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 24 other publications
Bril, Isabelle
2017. Roots and stems in Amis and Nêlêmwa (Austronesian).
Studies in Language 41:2 ► pp. 358 ff. 
Coons, Caitie
2022. Nominal Word Order Typology in Signed Languages.
Frontiers in Communication 6
dalla Chiesa, Simone
2020. Troubles on the Border
.
Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie orientale :56
Estevam, Adriana M.
2019.
In Nominalization in Languages of the Americas [Typological Studies in Language, 124],
► pp. 591 ff.
Golluscio, Lucía A., Felipe Hasler & Willem J. de Reuse
2019.
In Nominalization in Languages of the Americas [Typological Studies in Language, 124],
► pp. 249 ff.
Hook, Peter Edwin & Prashant Pardeshi
2017.
In Noun-Modifying Clause Constructions in Languages of Eurasia [Typological Studies in Language, 116],
► pp. 293 ff.
KIDD, EVAN, ANGEL CHAN & JOIE CHIU
2015. Cross-linguistic influence in simultaneous Cantonese–English bilingual children's comprehension of relative clauses.
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 18:3 ► pp. 438 ff.
Kishimoto, Hideki, Peter Edwin Hook & Prashant Pardeshi
2018.
In Topics in Theoretical Asian Linguistics [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 250],
► pp. 45 ff.
Lai, Yunfan
2018. Relativisation in Wobzi Khroskyabs and the integration of genitivisation.
Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 41:2 ► pp. 219 ff.
Mihas, Elena
2016. Contrastive focus-marking and nominalization in Northern Kampa (Arawak) of Peru.
Studies in Language 40:2 ► pp. 414 ff.
Otero, Manuel A., Doris L. Payne & Alejandra Vidal
2021. Determiners and the Development of Grammatical Nominalization in Nivaĉle*.
Studia Linguistica 75:2 ► pp. 234 ff.
Overall, Simon E.
2018. From verb to noun and back again: Non-referential uses of nominalizations in Aguaruna (Chicham).
STUF - Language Typology and Universals 71:1 ► pp. 133 ff.
Overall, Simon E. & Katarzyna I. Wojtylak
2018. Nominalization in Northwest Amazonia: Introduction.
STUF - Language Typology and Universals 71:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
Peña, Jaime
2018.
In Nonverbal Predication in Amazonian Languages [Typological Studies in Language, 122],
► pp. 317 ff.
Peña, Jaime
2019.
In Nominalization in Languages of the Americas [Typological Studies in Language, 124],
► pp. 419 ff.
Rojas-Berscia, Luis Miguel
2019.
In Nominalization in Languages of the Americas [Typological Studies in Language, 124],
► pp. 491 ff.
Seraku, Tohru
2021.
Mi-nominalizations in Japanese Wakamono Kotoba ‘youth language’.
Pragmatics. Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) 31:2 ► pp. 278 ff.
Shibatani, Masayoshi
2019.
In Nominalization in Languages of the Americas [Typological Studies in Language, 124],
► pp. 15 ff.
Tamura, Yuki-Shige
2019.
In Nominalization in Languages of the Americas [Typological Studies in Language, 124],
► pp. 273 ff.
Valle, Daniel & Roberto Zariquiey
2019.
In Nominalization in Languages of the Americas [Typological Studies in Language, 124],
► pp. 515 ff.
Yap, Foong Ha & Karen Grunow-Hårsta
2010. Non-Referential Uses of Nominalization Constructions: Asian Perspectives.
Language and Linguistics Compass 4:12 ► pp. 1154 ff.
Zariquiey, Roberto
2018. The encoding of emotions in Kakataibo (Panoan).
Studies in Language 42:1 ► pp. 182 ff.
Zariquiey, Roberto
2019.
In Nominalization in Languages of the Americas [Typological Studies in Language, 124],
► pp. 537 ff.
Álvarez González, Albert
2019.
In Nominalization in Languages of the Americas [Typological Studies in Language, 124],
► pp. 301 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 31 july 2022. 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.