Internal Relative Clause
Definition:
An internal relative clause is a relative clause whose head noun phrase occurs within the relative clause itself.
Discussion:
This type of relative clause, which occurs only in SOV languages, takes the place of a regular noun phrase argument in the main clause.
Examples:
(Imbabura Quechua)
|
[kan |
kwitsa |
-man |
kwintu |
-ta |
willa |
-shka |
-ka] |
llapa |
|
you |
girl |
to |
story |
ACCUSATIVE |
tell |
NOMINALIZER |
TOPIC |
very |
This example means either ‘The girl to whom you told the story is very pretty’ or ‘The story that you told to the girl is very pretty’.
- sumaj -mi
- pretty VALIDATOR
See Also:
Also Known As:
Internal-headed relative clause
Source:
145–146
143
This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library. Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003.