Drawing on a wide range of languages, Cinque argues that all relative clause types derive from a single, double-headed, structure.

This book presents a cross-section of recent generative research into the syntax of relative clauses constructions. Most of the papers collected here react in some way to Kayne's (1994) proposal to handle relative clauses in terms of determiner complementation and raising of the relativized nominal. The editors provide a thorough introduction of these proposals, their background and motivations, arguments for and against. There are detailed studies in the syntax and the semantics of relative clauses constructions in Latin, Ancient Greek, Romanian, Hindi, (Old) English, Old High German, (dialects of) Dutch, Turkish, Swedish, and Japanese. The book should be of interest to any linguist working within generative syntax.

Explaining the acquisition and processing of relative clauses has long challenged psycholinguistics researchers. The current volume presents a collection of chapters that consider the acquisition of relative clauses with a particular focus on function, typology, and language processing. A diverse range of theoretical approaches and languages are bought to bear on the acquisition of this construction type, making the volume unique in its coverage. The volume will appeal to students and scholars whose interest lies in the acquisition and processing of syntax with a particular focus on complex sentences in crosslinguistic and functionalist perspective.

Seminar paper from the year 1994 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, course: Englische Grammatik, 10 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: A complex sentence consists of a main clause and a subordinate clause which functions as subject, object, adverbial or complement. "When you mention something or someone in a sentence, you often want to give further information about them. One way to do this is to use a relative clause." My explanations are based on several literatures. I used the Grammar books by Sinclair, Quirk and Swan. The examples I used I also took from school grammar books and textbooks. We distinguish three types of relative clauses: - (adnominal) relative clauses - nominal relative clauses and - sentential relative clauses You get further information especially on adnominal relative clauses and some additional points on nominal relative clauses. But adnominal relative clauses are the central type of relative clauses. Moreover we distinguish two kinds of adnominal relative clauses: - defining relative clauses - non-defining relative clauses. Relative clauses are introduced mostly by relative pronouns. They can function as subjects or objects of verbs in the relative clause and they join sentences together.

This title, first published in 1985, is an investigation of certain aspects of the syntax of relative and comparative clauses. The author provides a typological survey of relative clauses in the languages of the world which serves both to convey a general impression of what relative clauses are like in the languages of the world, and to establish certain phenomena that are of theoretical import. The author also examines comparative clauses, and integrates the material given with that presented for relatives. This title will be of interest to students of language and linguistics.

Patterns of relative clause formation tend to vary according to the typological properties of a language. Highly polysynthetic languages tend to have fully nominalized relative clauses and no relative pronouns, while other typologically diverse languages tend to have relative clauses which are similar to main or independent clauses. Languages of the Americas, with their rich genetic diversity, have all been under the influence of European languages, whether Spanish, English or Portuguese, a situation that may be expected to have influenced their grammatical patterns. The present volume focuses on two tasks: The first deals with the discussion of functional principles related to relative clause formation: diachrony and paths of grammaticalization, simplicity vs. complexity, and formalization of rules to capture semantic-syntactic correlations. The second provides a typological overview of relative clauses in nine different languages going from north to south in the Americas.