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1. May 2020
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Universal 1597: headless relative clause ⇒ verb-final

Posted in Universals Archive

Universal 1597: headless relative clause ⇒ verb-final

Original
Languages with headless relative clauses seem always to be verb-final, often strictly so.
Standardized
IF there are headless relative clauses, THEN basic word order will be verb-final.
Keywords
relative clause, internal (= replacive, =headless), order, verb-final
Domain
syntax
Type
implication
Status
achronic
Quality
absolute
Basis
Southwest American languages from 6 families: Athabaskan, Keresan, Tanoan, Uto-Aztecan, Yuman, Zunian
Source
Gorbet 1977: 273
Counterexamples
FP

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  1. FP
    FP

    1. The HEADLESS RELATIVE CLAUSE is characterized by three properties:A. it is a relative clause functionally and semantically;B. it lacks a syntactic head noun;C. a lexical instance of the semantic head appears as a noun (or more substantially expanded NP) in the subordinate clause. 2. Downing (#679) calls such relative clauses ‘replacive’, Keenan (#1595) calls them ‘internal RelCs’, Gil (2000) and Cole (#1596, 1597) refer to them as to ‘internally-headed’.

    1. May 2020

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