Hierarchy of accessibility in Arabic and Bosnian relative clause Cover Image

Hijerarhija dostupnosti u arapskoj i bosanskoj relativnoj rečenici
Hierarchy of accessibility in Arabic and Bosnian relative clause

Author(s): Elma Dizdar
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies
Published by: Bosansko filološko društvo
Keywords: hijerarhija dostupnosti; strategija kodiranja sintaktičke pozicije antecedenta; strategija upotrebe relativne zamjenice; strategija upotrebe resumptivne zamjenice

Summary/Abstract: The primary codification strategies of the syntactical functions of antecedents within a relative clause in Arabic and Bosnian are very explicit, which permits the formation of relative clauses with antecedents in psychologically less available syntactic positions in both languages. For this reason, the hierarchy of relativization accessibility in Arabic and Bosnian relative clause encompasses, besides the six basic postitions in the simple relative clause, a series of positions inside the subordinate clause within a complex relative clause. In Arabic, the boundaries of relativization accessibility have not yet been discovered, and in it the relativization of any noun phrase is theoretically possible. In Bosnian, on the other side, these boundaries are presented by the relativization unaccessibility of the member of the coordinated structure. However, the most interesting findings of this short analysis of hierarchy of accessibility in Arabic and Bosnian relative clause are a not yet described change of the primary relativization strategy in Bosnian on syntactically less available positions in a complex relative clause as well as questioning of the described unlimited relativization accessibility in the arabic relative clause.

  • Issue Year: 2007
  • Issue No: 05
  • Page Range: 87-101
  • Page Count: 15
  • Language: Bosnian