Head-final relatives in Nɬe?kepmcxín (Thompson River Salish) have previously been described as rare. This article presents new data illustrating a range of possible head-final relatives and the discourse context in which they occur. The difference between head-initial and head-final relative structures is accounted for by information structure, namely the position of focus. When focus falls on the entire NP containing the relative clause, a head-initial relative is generated. However, when focus falls on the relative clause itself, excluding the head noun, a head-final relative is used. The effect inside complex nominals is to linearize focus before background, matching the FOCUS ≫ BACKGROUND generalization observed in matrix clause focus marking. The study is the first examination of focus marking inside the Salishan nominal domain.

This article examines relativization strategies in Southern Interior Salish, and focuses specifically on an analytical problem introduced by a subset of Okanagan relative clauses which are introduced by the oblique marker t. I first show that Okanagan relative clauses, like those in Northern Interior Salish languages, are formed by movement of a clause-internal DP or PP to the left-periphery of the relative clause CP. As such, the particles which introduce an Okanagan relative clause code the relation of a clause-internal gap to the relative clause predicate. For some relatives introduced by the oblique marker t, however, the oblique marker does not code this relation, and so by hypothesis cannot have undergone movement. These problematic cases can be explained if clause-internal movement in Southern Interior Salish targets a higher structural position than in Northern Interior Salish. This analysis also potentially explains the DP-internal “prepositions” characteristic of Southern Interior Salish.