The temporal interpretation of free relatives in English and Romanian Cover Image

The temporal interpretation of free relatives in English and Romanian
The temporal interpretation of free relatives in English and Romanian

Author(s): Viorela-Valentina Dima
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies
Published by: Editura Universităţii din Bucureşti
Keywords: free relatives; covert antecedent; temporal interpretation

Summary/Abstract: Free relatives have been defined as types of relative clauses with a covert antecedent, which is semantically and syntactically active (de Vries 2002, GALR II:218), influencing the morphology of the wh-word which introduces the free relative. The aim of this paper is to take a closer look at the semantic properties of the covert antecedent and demonstrate that its temporal interpretation influences the choice of tense form that can surface in the relative clause.

  • Issue Year: 2007
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 17-29
  • Page Count: 12
  • Language: English