Antisymmetry and the Typology of Relative Clauses: Morphological Evidence from Romance

Spanish relative clauses show two different syntactic structures. The first is derived by NP-raising, and the relative clause is selected by a determiner (Kayne 1994). The second is a matching structure and involves operator movement as in the traditional analysis of relative clauses. This latter structure also respects antisymmetry, since a non-overt determiner selects the relative clause in the complement position of a Determiner Phrase, and the head of the relative clause in the Specifier. The operator in this structure may be a Determiner Phrase or a Noun Phrase. While prepositionless relative clauses with que ‘that’ employ a non overt operator, relative clauses with prepositional operators show an allomorphic variation in the case of DP-operators, since the determiner is overt. Relative clauses with coordinated heads, relative clauses with the same preposition selecting the head and the operator, and (anti)reconstruction effects further support this analysis.

Published online: 01 April 2009
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.304.14mar