- Dutch
- Frisian
- Saterfrisian
- Afrikaans
-
- Phonology
- Segment inventory
- Phonotactics
- Phonological processes
- Phonology-morphology interface
- Word stress
- Primary stress in simplex words
- Monomorphemic words
- Diachronic aspects
- Generalizations on stress placement
- Default penultimate stress
- Lexical stress
- The closed penult restriction
- Final closed syllables
- The diphthong restriction
- Superheavy syllables (SHS)
- The three-syllable window
- Segmental restrictions
- Phonetic correlates
- Stress shifts in loanwords
- Quantity-sensitivity
- Secondary stress
- Vowel reduction in unstressed syllables
- Stress in complex words
- Primary stress in simplex words
- Accent & intonation
- Clitics
- Spelling
- Morphology
- Word formation
- Compounding
- Nominal compounds
- Verbal compounds
- Adjectival compounds
- Affixoids
- Coordinative compounds
- Synthetic compounds
- Reduplicative compounds
- Phrase-based compounds
- Elative compounds
- Exocentric compounds
- Linking elements
- Separable complex verbs (SCVs)
- Gapping of complex words
- Particle verbs
- Copulative compounds
- Derivation
- Numerals
- Derivation: inputs and input restrictions
- The meaning of affixes
- Non-native morphology
- Cohering and non-cohering affixes
- Prefixation
- Suffixation
- Nominal suffixation: person nouns
- Conversion
- Pseudo-participles
- Bound forms
- Nouns
- Nominal prefixes
- Nominal suffixes
- -aal and -eel
- -aar
- -aard
- -aat
- -air
- -aris
- -ast
- Diminutives
- -dom
- -een
- -ees
- -el (nominal)
- -elaar
- -enis
- -er (nominal)
- -erd
- -erik
- -es
- -eur
- -euse
- ge...te
- -heid
- -iaan, -aan
- -ief
- -iek
- -ier
- -ier (French)
- -ière
- -iet
- -igheid
- -ij and allomorphs
- -ijn
- -in
- -ing
- -isme
- -ist
- -iteit
- -ling
- -oir
- -oot
- -rice
- -schap
- -schap (de)
- -schap (het)
- -sel
- -st
- -ster
- -t
- -tal
- -te
- -voud
- Verbs
- Adjectives
- Adverbs
- Univerbation
- Neo-classical word formation
- Construction-dependent morphology
- Morphological productivity
- Compounding
- Inflection
- Inflection and derivation
- Allomorphy
- The interface between phonology and morphology
- Word formation
- Syntax
- Preface and acknowledgements
- Verbs and Verb Phrases
- 1 Characterization and classification
- 2 Projection of verb phrases I:Argument structure
- 3 Projection of verb phrases II:Verb frame alternations
- Introduction
- 3.1. Main types
- 3.2. Alternations involving the external argument
- 3.3. Alternations of noun phrases and PPs
- 3.3.1. Dative/PP alternations (dative shift)
- 3.3.1.1. Dative alternation with aan-phrases (recipients)
- 3.3.1.2. Dative alternation with naar-phrases (goals)
- 3.3.1.3. Dative alternation with van-phrases (sources)
- 3.3.1.4. Dative alternation with bij-phrases (possessors)
- 3.3.1.5. Dative alternation with voor-phrases (benefactives)
- 3.3.1.6. Conclusion
- 3.3.1.7. Bibliographical notes
- 3.3.2. Accusative/PP alternations
- 3.3.3. Nominative/PP alternations
- 3.3.1. Dative/PP alternations (dative shift)
- 3.4. Some apparent cases of verb frame alternation
- 3.5. Bibliographical notes
- 4 Projection of verb phrases IIIa:Selection of clauses/verb phrases
- 5 Projection of verb phrases IIIb:Argument and complementive clauses
- Introduction
- 5.1. Finite argument clauses
- 5.2. Infinitival argument clauses
- 5.3. Complementive clauses
- 6 Projection of verb phrases IIIc:Complements of non-main verbs
- 7 Projection of verb phrases IIId:Verb clusters
- 8 Projection of verb phrases IV: Adverbial modification
- 9 Word order in the clause I:General introduction
- 10 Word order in the clause II:Position of the finite verb (verb-first/second)
- 11 Word order in the clause III:Clause-initial position (wh-movement)
- Introduction
- 11.1. The formation of V1- and V2-clauses
- 11.2. Clause-initial position remains (phonetically) empty
- 11.3. Clause-initial position is filled
- 12 Word order in the clause IV:Postverbal field (extraposition)
- 13 Word order in the clause V: Middle field (scrambling)
- 14 Main-clause external elements
- Nouns and Noun Phrases
- 1 Characterization and classification
- 2 Projection of noun phrases I: complementation
- Introduction
- 2.1. General observations
- 2.2. Prepositional and nominal complements
- 2.3. Clausal complements
- 2.4. Bibliographical notes
- 3 Projection of noun phrases II: modification
- Introduction
- 3.1. Restrictive and non-restrictive modifiers
- 3.2. Premodification
- 3.3. Postmodification
- 3.3.1. Adpositional phrases
- 3.3.2. Relative clauses
- 3.3.3. Infinitival clauses
- 3.3.4. A special case: clauses referring to a proposition
- 3.3.5. Adjectival phrases
- 3.3.6. Adverbial postmodification
- 3.4. Bibliographical notes
- 4 Projection of noun phrases III: binominal constructions
- Introduction
- 4.1. Binominal constructions without a preposition
- 4.2. Binominal constructions with a preposition
- 4.3. Bibliographical notes
- 5 Determiners: articles and pronouns
- Introduction
- 5.1. Articles
- 5.2. Pronouns
- 5.3. Bibliographical notes
- 6 Numerals and quantifiers
- 7 Pre-determiners
- Introduction
- 7.1. The universal quantifier al 'all' and its alternants
- 7.2. The pre-determiner heel 'all/whole'
- 7.3. A note on focus particles
- 7.4. Bibliographical notes
- 8 Syntactic uses of noun phrases
- Adjectives and Adjective Phrases
- 1 Characteristics and classification
- 2 Projection of adjective phrases I: Complementation
- 3 Projection of adjective phrases II: Modification
- 4 Projection of adjective phrases III: Comparison
- 5 Attributive use of the adjective phrase
- 6 Predicative use of the adjective phrase
- 7 The partitive genitive construction
- 8 Adverbial use of the adjective phrase
- 9 Participles and infinitives: their adjectival use
- 10 Special constructions
- Adpositions and adpositional phrases
- 1 Characteristics and classification
- Introduction
- 1.1. Characterization of the category adposition
- 1.2. A formal classification of adpositional phrases
- 1.3. A semantic classification of adpositional phrases
- 1.3.1. Spatial adpositions
- 1.3.2. Temporal adpositions
- 1.3.3. Non-spatial/temporal prepositions
- 1.4. Borderline cases
- 1.5. Bibliographical notes
- 2 Projection of adpositional phrases: Complementation
- 3 Projection of adpositional phrases: Modification
- 4 Syntactic uses of the adpositional phrase
- 5 R-pronominalization and R-words
- 1 Characteristics and classification
- Phonology
-
- General
- Phonology
- Segment inventory
- Phonotactics
- Phonological Processes
- Assimilation
- Vowel nasalization
- Syllabic sonorants
- Final devoicing
- Fake geminates
- Vowel hiatus resolution
- Vowel reduction introduction
- Schwa deletion
- Schwa insertion
- /r/-deletion
- d-insertion
- {s/z}-insertion
- t-deletion
- Intrusive stop formation
- Breaking
- Vowel shortening
- h-deletion
- Replacement of the glide w
- Word stress
- Clitics
- Allomorphy
- Orthography of Frisian
- Morphology
- Inflection
- Word formation
- Derivation
- Prefixation
- Infixation
- Suffixation
- Nominal suffixes
- Verbal suffixes
- Adjectival suffixes
- Adverbial suffixes
- Numeral suffixes
- Interjectional suffixes
- Onomastic suffixes
- Conversion
- Compositions
- Derivation
- Syntax
- Verbs and Verb Phrases
- Characteristics and classification
- Unergative and unaccusative subjects
- Evidentiality
- To-infinitival clauses
- Predication and noun incorporation
- Ellipsis
- Imperativus-pro-Infinitivo
- Expression of irrealis
- Embedded Verb Second
- Agreement
- Negation
- Nouns & Noun Phrases
- Classification
- Complementation
- Modification
- Partitive noun constructions
- Referential partitive constructions
- Partitive measure nouns
- Numeral partitive constructions
- Partitive question constructions
- Nominalised quantifiers
- Kind partitives
- Partitive predication with prepositions
- Bare nominal attributions
- Articles and names
- Pronouns
- Quantifiers and (pre)determiners
- Interrogative pronouns
- R-pronouns
- Syntactic uses
- Adjective Phrases
- Characteristics and classification
- Complementation
- Modification and degree quantification
- Comparison by degree
- Comparative
- Superlative
- Equative
- Attribution
- Agreement
- Attributive adjectives vs. prenominal elements
- Complex adjectives
- Noun ellipsis
- Co-occurring adjectives
- Predication
- Partitive adjective constructions
- Adverbial use
- Participles and infinitives
- Adposition Phrases
- Characteristics and classification
- Complementation
- Modification
- Intransitive adpositions
- Predication
- Preposition stranding
- Verbs and Verb Phrases
-
- General
- Morphology
- Morphology
- 1 Word formation
- 1.1 Compounding
- 1.1.1 Compounds and their heads
- 1.1.2 Special types of compounds
- 1.1.2.1 Affixoids
- 1.1.2.2 Coordinative compounds
- 1.1.2.3 Synthetic compounds and complex pseudo-participles
- 1.1.2.4 Reduplicative compounds
- 1.1.2.5 Phrase-based compounds
- 1.1.2.6 Elative compounds
- 1.1.2.7 Exocentric compounds
- 1.1.2.8 Linking elements
- 1.1.2.9 Separable Complex Verbs and Particle Verbs
- 1.1.2.10 Noun Incorporation Verbs
- 1.1.2.11 Gapping
- 1.2 Derivation
- 1.3 Minor patterns of word formation
- 1.1 Compounding
- 2 Inflection
- 1 Word formation
- Morphology
- Syntax
- Adjectives and adjective phrases (APs)
- 0 Introduction to the AP
- 1 Characteristics and classification of APs
- 2 Complementation of APs
- 3 Modification and degree quantification of APs
- 4 Comparison by comparative, superlative and equative
- 5 Attribution of APs
- 6 Predication of APs
- 7 The partitive adjective construction
- 8 Adverbial use of APs
- 9 Participles and infinitives as APs
- Nouns and Noun Phrases (NPs)
- 0 Introduction to the NP
- 1 Characteristics and Classification of NPs
- 2 Complementation of NPs
- 3 Modification of NPs
- 3.1 Modification of NP by Determiners and APs
- 3.2 Modification of NP by PP
- 3.3 Modification of NP by adverbial clauses
- 3.4 Modification of NP by possessors
- 3.5 Modification of NP by relative clauses
- 3.6 Modification of NP in a cleft construction
- 3.7 Free relative clauses and selected interrogative clauses
- 4 Partitive noun constructions and constructions related to them
- 4.1 The referential partitive construction
- 4.2 The partitive construction of abstract quantity
- 4.3 The numerical partitive construction
- 4.4 The partitive interrogative construction
- 4.5 Adjectival, nominal and nominalised partitive quantifiers
- 4.6 Kind partitives
- 4.7 Partitive predication with a preposition
- 4.8 Bare nominal attribution
- 5 Articles and names
- 6 Pronouns
- 7 Quantifiers, determiners and predeterminers
- 8 Interrogative pronouns
- 9 R-pronouns and the indefinite expletive
- 10 Syntactic functions of Noun Phrases
- Adpositions and Adpositional Phrases (PPs)
- 0 Introduction to the PP
- 1 Characteristics and classification of PPs
- 2 Complementation of PPs
- 3 Modification of PPs
- 4 Bare (intransitive) adpositions
- 5 Predication of PPs
- 6 Form and distribution of adpositions with respect to staticity and construction type
- 7 Adpositional complements and adverbials
- Verbs and Verb Phrases (VPs)
- 0 Introduction to the VP in Saterland Frisian
- 1 Characteristics and classification of verbs
- 2 Unergative and unaccusative subjects and the auxiliary of the perfect
- 3 Evidentiality in relation to perception and epistemicity
- 4 Types of to-infinitival constituents
- 5 Predication
- 5.1 The auxiliary of being and its selection restrictions
- 5.2 The auxiliary of going and its selection restrictions
- 5.3 The auxiliary of continuation and its selection restrictions
- 5.4 The auxiliary of coming and its selection restrictions
- 5.5 Modal auxiliaries and their selection restrictions
- 5.6 Auxiliaries of body posture and aspect and their selection restrictions
- 5.7 Transitive verbs of predication
- 5.8 The auxiliary of doing used as a semantically empty finite auxiliary
- 5.9 Supplementive predication
- 6 The verbal paradigm, irregularity and suppletion
- 7 Verb Second and the word order in main and embedded clauses
- 8 Various aspects of clause structure
- Adjectives and adjective phrases (APs)
-
- General
- Phonology
- Afrikaans phonology
- Segment inventory
- Overview of Afrikaans vowels
- The diphthongised long vowels /e/, /ø/ and /o/
- The unrounded mid-front vowel /ɛ/
- The unrounded low-central vowel /ɑ/
- The unrounded low-central vowel /a/
- The rounded mid-high back vowel /ɔ/
- The rounded high back vowel /u/
- The rounded and unrounded high front vowels /i/ and /y/
- The unrounded and rounded central vowels /ə/ and /œ/
- The diphthongs /əi/, /œy/ and /œu/
- Overview of Afrikaans consonants
- The bilabial plosives /p/ and /b/
- The alveolar plosives /t/ and /d/
- The velar plosives /k/ and /g/
- The bilabial nasal /m/
- The alveolar nasal /n/
- The velar nasal /ŋ/
- The trill /r/
- The lateral liquid /l/
- The alveolar fricative /s/
- The velar fricative /x/
- The labiodental fricatives /f/ and /v/
- The approximants /ɦ/, /j/ and /ʋ/
- Overview of Afrikaans vowels
- Word stress
- The phonetic properties of stress
- Primary stress on monomorphemic words in Afrikaans
- Background to primary stress in monomorphemes in Afrikaans
- Overview of the Main Stress Rule of Afrikaans
- The short vowels of Afrikaans
- Long vowels in monomorphemes
- Primary stress on diphthongs in monomorphemes
- Exceptions
- Stress shifts in place names
- Stress shift towards word-final position
- Stress pattern of reduplications
- Phonological processes
- Vowel related processes
- Consonant related processes
- Homorganic glide insertion
- Phonology-morphology interface
- Phonotactics
- Morphology
- Syntax
- Afrikaans syntax
- Nouns and noun phrases
- Characteristics of the NP
- Classification of nouns
- Complementation of NPs
- Modification of NPs
- Binominal and partitive constructions
- Referential partitive constructions
- Partitive measure nouns
- Numeral partitive constructions
- Partitive question constructions
- Partitive constructions with nominalised quantifiers
- Partitive predication with prepositions
- Binominal name constructions
- Binominal genitive constructions
- Bare nominal attribution
- Articles and names
- Pronouns
- Quantifiers, determiners and predeterminers
- Syntactic uses of the noun phrase
- Adjectives and adjective phrases
- Characteristics and classification of the AP
- Complementation of APs
- Modification and Degree Quantification of APs
- Comparison by comparative, superlative and equative degree
- Attribution of APs
- Predication of APs
- The partitive adjective construction
- Adverbial use of APs
- Participles and infinitives as adjectives
- Verbs and verb phrases
- Characterisation and classification
- Argument structure
- Verb frame alternations
- Complements of non-main verbs
- Verb clusters
- Complement clauses
- Adverbial modification
- Word order in the clause: Introduction
- Word order in the clause: position of the finite Verb
- Word order in the clause: Clause-initial position
- Word order in the clause: Extraposition and right-dislocation in the postverbal field
- Word order in the middle field
- Emphatic constructions
- Adpositions and adposition phrases
This section discusses relative constructions containing more than one relative clause. The relative clauses in such constructions can be stacked, nested or coordinated. Some examples are given in (362). In example (362a), the two subclauses are stacked: as indicated by the indices, the first relative clause modifies the antecedent student'student', while the second relative clause modifies the sequence student die hiernaast woont'student who lives next door'. Such constructions differ from cases of nesting, illustrated in (362b), where the second relative clause modifies a noun phrase contained in the first relative clause. Both types of construction differ from cases of simple coordination of relative clauses, as in (362c), where each relative clause modifies the same antecedent. As we will see in the following subsections, stacking of relative clauses is fully acceptable only with restrictive relative clauses (as in example (362a)); coordination and nesting are possible both with restrictive and with non-restrictive relative clauses.
a. | De [[studenti | [diei hiernaast woont]]j | [diej Engels studeert]] | komt | uit Japan. | |
the student | who next.door lives | who English studies | is | from Japan | ||
'The student who lives next door who studies English, is from Japan.' |
b. | De studenti | [diei net een boekj kocht | [datj | over WO II gaat]] | is mijn vriend. | |
the student | who just a book bought | which | about WW II goes | is my friend | ||
'The student who has just bought a book which is about WW II is my friend.' |
c. | De mani | [diei hier net was] | en | [diei Russisch sprak] | is een bekend schrijver. | |
the man | who here just was | and | who Russian spoke | is a well-known writer | ||
'The man who was just here and who spoke Russian is a well-known writer.' |
Subsection I will discuss stacking and coordination of relative clauses of the same type. Subsection II will continue by discussing nesting of restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses. Subsection III, finally, will consider constructions containing relative clauses of different types, that is, combinations of a restrictive and a non-restrictive relative clause.
This subsection provides a discussion of the difference between stacking and coordination of relative clauses, the differences between restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses in this respect, and the circumstances under which stacking of restrictive relative clauses is allowed.
The primeless examples in (363) show that stacking of restrictive relative clauses leads to a fully acceptable result. In (363a) the two restrictive relative clauses each in turn fulfill a restrictive function. The first relative clause restricts the set of possible referents of the antecedent noun student'student' to those that were just present. The addition of the second restrictive clause has the implication that this restricted set has a cardinality greater than one, and that only after applying this second restriction can the referent intended by the speaker be uniquely identified. Similarly, in (363b), the set of entities denoted by the noun man is first restricted to those men who were just at the indicated place, and is then narrowed down further to the one who spoke Russian. Thus, by twice restricting the set of potential referents the speaker enables the hearer to pick out the intended referent. Observe that although both sentences are restrictive, there is a preferred order proceeding from the general to the specific. In (363b), for instance, the set of men that were present will normally be larger than the set of men who spoke Russian, and for this reason inverting the order of the relative clauses, as in (363b'), will lead to a less acceptable result: this inverted order is only possible if the relative clause die hier net was receives (contrastive) emphasis, by which means the speaker may indicate that this information must be construed as the most specific.
a. | De [[studenti | [diei hier net was]]j | [diej Engels studeert]] | is mijn vriend. | |
the student | that here just was | that English studies | is my friend | ||
'The student who was just here who studies English is my friend.' |
b. | De [[mani | [diei hier net was]]j | [diej Russisch sprak]] | is een bekend schrijver. | |
the man | that here just was | that Russian spoke | is a well-known writer | ||
'The man who was just here who spoke Russian is a well-known writer.' |
b'. | ?? | De man die Russisch sprak die hier net was is een bekend schrijver. |
The examples in (364) show that the two relative clauses can also be coordinated. These examples differ from those in (363) in that the two relative clauses have the same antecedent. This also relates to a difference in meaning: whereas (363a) implies that more students were just present, such an implication is absent from the construction in (364a), in which the two relative clauses merely restrict the set of students to the one student who was just here and who studies English. The same thing is true for the sentence in (364b), where the set of men is restricted to the one who was just present and who spoke Russian. Since in coordinated constructions the two relative clauses restrict the same antecedent set, it is possible to reverse the order of the two relative clauses. This is shown by (364b').
a. | De studenti | [[diei hier net was] | en | [diei Engels studeert]] | is mijn vriend. | |
the student | who here just was | and | who English studies | is my friend | ||
'The student who was just here yesterday who studies English, is my friend.' |
b. | De mani | [[diei hier net was] | en | [diei Russisch sprak]] | is een bekend schrijver. | |
the man | who here just was | and | who Russian spoke | is a well-known writer | ||
'The man who was just here and who spoke Russian is a well-known writer.' |
b'. | De mani [[diei Russisch sprak] en [diei hier net was]] is een bekend schrijver. |
From a syntactic point of view, stacking and coordination are both unlimited; in practice, however, sentences soon become too complex, both syntactically and semantically, and as a result uninterpretable.
Stacking of non-restrictive relative clauses seems restricted but not entirely impossible. The examples in (365a&b), where the antecedent is followed by two non-restrictive relative clauses, are highly marked and may even be considered unacceptable by some speakers. If, however, two different relative pronouns are used, as die and wie in examples (365c) and dat and waar in (365d), the result seems to be more acceptable.
a. | ?? | De studenti , | [diei hier net was], | [diei Engels studeert] , | is mijn vriend. |
the student | who here just was | who English studies | is my friend | ||
'The student, who was just here (and) who studies English, is my friend.' |
b. | ?? | De mani , | [diei hier net was], | [diei Russisch sprak], | is een bekend schrijver. |
the man | who here just was | who Russian spoke | is a well-known writer | ||
'The man, who was just here (and) who spoke Russian, is a well-known writer.' |
c. | ? | Jani, | [diei net vertrokken is], | [van wiei ik geen adres heb] , | is onvindbaar. |
Jan | who just left is | of whom I no address have | is untraceable | ||
'Jan, who has just left (and) of whom I have no address, is untraceable.' |
d. | ? | In het noordeni, | [dati onbewoond is], | [waari weinig toeristen komen], | is de natuur | nog ongerept. |
in the north | which uninhabited is | where few tourists come | is the nature | still unspoilt | ||
'In the north, which is uninhabited. where few tourists go, nature is still unspoilt.' |
The markedness of the examples in (365) may be due to the fact that they can only be given a coordinated reading, with both relative clauses modifying the same antecedent. This means that these examples compete with the examples in (366), in which this reading is made explicit by means of the conjunction en'and'.
a. | De studenti , [[diei hier net was] en [diei Engels studeert]] , is mijn vriend. |
b. | De mani , [[diei hier net was] en [diei Russisch sprak]] , is een bekend schrijver. |
c. | Jani , [[diei net vertrokken is] en [van wiei ik geen adres heb]] , is onvindbaar. |
d. | In het noordeni , [[dati onbewoond is] en [waari weinig toeristen komen]] , is de natuur nog ongerept. |
This subsection discusses the nesting of relative clauses, that is, cases in which a relative clause modifies a constituent of some other relative clause, so that the former is embedded in the latter. An example involving restrictive relative clauses can be found in (367): the first relative clause, introduced by the pronoun die, modifies the antecedent man'man'; the second relative clause, headed by the pronoun dat, modifies the noun boek'book', which is contained by the first relative clause.
Hij is de mani [RC | diei | een boekj [RC | datj | over de oorlog | gaat] | kocht]. | ||
he is the man | who | a book | which | about the war | goes | bought | ||
'He is the man who has bought a book which is about the war.' |
In those cases where the two relative pronouns take the same form, ambiguity may arise between a stacked and a nested reading. Thus in example (368a) the two relative clauses can be either stacked or nested. In the former case, the second relative clause is interpreted as modifying the phrase man die onlangs getrouwd is met een schrijfster; on the latter interpretation, the relative clause modifies the schrijfster. The two analyses are given in (368b&b'), respectively.
a. | de man | die | getrouwd | is met een schrijfster | die | ik | net | heb | ontmoet ... | |
the man | who | married | is to a writer | who | I | just | have | met |
b. | de [NP [NP mani diei getrouwd is met een schrijfster]j diej ik net heb ontmoet] ... |
b'. | de [NP mani diei getrouwd is met een [NP schrijfsterj diej ik net heb ontmoet]] ... |
Although Subsection I has shown that stacking of non-restrictive relative clauses is not readily possible, nesting of non-restrictive relative clauses is unproblematic: each new relative clause may, in principle, take as its antecedent a noun phrase from the preceding relative clause. This is very clear from (369b) as the relative pronoun waar'where' can only take the location in Utrecht as its antecedent. Due to this difference in acceptability between stacking and nesting, ambiguity does not readily arise. This is clear from the fact that the most likely interpretation of example (369b) is that in which the second relative clause modifies the proper noun Marie, not the proper noun Jan: in order to obtain the latter reading the two relative clauses must be coordinated.
a. | Ik | ga | naar Peteri, [RC | diei in Utrechtj woont, [RC | waarj hij een baan heeft]]. | |
I | go | to Peter | who in Utrecht lives | where he a job has | ||
'Iʼm going to Peter, who lives in Utrecht, where he has a job.' |
b. | Jan, | die | getrouwd | is met Marie, | die | uit Duitsland | komt, | gaat in Berlijn werken. | |
Jan | who | married | is with Marie | who | from Germany | comes | goes in Berlin work | ||
'Jan, who is married to Marie, who is from Germany, is going to work in Berlin.' |
Like stacking and coordination, nesting of relative clauses is, from a syntactic point of view, unlimited; in practice, however, sentences soon become too complex, both syntactically and semantically, and as a result uninterpretable.
Restrictive relative clauses always precede non-restrictive clause: in (370a), for example, the first relative clause restricts the set of men denoted by its antecedent man, while the second relative clause provides additional information about the resulting referent set of the noun phrase man die de vergadering leidde'man who chaired the meeting'. Example (370b) shows that the restrictive clause cannot follow the non-restrictive one; at best, this example can (marginally) be interpreted with a non-restrictive reading of the second clause.
a. | De man [RC | die de vergadering | leidde], [RC | die | een vriend van mij | is], ... | |
the man | who the meeting | led | who | a friend of me | is | ||
'The man who chaired the meeting, who is a good friend of mine, ...' |
b. | # | De man, die een goede vriend van mij is, die de vergadering leidde ... |
This word order restriction can be accounted for by the structure of the noun phrase proposed in 3.3.2.1: the restrictive relative clause (RRC) must be part of the NP-domain given that it affects the denotation of the NP, whereas the non-restrictive relative clause (NRC) does not have this effect, and must therefore be outside this domain (but within the DP-domain; cf. Section 3.1.2, sub II). This leads to the structure in (371), from which the word order restriction follows immediately.
[DP D [NP [... N ...]i [RRC RELi ... ti ... ]]j , [NRC RELj ... tj ... ]] , ... |