-(e)n... erlatibo aposatuak. Izen ardatzaren eskuin hedatzen diren erlatiboak euskaraz (II)

Abstract

This is the second of a series of articles on relative clauses that expand to the right of their nominal head. In this paper, we study appositive relative clauses that surface following a specific nominal head and are formed by means of the nominalizing suffix -(e)n.  We first summarize their short history in the grammar of Basque and gather some testimonies  of their use. We then evaluate their use statistically in two major corpora which include  both oral and written examples: 12\'9% of use when compared with relative heads attached to  the left of the nominal head. We make some considerations regarding their characteristics  as compared with regular relative clauses and examine some properties regarding their use:  the correlation between the length of the relative clause and their use (the longer the  relative clause the stronger the tendency for appositive relatives); the tendencies between truncated and non truncated appositives; the properties of specific and non specific heads  of appositives; the tendency to use partitive case in appositives; the use of appositives  in exclamative clauses; the ability that appositives show to form relative chains; agreement  problems between the nominal head and the appositive. All this will be illustrated with a  large number of examples.