Are these relative clauses correct? The book "Resumptive Pronouns At The Interfaces" claims the following two sentences are true. 1. An scríbhneoir a molann na mic léinn é The writer that the student

Shawn

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Are these relative clauses correct? The book "Resumptive Pronouns At The Interfaces" claims the following two sentences are true. 1. An scríbhneoir a molann na mic léinn é The writer that the students praise 2. An scríbhneoir a mholann na mic léinn The writer who praises the students But #1 shouldn't really be an indirect relative since it doesn't contain a personal preposition like "leis" that refers back to "the writer", correct? Or is an indirect relative required if the relative clause contains a direct object pronoun? Also, #2 means both "the writer who praises the students" and the "the writer who the students praise" depending on context, right?

Mar 7, 2015 5:20 AM

Answers · 3

Both sentences are correct. You're also right that sentence 2 is ambiguous, the writer could be either the subject or the object of the relative clause. An indirect relative clause can be used instead of a direct relative when the antecedent is the direct object, as in sentence 1. This eliminate all ambiguity. A direct object pronoun agreeing in gender and number with the antecedent must then be added to the end of the relative clause.

March 7, 2015

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