Relative ClausesBoth kinds of relative clauses can be coordinated with other like constituents
showing that they both form a constituent with the noun that they modify. But only the
restrictive relative clause and its noun can be pronominalised by one. A possible
explanation for this is that one only pronominalises N's and the string consisting of a
noun and a non-restrictive clause is not an N'. This suggests that while restrictive
relatives adjoin to the N', non-restrictive relatives adjoin higher up, perhaps to the NP:
(80) NP NP
N' NP CP
N' CP N' which is round
N that you met N
man earth
Having established the external distribution of the relative clause, let us move on to
look at some of its internal properties.
4.2 A comparison between relative and interrogative clauses
As pointed out, in many ways the relative clause has many properties in common with
a wh-interrogative. But relative clauses are not interrogative, but declarative. This is
clear both from their interpretation and the fact that they may start with the
complementiser that which as we have seen, introduces declarative clauses. Thus, the
wh-element which starts relative and interrogative clauses seems to have a different set
of features: an interrogative pronoun is [+wh] and a relative pronoun is [–wh]. One
might think therefore that they are entirely different lexical elements. This is supported
by the fact that in some languages there are differences between relative and
interrogative pronouns. In Hungarian for instance, there is a systematic difference with
relative pronouns beginning with a-:
(81) Interrogative Relative
ki – kit (who nom – acc) aki – akit
mi – mit (what nom – acc) ami – amit
mikor (when) amikor
hol (where) ahol
melyik (which) amelyik
Even so, there is still an obvious relationship between the two and so it probably
would not be wise to claim them to be completely separate. It may be that wh-
pronouns are lexically unmarked for the feature [±wh] and get this through the
agreement with the appropriate complementiser, though this suggestion does not
entirely square with the claim made earlier that in main clauses there is no
complementiser for the interrogative pronoun to agree with.
Whatever the relationship between interrogative and relative pronouns, it still
needs to be acknowledged that there are different possibilities in both types. For
example, in English although what is a perfectly good interrogative pronoun, its use as