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Re: Genitives NPs as Relative Clauses

From:Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>
Date:Friday, November 16, 2001, 12:25
En réponse à Henrik Theiling <theiling@...>:

> > That seems to be an example of an internally headed relative clause. > Can this also mean `I saw that a man was stealing a bicycle'? The > structure is almost identical to what Tyl-Sjok does (although the > embedded clause is totally unmarked there). >
I was taught that it meant that indeed.
> For the sentence you wrote, there should also be the externally headed > relative clause, but please do not hit me for mistakes, I speak not a > word of Japanese. I'd expect: > > Watashi wa jitensha o nusumu no otoko o mimashita. >
Correctly: Watashi wa jitensha o numusu otoko o mimashita. (no "no", relative subclauses in Japanese aren't marked in any way - except the fact that you cannot use polite forms for verbs in subclauses -)
> Is there at least a construction similar to this? I wonder whether > there is a `ga' missing, but I wouldn't know where to put it. :-) >
There is no "ga" missing :))) . "ga" marks the subject of a subclause ("no" can be used instead, BTW), but in this case it's the subject which is relativised, so there's just a gap in the relative clause. Of course, I'm by no means an expert on Japanese, but I do know a little bit about it (two years of Japanese classes... only :((( ). Christophe. http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.