Basic English Grammar with Exercises

Chapter 7 - Complementiser Phrases

a modifier of the noun by relating the noun to a position in the relative clause itself.
Thus in (93a) the noun is modified by being interpreted as the object of the verb in the
relative clause, whereas in (93b) the noun is modified by being interpreted as the
subject of the relative clause:

(93) a the team [which we beat t]

b the team [which t beat us]

The relationship between the noun and the relevant position is not a direct one,
however: it is not the noun which moved out of this position otherwise we would end
up with a somewhat circular structure with the noun being part of the relative clause
that is part of the NP headed by the noun! The relationship between the noun and the
position in the relative clause is mediated by the relative pronoun: it is this element
that originates in the relevant position and this pronoun is referentially dependent on
the noun:

(94) a the team [which 1 we beat t 1 ]

b the team [which 1 t 1 beat us]

We might claim that this is exactly what the function of the relative pronoun is in a
relative clause. Indeed, if there is no wh-element related to a gap, or if the wh-element
does not move to create the gap, then the relative clause is ungrammatical:

(95) a the team [we beat Liverpool]
b the team [we beat which]

If this is true, then the same must be true of all relatives, including that and zero ones.
The fact that we cannot detect a wh-element in these relatives suggests that they should
be analysed as containing an empty wh-element, similar to the empty operator in yes–
no questions, but this time behaving like the type of wh-element that originates inside
the IP and moves to the spec of CP:

(96) the team [Op 1 (that) we beat t 1 ]

Thus the difference between relative clauses and interrogative clauses in this respect is
that relative clauses can use the null operator in ways not possible in an interrogative,
i.e. as a referential operator rather than a non-referential one which is associated with
the truth of the expression.
Having enumerated several differences between interrogative and relative clauses
we can now ponder the question of whether these differences show a fundamental
distinction between the constructions, or whether they fall out from other
considerations. Let us start with why the wh-element undergoes movement in both
constructions. We have said that the interrogative wh-element undergoes movement