1. Typology
A relative clause is a clause that modifies a noun phrase, as illustrated in the following example:
| 1. | [我給你的]書 |
|
| [wǒ gěi nǐ de] shū |
|
| 1sg give 2sg sub book |
|
| ‘the book that I gave you’ |
Relative clauses in Mandarin are characterized by the following features:
- 1.
- they are prenominal;
- 2.
- they do not contain a relative pronoun (note that suǒ 所 is not a relative pronoun (see Chiu 1995, Jiang 2008 and Aldridge, in press, and references cited there);
- 3.
- they generally require the presence …