Relative clauses

Dékány, Éva Katalin (2025) Relative clauses. In: The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Diachronic Linguistics. Wiley Blackwell, Malden (MA). (In Press)

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Abstract

This chapter surveys the history of headed relative clauses (RCs): pre-nominal, post-nominal, circumnominal, and correlative RCs. We first discuss examples of languages gaining or losing various types of RCs either in their documented history or before the first linguistic records. We also consider how the gain or loss of particular RC types correlates with basic word order. We then turn to changes in the markers of the RC boundary, with special attention to relative pronouns. After surveying the most frequent sources of relative pronouns, we demonstrate that diachronic processes attested with other complex constructions are also at work in the rise of relative pronouns. Specifically, rebracketing accompanies the emergence of demonstrative-based relative pronouns and analogical extension is involved in the rise of wh-based relative pronouns. We also discuss the relative cycle, whereby relative pronouns can develop into complementizers, which, in turn, allows for the renewal of relative pronouns. Finally, we turn to the question of where relative clauses come from. We exemplify cases of potential borrowing, reanalysis from another RC construction in the same language, and reanalysis from a non-RC construction in the same language.

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