Pivot selection and puzzling relativisation in Indonesian

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    Abstract

    This chapter presents a novel analysis of Indonesian relative clauses that makes use of the Pivot (PIV) notion as an abstract discourse-syntactic overlay function involving prominent GFs (SUBJ/OBJ) and prominent DFs (FOC-C/TOP-C). The analysis resolves certain perennial relativization issues in Indonesian. The PIV-based analysis not only offers a solution to the Indonesian relativization puzzles presented but sheds light upon the fallibilities of previous analyses of Indonesian relativization processes, which assume gapping and pronominal copy strategies to be in complementary distribution. Instead, the PIV-based analysis offers a stronger account for these facts whereby the presence of overt SUBJ in the tight yang structure with nasal AV verbs renders the relativization of OBJ unacceptable, irrespective of which relativization strategy is used. This can be thought of as a hard grammatical constraint of SUBJ relativization in Indonesian, which requires gapping.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationModular Design of Grammar
    EditorsI Wayan Arka, Ash Asudeh, and Tracy Holloway King
    Place of PublicationOxford
    PublisherOxford University Press
    Pages181-202
    Volume1
    EditionFirst
    ISBN (Print)9780192844842
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2021

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