Investigating the Process of Postverbal Appearance of Restrictive Relative Clauses in Persian

َAmoushahi, Ali; Darzi, َAli

doi:10.22059/jolr.2022.334309.666761

Investigating the Process of Postverbal Appearance of Restrictive Relative Clauses in Persian

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Ali َAmoushahi

َAli Darzi

Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Literature and Human Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

10.22059/jolr.2022.334309.666761

Abstract

The present article mainly aims to investigate the process through which relative clauses appear postverbally and distant from the noun they modify. To do so, relative clauses are first classified into two categories of Restrictive (RRC) and Non-restrictive Relative Clauses (NRRC). The article focuses only on the RRCs given the vastness of the research area. Adopting a non-movement analysis for postverbal RRCs within Minimalism, arguments coming from Quantifier Raising and Adjunct Merger are presented to support the hypothesis that RRCs are adjoined to a copy of the NP they modify after the latter adjoins to a functional projection in the left periphery to host the RRC. Furthermore, it is proposed that the head of the aforementioned fumctional projection may come from the lexicon with an optional strong D feature ([uD*]) that triggers the movement of the copy of the source NP. As such, assuming that we have verb movement in Persian and that complement clauses in this language move to their surface position within TP to check a clause type feature, the postverbal RRCs are predicted to follow complement clauses to give the right relative order of the two postverbal clauses, a prediction that is borne out. Finally, the restriction on the presence of only one RRC postverbally is scrutinized in addition to the compulsory postverbal appearance of RRCs in certain structures.

Keywords

relative clause

complement clause

copy of source NP

functional projection

adjunction

Subjects

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