Relative clauses 369
(143) [Se masthe-yagi mate] jiya banne kake.
REL should-AGI die this no you
‘The one who decides death is not you.’
(144) Bi' [se a-jaga] e-pa-ambu.
by REL AV-guard OV-CS-stop
‘He was stopped by a guard (the one who guards).’
In (142) and (143), headless relative clauses occupy subject position. In (144),
the headless relative clause is the object of the preposition bi' ‘by’.
Restrictive relative clauses can take a proper noun head when used to
identify the precise one of a group of individuals with the same name.
(145) Ali se la entar ka Australia jiya ngerem pesse ka reng towa-na.
Ali REL already go to Australia this AV.send money to parent-DEF
‘The Ali who has gone to Australia sent money to his parents.’
The relative clause in (145) se la entar ka Australia ‘who has gone to Australia’
identifies which Ali the speaker intends to provide information about.
Relative clauses may also be used non-restrictively as a means of provid-
ing additional information about the noun they modify.
(146) Rato pelak perrang-nga entar nyerbu dha' rato Bali se lo' ellem
king capable war-DEF go AV.invade to king Bali REL not willing
a-toro' dha' Mataram pole.
AV-follow to Mataram again
‘The warrior king went to attack the king of Bali, who was unwilling to
obey the king of Mataram anymore.’
(147) Kerbuy pote reya se nyosowe baji' reya mole ban sajan koros.
buffalo white this REL AV.nurse baby this go.home with more thin
‘This albino buffalo, which was nursing the baby, returned home
thinner.’
In (146), the relative clause se lo' ellem atoro' dha' Mataram pole ‘who was
unwilling to obey the king of Mataram anymore’ does not identify the king of
Bali but simply provides additional information about the king. In (147), the
albino buffalo has already been identified in the story and has a unique referent;
thus the relative clause is simply a reminder to the audience about the central
role of the buffalo in the story.
The order of relative clauses in noun phrases is discussed in Chapter 7
section 12. It is noted that there is flexibility with respect to the placement of
relative clauses with other modifiers in the noun phrase. It should also be noted