Typology of Persian relative clauses

Persian relative construction which can be followed by a demonstrative has Det N RC word order. Persian relative clause is a post-nominal subordinate clause that is the most common type in the world. The relative clause has a complex structure which can illustrate the relationship between typology and generative grammar and develop a set of generalization that describes formal grammatical structures. Through a general survey of relative construction, the present study attempts to present the types and patterns of Persian relative clauses through data-based and theory-oriented approaches. This language-internal study also aims to find the range of possibilities which consists of (a) different strategies for the configuration of relative structure (raising analysis: movement of relative head noun from the relativized site to the Spec, CP which is coindexed with trace left behind by movement, or base generated analysis: head noun base generated in the Spec, DP which is coindexed with pronoun inside the relative clause), (b) presence of head (headed or head incorporated (free) relatives), hierarchical position of head (externally/internally headed relatives), linear order of head and RC (head-initial/final relatives), types of head (generic, specific, definite or indefinite noun) in restrictive and non-restrictive relatives, (c) position of Det with respect to N and RC, (d) position of relativisation occurance (subject, object, object of preposition…), (e) presence or absence of resumptive pronoun, that is relative clause underlyingly contains a pronominal which may be filled by a gap, and (f) possibility of embedding relatives within DP.