Linguist Forum

Specializations => Morphosyntax => Topic started by: zaba on June 11, 2014, 10:49:21 PM

Title: Tree for relative clause
Post by: zaba on June 11, 2014, 10:49:21 PM

What's the standard way to make a tree for e.g. "The dog that smokes"?

Thanks!

Title: Re: Tree for relative clause
Post by: Daniel on June 12, 2014, 04:48:50 PM

The matrix clause is a normal clause; the RC is a CP modifier of the N, just like an AdjP (but following) or a PP.

"that" is a C (Complementizer) forming a CP along with it's complement: the regular sentence (within the RC).

And you should also have a trace (or other placeholder) where the relativized NP has been removed.

Roughly:
[TREE][NP [the] [dog] [CP [C that] [S t [smokes]]]][/TREE]
(Where 't' is a trace for the subject of the sentence that was moved to the C position as 'that'.)

Note: this is NOT specific to any particular approach (such as X-bar theory) but just a general outline. Apply details as needed.