies on universal grammar and typological variation. Linguistik Aktuell/ Linguistics Today 13. (pp.252) Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Berlin.

‘‘The articles of the present volume consist of generative analyses dealing with several current topics of discussion and debate in syntactic theory, such as clitics, word order, scrambling, directionality, movement. The data in the volume are drawn from a number of typologically diverse languages (e.g. Arabic, Berber, Dutch, Gaelic, Greek, Malagasy).’’

Alexiadou, A., Law, P., Meinunger, A., and Wilder, C.(2000). The syntax of relative   clauses. Linguistik Aktuell/ Linguistics Today 32. (pp.397) Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Berlin.

‘‘This book presents a cross-section of recent generative research into the syntax of relative clauses constructions. Most of the papers collected here react in some way to Kayne’s (1994) proposal to handle relative clauses in terms of determiner complementation and raising of the relativized nominal. The editors provide a thorough introduction of these proposals, their background and motivations, arguments for and against. There are detailed studies in the syntax and the semantics of relative clauses constructions in Latin, Ancient Greek, Romanian, Hindi, (Old) English, Old High German, (dialects of) Dutch, Turkish, Swedish, and Japanese. The book should be of interest to any linguist working within generative syntax.’’

Celce-Murcia, M. and Larsen-Freeman, D. (1999).The Grammar Book: An ESL/EFL Teacher’s Course. 2nd ed. Heinle & Heinle

Explains the Relative Clauses in English and shows some parameters used in relative clauses. Also illustrates non-restrictive vs. restrictive clauses which can be used as examples in this research paper.

Comrie, Bernard. (2003). Typology and language acquisition: the case of relative clauses It is an article that explains Comrie’s point of view in the case of typological relative clauses.

Comrie, Bernard. (1981). Language Universals and Linguistic Typology. University of Chicago Press.

This is a perfect book for this research paper. Combrie explains everything that I  need to know about relative clauses in many languages. He gives lots of examples of the parameters and etc.

Ellis, R. (1997) Second Languag Acquisition. Oxford University Press: New York This book discusses about the effects of relative clause structure on L2 acquisition and problems for ESL/EFL students.

Foley, M. and Hall D, (2003).  Advanced Learner’s Grammar. Longman Press.

This book explains what the relative clauses are and gives examples, illustrates them with charts etc.

Matthews, S. (2005). LING6021 Language Types and Universals. Lecture 7: Typology of Relative Clauses, Department of Linguistics, the University of Hong Kong Web site: http://www.hku.hk/linguist/program/Typology7.html This website gives an idea of how typology in relative clauses can be summarized.

Relativizer. (2009, January 8). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 02:48,May 6, 2009, from the web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativizer This website gives the definition of relativizer and tells which languages do use it.

Whaley, L.J. (1997). An Introduction to Language Typology: The Unity and Diversity of  Language. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

This book is a good source to have a pre-knowledge about the typological variation in relative clauses. It has compared English relative clauses to some other languages which can be used as examples in this paper.

Yaowapat, N. (2005). Pronoun Retention in Khmer and Thai Relative Clauses. http://sealang.net/sala/archives/pdf8/natchanan2005pronoun.pdf  In this website it is contingent to find a very clear online article about pronoun retention in Khmer and Thai relative clause. Yaowapat actually agrees with Comrie in many aspects.