Multiple Relative Clauses: Ordering and Derivation

Abstract

There are three types of multiple relative clauses (RCs) in Korean; that is, prenominal, right-dislocated, and split RCs. In this paper, I offer plausible derivations of them and attempt to account for ordering restrictions they display. I propose a couple of distinct ways of forming RC constructions in Korean, for example, adjunction of RC(s), complementation of RC(s), and combination of the two. Concomitantly, the proposal resorts to the head-first hypothesis instead of the usual head-final hypothesis for Korean. In the prenominal and split RCs, a stage level RC precedes an individual level RC in Larson and Takahashis (2007) term, but in the right-dislocated RCs, free order obtains. An individual level RC may precede a stage level RC if the former is preceded by a determiner like ku the. I show that different orders of RCs follow from the proposal that to restrict the relative head noun, a deictic quantifier in the relative head noun be activated by a determiner or a stage level RC in the prenominal position.