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Descriptive relative clauses in Austro-Bavarian German

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Martina Wiltschko
Martina Wiltschko*
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia
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Abstract

This article discusses the syntactic and semantic properties of descriptive relative clauses, a type of relative clause discussed in the literature on Chinese. It is argued that descriptive relative clauses are found in the dialect of Upper Austria, a version of Bavarian German. In particular this dialect has a set of reduced definite articles that are used for discourse referents that are intrinsically uniquely identifiable, as a matter of world knowledge. As such, they cannot be restricted by a relative clause, where restriction is taken to exclude alternatives. Such DPs can, however, be modified by descriptive relative clauses. I propose that descriptive relative clauses attach to NP while restrictive relative clauses attach to nP. Thus, the article contributes to determining whether there are different relative clauses associated with different layers of projections in the nominal domain.

Résumé

Résumé

Cet article étudie les proprieties syntaxiques et sémantiques de propositions relatives descriptives, un type de proposition relative dont il est question dans la littérature sur le chinois. L’article soutient que l’on trouve des propositions relatives descriptives dans le dialecte de la Haute-Autriche, une variété de l’allemand bavarois. En particulier, ce dialecte possède un ensemble d’articles définis réduits qui s’emploient pour des referents discursifs qui, intrinsèquement, sont uniquement identifiables, en fonction des connaissance du monde. En tant que tel, elles ne peuvent pas être restreintes par une proposition relative, s’il est entendu que la restriction exclut les alternatives. Cependant, de tels SD peuvent être modifiés par des propositions relatives descriptives. Je propose que les propositions relatives descriptives s’attachent au SN, tandis que les propositions relatives restrictives s’attachent au Sn. Ainsi, l’article contribue à déterminer s’il y a différentes propositions relatives associées aux différents niveaux de projections dans le domaine nominal.

Keywords

Austro-Bavariandescriptive relative clausemodificationlittle ncontextual variableAustro-Bavaroisproposition relative descriptivemodificationpetit nvariable contextuelle
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 58 , Issue 2: The syntax of relative clauses La syntaxe des propositions relatives , July 2013 , pp. 157 - 189
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association 2013

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