Free Relative Clauses Relative Clauses

204 a. As subject: [Li moty-n-thi] mithada-bo we. [the win-SUB-WH.SUBJ] laugh.transitive-CONT us ‘The winner laughed at us.’ b. As direct object: N-othi-ka [ama n-ansi-n-sia]. they-receive-INDIC [what they-want-SUB-WH.OBJ] ‘They receivedgot what they wanted.’ c. As direct object: Thy-dykha [aba diadiady-n-tho]. she-see [one chatgossip-SUB-WH.SUBJ] ‘She saw a gossip.’ d. As object of a postposition: N-obada-bo [li jady-n-thi] boran. they-wait-CONT [the travel-SUB-WH.SUBJ] before ‘They are waiting for the traveler.’ Whether these relative clauses are, in fact, free or lexically headed is not certain. Every clause in Arawak which appears to be a free relative clause starts with a word which might, in fact, be interpreted as a pronominal head. That is, as in the above examples, the apparent free relative clauses all start with a relative pronoun, a number, or an article. The latter two might be taken to be the determiners of noun phrases. However, this is not necessarily the case. The Arawak definite articles are all morphologically identical with pronouns of the same number and gender see Sections 2.3.1 and 2.3.2, and numerals can also function as heads of noun phrases. 205a. li wadili aba wadili the man one man ‘the man’ ‘a man’ b. Li osa-bo. Aba osa-bo. he go-CONT one go-CONT ‘He is going.’ ‘One of them is going.’ A further bit of evidence that the determiners of free relative clauses may, in fact, be pro- nominal heads is that the presence of the initial relative pronoun, article, or number is obligatory. This contrasts with the fact that indefinite non-mass noun phrases in Arawak are acceptable without an indefinite article or a number when the exact number of items or referents is not relevant or when a plural suffix is used on the head noun. 88 Relative Clauses 206 a. Wa-dykha aba hime. we-see one fish ‘We saw a fish.’ b. Wa-dykha hime. We-see fish ‘We saw fish.’ 206 a. Wa-dykha aba andy-n-thi. we-see one arrive-SUB-WH.SUBJ ‘We saw the arriver one who arrived.’ b. Wa-dykha andy-n-thi. we-see arrive-SUB-WH.SUBJ ‘We saw the arriver.’ Although the above facts make it seem possible that these free relative clauses are simply normal relative clauses with pronominal heads, this may not be the best analysis. It is also possible to analyze them as nominalized clauses. All of the above ‘free’ relative clauses contain an element not found in other relative clauses—the subordinating suffix -n glossed ‘SUB’ in all the preceding examples, and it may be that this suffix should be viewed as a nominalizer. This same suffix appears on the verb in non-relative complement clauses and also whenever a clause appears in the TOPIC position of a sentence. Furthermore, when a clause appears in the TOPIC position of a sentence, it is preceded by an article see Section 3.2.1.2 on sentence structure. 208 a. D-eitha l-osy-n-fa. I-know he-go-SUB-FUT ‘I know he went.’ b. To n-andy-n jon, n-akoba bania. the they-arrive-SUB there they-breathe short.time ‘Concerning them arriving there, they took a short breather.’

4.3 Embedded Questions

Embedded questions look like relative clauses, except that they do not have any of the sub- ject- or object-relativizing suffixes, characteristic of relative and free relative clauses, on their main verb. Furthermore, this lack of a relativization suffix correlates with the obligatory pres- ence of a question word or phrase in these same clauses. Like the free relative clauses in the previous section, these clauses all contain verbs with the subordinating suffix -n. 209 a. D-eitha ama li-siki-n da-myn. I-know what he-give-SUB me-to ‘I know what he gave to me.’ b. D-eitha alikan wakydy-n to kodo I-know who break-SUB the gourd ‘I know who broke the gourd.’ 4.3 Embedded Questions 89 c. Da-aka bo hibin alikan fary-n to kalhina. I-tell you already who kill-SUB the chicken ‘I already told you who killed the chicken.’ In spite of the similarity in appearance to relative clauses and free relative clauses, the above clauses should not be analyzed as belonging to either group. These clauses occur only as sentential complements for verbs of saying and thinking like eithin ‘to know’, akan ‘to tell’, and onabyn ‘to answer’. Furthermore, except for the presence of the subordinating suffix, 4 their form is identical to that of independent content question clauses. Figure 21 summarizes the occurrence of the subject- and object-relativizer suffixes, the subordinator suffix, and WH-words in the various constructions discussed in the previous pages. RELATIVIZER SUBORDINATOR WH- SUFFIX SUFFIX WORD PRE-HEAD RELATIVE + – – POST-HEAD RELATIVE + – +– FREE RELATIVE + + +– EMBEDDED QUESTION – + + NON-EMBEDDED QUESTION – – +– Figure 21. Structural Features of Relative-Clause-Like Constructions

4.4 Constituents Accessible to Relativization

Preceding sections have given a number of examples of relativized subjects and direct objects, but there has been no discussion of exactly which constituents are accessible to relativization. As is the case with most languages, Arawak places restrictions on what con- stituents can be relativized with a given strategy. The following sections briefly discuss how Arawak functions in this regard.

4.4.1 Subject Relativization

When the subject of a clause is relativized, the main verb of the clause is marked with the subject-relativizing suffix -thi WH.SUBJ if that subject is masculine, or with the non-masculine suffix -tho WH.SUBJ if it is non-masculine. 5 This is true for both event verbs and stative verbs. For example, in 210a, wadili ‘man’ is masculine and requires -thi on the verb, whereas kabajaha ‘tick’ is classified as non-masculine and therefore requires -tho in 210b. Simularly, in 210c a masculine suffix is required, while in 210d the ref- erent is non-masculine. 210 a. Masculine: Li wadili [› siki-thi to hala da-myn] andy-fa mothi. the man [› give-WH.SUBJ the bench me-to] arrive-FUT tomorrow ‘The man who gave the bench to me will arrive tomorrow.’ 90 Relative Clauses 4 The presence of the subordinating suffix also causes some adjustments in the last vowel of the verb stem. See Section 2.4.1.1 on basic- and a- stem verbs. 5 See Sections 2.3.1.2 and 2.3.3.2 for a discussion of noun gender classes.