Again, whenever any of the above relative clauses occurs in a post-head position, an overt relative pronoun may be optionally present.
213 Li
wadili [alikan da-soko-sia
› miaka]
wada-bo da-boran.
the man
[who I-hit-WH.OBJ
› yesterday]
search-CONT me-for
‘The man who I hit yesterday is searching for me.’
4.4.3 Indirect Object Relativization
As mentioned in the discussion of event sentence structure Section 3.2.1 the indirect object of a clause is almost always found in a postpositional phrase with the benefactive
postposition myn ‘tofor’. Such indirect objects can be relativized by simply omitting the noun phrase from its position as the object of the postposition myn, thus stranding the
postposition.
214 a. Jan sika
to hala
li wadili
myn miakaboan.
John give the
bench the
man to
day.before.yesterday ‘John gave the bench to the man the day before yesterday.’
b. Li wadili [Jan
sika to hala › myn miakaboan]
osa jada-nro miaka.
the man [John give the bench › to day.before.yesterday]go trip-toward yesterday
‘The man John gave the bench to the day before yesterday went on a trip yesterday.’ Relative clauses like the above are also acceptable with an overt relative pronoun.
215 Li
wadili [alikan Jan
sika to
hala ›
myn]... the
man [who
John give
the bench ›
to]... ‘The man whom John gave the bench to...’
As mentioned earlier Section 3.2.1, Arawak seems to sometimes allow bare indirect ob- jects without a postposition. Indirect objects in such constructions cannot be relativized.
216 Li wadili [Jan sika ›
to hala miakaboan]
osa jada-nro miaka.
the man [John give › the bench day.before.yesterday]
go trip-toward yesterday ‘The man John gave the bench to the day before yesterday went on a trip yesterday.’
4.4.4 Relativization of Objects of Postpositions
Relativizing the NP in an indirect object postpositional phrase see above is the only in- stance where the object of a postpositional phrase can be relativized with stranding of the
postposition. Objects of other postpositions cannot be directly relativized. 217 a. Jan
balyta to hala
diako. John sit
the bench
on ‘John sat on the bench.’
b. Adiakema siokon
to hala
[ama Jan
balyta ›
diako.] very
small is
bench [what John
sit ›
on] ‘The bench John sat on is very small.’
92 Relative Clauses
218 a. Lo-soka sikalho
ly-kasiparan abo.
he-chop sugarcane
his-machete with
‘He chopped sugarcane with his machete.’ b. Ly-wada-bo
ly-kasiparan [lo-soka
sikalho ›
abo]. he-search-PRES
his-machete he-chop
sugarcane ›
with ‘He is looking for his machete that he chops sugarcane with.’
4.4.4.1 Postposition stranding
The contrast between the acceptability of relativizing the noun phrase in an indirect ob- ject postpositional phrase and its unacceptability in other postpositional phrases shows up
even more clearly when one considers examples of the benefactive use of the postposition myn
. In addition to being used to indicate an indirect object, myn is also used in the sort of benefactive phrases that can be added to almost any event clause.
219 a. Na-reke-bo to
koban to
hiaro myn.
they-weed-PRES the
planting.ground the
woman for
‘They are weeding the planting ground for the woman.’ b. To
hiaro andy-fa
kasiri abo
na-myn. the
woman arrive-FUT
cassava.beer with them-for
‘The woman will come with cassava beer for them.’ When myn is used as a benefactive in this way, rather than to indicate the indirect object,
then it acts like any other postposition and cannot be stranded. 220. To hiaro
na-reke-bo to koban
› myn andy-fa kasiri
abo the woman they-weed-PRES the planting.ground › for
arrive-FUT cassava.beer with ‘The woman they are clearing the planting ground for will come with cassava beer.’
The locative postpositional phrases associated with verbs of motion such as osyn ‘to go’ and andyn ‘to arrive’ also seem to be part of the VP,
7
and yet the postpositions of those phrases cannot be stranded, either.
221 a. L-osa to
sikoa loko-nro.
he-go the
house in-toward ‘He went into the house.’
b. Da-dykha to
sikoa [ama
l-osa ›
loko-nro]. I-see
the house [what he-go ›
in-toward] I saw the house he went into.
222 a. L-anda to
onikhan amyn.
he-arrive the
creek atby
‘He arrived at the creek.’ 4.4 Constituents Accessible to Relativization
93
7
As is the case with direct and indirect objects, nothing other than certain aspect words can come between a motion verb and the locative for which it subcategorizes. See Sections 3.2.1.3 for a discussion of event sentence
structure.