Prosodically-conditioned relative clause extraposition in Armenian
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3765/xw9svp45Keywords:
relative clause, extraposition, Armenian, phonological phrase, phonological movementAbstract
Armenian is an SOV language that has post-nominal finite relative clauses (RCs). These clauses are typically immediately post-nominal: N+RC. But in various contexts, the relative clause is extraposed to the right edge of the sentence: N+V+RC instead of *N+RC+V. The various contexts are united by how the modified noun is prosodically phrased with an immediately following verb. We argue that extraposition is conditioned by prosodic phrasing. A host of syntactic factors (definiteness, subject/object, valency) are indirectly involved in extraposition, but these factors are tied directly to prosodic phrasing. Exceptions to this generalization are limited and come from verb focus and possible recursive phrasing.Downloads
Published
2023-12-07
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Copyright (c) 2023 Hossep Dolatian, Tom Meadows
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Published by the LSA with permission of the author(s) under a CC BY 4.0 license.