Article published in:
Syntactic Complexity: Diachrony, acquisition, neuro-cognition, evolutionEdited by T. Givón and Masayoshi Shibatani
[Typological Studies in Language 85] 2009
► pp. 163–198
Elements of complex structures, where recursion isn’t
The case of relativization
Masayoshi Shibatani | Rice University
In their recent work, Hauser, Chomsky and Fitch (2002:1569) suggest that recursion “is the only uniquely human component of the faculty of language”. In both generative and typological studies, the relativization site has been considered to be one of the places where recursion of sentences takes place. This paper examines a number of wide-spread patterns of relativization around the globe and argues that what have been identified as relative clauses/sentences are in fact nominalized entities, lacking some crucial properties of both full clauses and sentences. It is furthermore shown that these nominalized forms are neither syntactically nor semantically subordinate to the nominal head they modify.
Published online: 22 April 2009
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.85.07ele
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.85.07ele
Cited by
Cited by 20 other publications
Bril, Isabelle
Estevam, Adriana M.
Golluscio, Lucía A., Felipe Hasler & Willem J. de Reuse
Hook, Peter Edwin & Prashant Pardeshi
KIDD, EVAN, ANGEL CHAN & JOIE CHIU
Kishimoto, Hideki, Peter Edwin Hook & Prashant Pardeshi
Lai, Yunfan
Mihas, Elena
Peña, Jaime
Peña, Jaime
Rojas-Berscia, Luis Miguel
Seraku, Tohru
Shibatani, Masayoshi
Tamura, Yuki-Shige
Valle, Daniel & Roberto Zariquiey
Yap, Foong Ha & Karen Grunow-Hårsta
Zariquiey, Roberto
Zariquiey, Roberto
Álvarez González, Albert
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 25 march 2021. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.