Restrictions on genitive subjects in Kazakh relative clauses

Abstract

This article investigates two RC subject case marking strategies in Kazakh based on novel data coming from the author's fieldwork. The two strategies are the nom-subject strategy, where the RC subject is nominative and there is no agreement marking with it, and the gen-subject strategy, where the RC subject is genitive and the agreement with it is marked, seemingly non-locally, on the noun phrase modified by the RC. The paper's goal is to offer new empirical data on the characteristics and restrictions on the gen-subject strategy: the gen-DP is RC external and the same restrictions apply to it as to possessors, for this reason the paper argues that the gen-DP is situated (and gets case) in the possessor position and it is not assigned genitive case within the RC. Thus, the seemingly non-local Agree relation can be accounted if the gen-DP is in clause-external possessor position.