Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Assistant Professor of Persian Language and Literature, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.

2 Professor of Linguistics, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Clausal dependents of noun in Persian are divided into two groups: relative clauses (restrictive relative clause /RRC and non-restrictive relative clause /NRRC), and clausal complements of noun (CCN). By mentioning the semantic and syntactic differences between these two groups, Iranian researchers often consider them as independent and distinct clauses. In this study, we show that the so-called CCN is a kind of RC and for some reason they cannot be complements. First, like RCs, these clauses are optional and adjunctive. Second, those few nouns that can accept a clausal dependent, unlike their corresponding verbs, do not semantically indicate an event or process or action. Third, the behavior of these clauses happens to be remarkably similar to that of NRRCs, mainly because the head nominal in both clauses are definite. The necessity of definiteness arises from the information structure of the clause and its being discourse-bound. On the other hand, contrary to what has been described in the literature, the head N of the clauses is not necessarily a predicative noun; however, semantically it necessarily does contain an event descriptor. That is why not every noun can be the head N of these clauses. The seeming CCNs are in fact RCs that are the product of relativization of an event argument. Since this element is hidden and located in one of the functional projections, CCNs seem to have no gap/resumptive pronoun. Thus, it is better to use the term “event-relative clauses” to refer to these clauses. The syntactic analysis of these clauses –in a manner similar to the syntactic analysis of RCs– will justify the impossibility of extraction, because according to Phase Theory, CP and DP are the phases that the extracted item must first move to their edges; However, the specifier of these two phrases is filled in by the relative operator and the DP, and no element can be extracted from it.

Keywords

Anoushe, M. 2015, Null Expletive Pronoun: A Minimalist Approach‎, Linguistics and Khorasan Dialects, 6: 11, 29-53. [In Persian].
Arsenijevic, B. 2009, Clausal complementation as relativization. Lingua, 119: 39-50.
Cha, J.-Y. 1998, Relative clause or noun complement clause: some diagnoses. In: Park, B.S., Yoon, J.H.-S. (ed.), Selected Papers from the 11th International Conference on Korean Linguistics, University of Hawaii, 6–9 July 1998. International Circle of Korean Linguistics, Seoul, 73–82.
Chinque, G. and Krapova, I. 2012, Finite clausal “complements” of nouns as (non-restrictive) reduced relative clauses, Paper given at GIST5. Generalizing relative strategies. University of Ghent, March 22, 2012. <https://tildeweb.au.dk/au132769/clauses-nominals/worksh12-hand-outs/ho-cinque12.pdf>.
Chomsky, N. 1986, Barriers. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Chomsky, N. 2000. Minimalist inquiries: The framework. In R. A. Martin, David Michaels, and Juan Uriagereka (ed.), Step by step: Essayson minimalist syntax in honor of Howard Lasnik, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press: 89-155.
Chomsky, N. 2001. Derivation by phase. In K. L. Hale, and Michael J. Kenstowicz (ed.), Ken Hale: A Life in Language, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press: 1-52.
Chomsky, N. 2008. On phases. In C. P. O. Robert Freidin, Maria Luisa Zubizarreta (ed.), Foundational Issues in Linguistic Theory: Essays in Honor of Jean-Roger Vergnaud. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press: 133-166
Citko, B. 2014, Phase Theory: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Darzi, A. and Sh. Tafakkori Rezayi, 2010, Expletives in Persian, Researches in Linguistics, 2: 3. 57-73. [In Persian].
Darzi, A. 1996, Word order, NP movement, and opacity conditions in Persian, Ph.D. diss., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Demirdache, H. 1991, Resumptive chains in restrictive relatives, appositives, and dislocation structures. Ph.D. diss., MIT.
Folli, R., H. Harley and S. Karimi, 2004, Determinants of Event Type in Persian Complex Predicates. Cambridge Occasional Papers in Linguistics, 1, 101–125.
Gholamalizadeh, Kh. 2003. Persian Structure, Tehran: Ehyae Ketab. [In Persian].
Grimshaw, J. 1990, Argument Structure, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Haegeman, L.  2012, Adverbial Clauses, Main Clause Phenomena, and Composition of the Left Periphery: The Cartography of Syntactic Structures, Volume 8, New York: Oxford University Press.
Haegeman, L. 2014, Locality and the Distribution of  Main Clause Phenomena, In Enoch Oladé Aboh, Maria Teresa Guasti, and Ian Roberts (ed.), Locality. New York: Oxford University Press. 186-222.
Hegarty, M. 1992, Familiar complements and their complementizers: On some determinants of A’-locality. Unpublished manuscript, University of  Pennsylvania.
Hooper, J. and S. Thompson, 1973, On the applicability of root transformations. Linguistic Inquiry, 4: 465–497.
Hornstein, N., J. Nunes and K. K. Grohmann, 2005. Understanding Minimalism. Cambridge University Press.
Karimi, S. 2001, Persian complex DPs: How mysterious are they? Canadian Journal of Linguistics. No. 46: 63-96.
Karimi-Doostan, G. 1997. Light Verb Constructions in Persian. Ph.D. diss., University of Essex.
Kayne, R. 1994, The antisymmetry of syntax. Cambridge: The MIT Press
Kayne, R. 2010, Comparisons and Contrasts. New York: Oxford University Press.
Kempson, R. 1975, Presupposition and the delimitation of semantics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Kiparsky P., and C. Kiparsky, 1970, Fact. In Manfred Bierwisch and Karl E. Heidolph (ed.), Progress in Linguistics. The Hague: Mouton, 73-143.
Koster, J. 1978, Why subject sentences don’t exist. In Samuel J. Keyser (ed), Recent Transformational Studies in European Languages, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 53–64.
Matushansky, O. 2005, Going through a Phase. In M. McGinnis & N. Richards (ed.), Perspectives on Phases. Cambridge, MA: MIT Working Papers in Linguistics: 81-157.
Megerdoomian, K. 2002, Beyond Words and Phrases: A Unified Theory of Predicate Composition. Ph.D. diss. University of Southern California
Melvold, J. 1991, Factivity and definiteness. In Lisa Cheng and Hamida Demirdache (ed.), More Papers on Wh-Movement, MIT Working Papers in Linguistics, 15. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 97–117.
Miller, P. 2001, Discourse constraints on (non)extraposition from subject in English. Linguistics, 39: 683–701.
Nichols, L. 2003, Attitude evaluation in complex NPs. In A. Carnie & H. Harley & M. Willie (ed.), Formal Approaches to Function in Grammar, Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company: 155-164.
Rizzi, L. 1990, Relativized Minimality. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Stowell, T. 1981, Origins of phrase structure. Ph.D. diss., MIT.
Tabibzadeh, O. 2012, Persian Grammar: a Theory of Autonomous Phrases Based on Dependency Grammar, Tehran: Markaz. [In Persian].
Tabibzadeh, O. 2015, Clausal Dependents of noun in Persian, Grammar, 10: 117-145. [In Persian].
Taghvaipour, M. A. 2005, Persian relative clauses in head-driven phrase structure grammar. Ph.D. diss., University of Essex, England.