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3.3.2.2.The form and function of the relative elements

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The relative element linking a relative clause to a matrix clause can take many forms. Table 3 gives an overview of the various relative elements that will be discussed in this section. The list is not intended as exhaustive, but simply illustrates some typical cases. The mark <f> indicates that the form in question is part of the formal register of the language.

Table 3: Relative elements in Dutch

type	form	features of the antecedent	subsection
Pronouns	die	-neuter, singular or ±neuter, plural	I
	dat	+neuter, singular
	wie	+human
	wat	-human, +neuter, singular, AP, VP or CP
	welke<f>	-neuter, singular or ±neuter, plural
	hetgeen<f>	AP, VP or CP
Possessive pronouns	wiens<f>	+human, +masc, singular	II
	wier<f>	+human, +fem, singular or +human, plural
R-pronouns	waar (+P)	no restrictions	III
Adverbial phrases	waar waarop waarin zoals	+locative +temporal or +manner +temporal	IV
Particle	dat	+temporal	V

Table 3 shows that the choice normally depends on certain features of the antecedent, such as number and gender. In (87), for example, the relative pronoun dat can only occur if the antecedent is a singular, neuter noun like boek'book'; if the antecedent is plural or non-neuter, the relative noun die must be used.

Example 87

a.	Het boek	dat	ik	gekocht	heb,	gaat	over de oorlog.
	the book	that	I	bought	have	goes	about the war
	'The book Iʼve bought is about the war.'

b.	De boeken	die	ik	gekocht	heb,	gaan	over de oorlog.
	the book	that	I	bought	have	goes	about the war
	'The book Iʼve bought is about the war.'

c.	De man	die	naast mij	woont,	speelt	goed	piano.
	the man	who	next.to me	lives	plays	well	piano
	'The man who lives next to me plays the piano well.'

In other cases, it is the function of the antecedent in the main clause that determines which element can or must be used. The relative pronouns dat and die in (87), for example, cannot occur as the complement of a preposition; in these cases we use the relative pronoun wie or the R-pronoun waar in (88a&b). Similarly, possessive relative pronouns can only be used if they function as the possessor of a noun phrase.

Example 88

a.	De vriend	aan wie	ik	mijn fiets	heb	geleend,	woont	hiernaast.
	the friend	to whom	I	my bike	have	lent	lives	next.door
	'The friend I lent my bike to lives next door.'

b.	De auto	waarmee	ik	op vakantie	ben	geweest,	is gestolen.
	the car	where-with	I	on holiday	am	been	is stolen
	'The car that Iʼve been on holiday with has been stolen.'

c.	De vriend	wiens fiets	ik	heb	geleend,	woont	hiernaast.
	the friend	whose bike	I	have	borrowed	lives	next.door
	'The friend whose bike Iʼve borrowed lives next door.'

Relative elements that function as adverbial phrases come in various sorts. Some examples are given in (89): in (89a), for example, the relative element takes the form of the R-pronoun waar, and in (89b) the form of the relative particle dat.

Example 89

a.	Ik herinner	me	nog	de dag	waarop	het	gebeurde.	relative adverb
	I remember	refl	still	the day	where-on	it	happened
	'I still remember the day on which it happened.'

b.	De week	dat	ik	op vakantie	was,	was	het	mooi weer.	relative particle
	the week	that	I	on holiday	was	was	it	nice weather
	'The week I was on holiday the weather was nice.'

The following subsections will discuss these relative elements. The discussion concludes in Subsection VI with an overview of the circumstances in which the elements in Table 3 can be used.

I. Relative pronouns
II. Possessive relative pronouns
III. The relative pronominal PP waar + P
- A. Features of the antecedent
- B. Syntactic function of the pronoun
IV. Relative adverbial phrases
V. The relative particle dat
- A. Form: the relative particle is invariable
- B. Function: the relative particle is an adverbial adjunct of time
VI. Conclusion

[+] I. Relative pronouns

This subsection discusses the relative elements from the first row in Table 3, that is, the colloquial relative pronouns die, dat, wie, and wat, as well as the more formal forms welke and hetgeen. As is indicated in Table 3, the relative pronoun wat can also be used with non-nominal antecedents, and the relative pronoun hetgeen is even used so exclusively. As our present concern is with postmodification of the noun phrase, a discussion of these pronouns in constructions such as (90) would, strictly speaking, fall outside the scope of the present subsection. However, as such a strict approach would leave the discussion of relative elements in Dutch incomplete, and since the constructions in question have much in common with the other ones dealt with in this subsection, we will include these constructions in our discussion.

Example 90

a.	[Jan was niet op tijd],	wat/hetgeen	erg vervelend	was.	CP
	Jan was not on.time	what	very annoying	was
	'Jan wasnʼt on time, which was very annoying.'

b.	Ik probeer	[(om) op tijd te komen],	wat/hetgeen	misschien	lukt.	CP/IP
	I try	comp on time to come	what	maybe	succeeds
	'Iʼll try to be on time, which I may succeed in.'

c.	Jan [kocht een nieuwe auto],	wat/hetgeen	Peter	ook	wel	wou.	VP
	Jan bought a new car	what	Peter	also	prt	wanted
	'Jan bought a new car, which Peter also would have liked to do.'

d.	Jan is [zeer intelligent],	wat/hetgeen	Peter niet	is.	AP
	Jan is very intelligent	what	Peter not	is
	'Jan is very intelligent, which Peter is not.'

Most relative pronouns can be used both in restrictive and in non-restrictive relative clauses. In what follows, restrictive relative clauses will be used as examples in those cases in which both types can be used. When a particular (use of) pronoun is restricted to one of the two types, this will be explicitly mentioned.

[+] A. Die/dat'that'

The relative pronouns die and dat can be seen as the standard pronouns in relative clauses with nominal antecedents. Relative clauses introduced by the pronouns die/dat can be given the global structural representations in the examples in (91); the concrete examples exemplify this for the case in which the relative pronoun functions as the subject of the clause. In this subsection, we will focus on the properties of the relative pronouns.

Example 91

Restrictive relative clause: [DP D [NP [... N ...]i [RC RELi .... ti ....]]]

[DP	de [NP	studenti [RC	diei [DPti ]	mijn boek	heeft geleend]]]
[DP	the	student	who	my book	has borrowed
'the student who borrowed my book'

Non-restrictive relative clauses: [DP D [NP ... N ...]i , [RC RELi .... ti ....]]

[DP	de [NP	student]i , [RC	diei [DPti ]	mijn boek	heeft geleend]]
[DP	the	student	who	my book	has borrowed
'the student, who borrowed my book'

[+] 1. Features of the antecedent

The pronouns die and dat can be used with antecedents referring to both human and non-human referents. Which of the two pronouns is used depends on the gender and number of the antecedent: die is used for -neuter, singular or ±neuter, plural antecedents, whereas dat can only be used in the case of a +neuter, singular antecedent. In other words, dat can only be used with antecedents that take the neuter definite article het, and die is used in all other cases. This is illustrated in Table 4. Note that we gloss die/dat as who when the antecedent is +human and as that when the antecedent is -human, in accordance with the preferred English rendering of the pronoun.

Table 4: Antecedents of the relative pronoun die/dat

		singular	plural
[-neuter]	[+human]	de man die daar loopt the man who there walks ‘the man who is walking there’	de mannen die daar lopen the men who there walk ‘the men who are walking there’
	[-human]	de bal die daar ligt the ball that there lies ‘the ball that is lying there’	de ballen die daar liggen the balls that there lie ‘the balls that are lying there’
[+neuter]	[+human]	het kind dat daar speelt the child who there plays ‘the child who is playing there’	de kinderen die daar spelen the children who there play ‘the children who are playing there’
	[-human]	het boek dat daar ligt the book that there lies ‘the book that is lying there’	de boeken die daar liggen the books that there lie ‘the books that are lying there’

Note, however, that in informal language the pronoun die is increasingly used with +neuter, singular antecedents if the antecedent has a +human or +animate referent. Thus, instead of the expressions in (92a&b), we may find the corresponding primed examples.

Example 92

a.	het/een	meisje	dat daar woont
	the/a	girldim	that there lives
	'the girl who lives there'

a'.

het/een meisje die daar woont

b.	het/een	hondje	dat daar loopt
	the/a	dogdim	that there walks
	'the little dog that walks there'

b'.

het hondje die daar loopt

It is not entirely clear what the scope of this use is. Haeseryn et al. (1997: 330) provides a couple of examples that involve non-restrictive relative clauses with nouns referring to a person, including an example involving the diminutive of a proper noun; cf. http://taaladvies.net/taal/advies/vraag/208.

Example 93

a.	Kareltje,	die	gejokt	had,	kreeg	een standje.
	Kareltje	who	fibbed	had	got	a reproach
	'Kareltje, who had been telling a fib, got a reproach.'

b.	Zijn meisje,	die bij ons werkt,	is met vakantie.
	his girlfriend	who with us works	is on vacation
	'His girlfriend, who is working with us, is on vacation.'

c.	Het hoofd van de afdeling,	die hier al jaren werkt,	is ontslagen.
	the head of the department	who here already years works,	has.been fired
	'The head of the department, who has been working here for years, has been fired.'

Still, it is not the case that this use is restricted to non-restrictive relative clauses: it is easy to find examples involving restrictive relative clauses on the internet. Two clear cases are given in (94): the first is the title of a story on You tube and the second is part of a review of a theatrical performance.

Example 94

a.	een verhaal	over een meisje	die	dacht	dat liefde echt was
	a story	about a girl	who	thought	that love true was
	'a story about a girl who thought that love was true'

b.	Hij	was het jongetje	die	in het oefenpartijtje	scoorde.
	he	was the boy	who	during the exercise	scored
	'He was the boy who scored during the exercise.'

It has been suggested that the examples such as (92a) are common due to the fact that the neuter gender of the nominal head clashes with the sex of the referent of the noun phrase; cf.http://onzetaal.nl/advies/diedat.php. This might indeed be relevant, but it cannot be the whole story given that examples such as (92b') can be found in contexts that provide no indication of the sex of the dog: in this case, it seems the grammatical gender of the stem of the diminutive form that is the determining factor. It seems clear that more research is needed before we can say anything definitive about this phenomenon.

[+] 2. Quantified antecedents

The relative pronouns die and dat can combine with various types of quantified antecedents. This is shown in (95) for existentially quantified noun phrases, and in (96) for universally quantified noun phrases.

Example 95

a.	iemand/niemand	die	ik	ken
	somebody/nobody	who	I	know
	'somebody/nobody I know'

b.	iets/niets	dat	ik	gezien	heb
	something/nothing	that	I	seen	have
	'something/nothing I saw'

Example 96

a.	alle jongens	die	ik	ken
	all boys	who	I	know
	'all boys I know'

b.	elke jongen	die	ik	ken
	each boy	who	I	know
	'each boy I know'

In archaic and literary (poetic) Dutch, the relative pronoun die can also take the quantified pronoun al'all' as its antecedent, resulting in such constructions as Al die dit leest is gek'all who read this are mad'. In (formal) Dutch, however, the relative pronoun wie is preferred in this context; cf. Subsection B2, below.

[+] 3. Free and semi-free relative constructions

The relative pronoun die can also be used in so-called semi-free relative constructions, that is, restrictive relative clauses with an antecedent that has little semantic content and no independent reference. In these constructions, die is used with the antecedents degene(n) and diegene(n)'the one(s)', both of which are used for +human referents only.

Example 97

a.	Wil	d(i)egene	die zijn auto	voor de ingang	heeft geparkeerd	deze	a.u.b.	verwijderen?
	wants	the/that.one	who his car	in.front.of the entrance	has parked	this	please	remove
	'Would the person who parked his car in front of the entrance please remove it?'

b.	D(i)egenen	die	zich	hebben	ingeschreven	krijgen	spoedig	bericht.
	the/those.ones	who	refl	have	registered	receive	soon	news
	'The/those persons who have registered will soon be informed.'

The relative pronoun dat does not seem to be favored in these constructions: the -human antecedent dat must be followed by the relative pronoun wat, which is probably motivated by the fact that use of dat would lead to haplology. But with datgene as well the use of wat seems much favored, although numerous examples with dat can be found on the internet.

Example 98

a.	Dat	wat/*dat	ik gisteren	gekocht	heb	is nu	alweer	kapot.
	that	which/which	I yesterday	bought	have	is now	already	broken
	'What I bought yesterday is already broken now.'

b.	Datgene	wat/%dat	ik gisteren	gekocht	heb	is nu	alweer	kapot.
	that	which/which	I yesterday	bought	have	is now	already	broken
	'What I bought yesterday is already broken now.'

Since the antecedent in semi-free relative constructions does not have independent reference, relative clauses of this type are always restrictive. For completeness’ sake, example (99) shows that neither die nor dat can be used in free relative constructions, that is, these relative pronouns always require an overtly realized antecedent.

Example 99

a.	*	Die	dit	leest	is gek.
		who	this	reads	is mad

b.	*	Die	te laat	komt	wordt	gestraft.
		who	too late	comes	is	punished

[+] 4. Syntactic function of the relative pronoun

In (100), it is shown that the relative pronouns die and dat can have the same syntactic functions as a regular noun phrase, namely, as the subject or an object of the relative clause.

Example 100

a.	de student	die	mijn boek	heeft	geleend	subject
	the student	who	my book	has	borrowed
	'the student who has borrowed my book'

b.	de student	die	ik	gisteren	heb	ontmoet	direct object
	the student	who	I	yesterday	have	met
	'the student I met yesterday'

c.	de student	die	ik	gisteren	een boek	heb	gegeven	indirect object
	the/a student	who	I	yesterday	a book	have	given
	'the/a student I gave a book to yesterday'

The examples in (101) show that the relative pronouns die and dat cannot function as the complement of a preposition, regardless of whether the PP is an argument, as in (101a&b), or an adverbial phrase, as in (101c&d). In this respect these pronouns behave like personal pronouns that refer to inanimate entities; cf. Section P5.1.

Example 101

a.	*	de student [PP	aan die]	ik	mijn boek	heb	gegeven
		the student	to whom	I	my book	have	given

b.	*	het boek [PP	van dat]	ik	de kaft	heb	gescheurd
		the book	of which	I	the cover	have	torn

c.	*	de vriend [PP	met die]	ik	op vakantie	ben	geweest
		the friend	with whom	I	on holiday	have	been

d.	*	het huis [PP	in dat]	ik	geboren	ben
		the house	in which	I	born	am

Note that stranding of the preposition, as in (102), does not improve matters, which is of course consistent with the fact that Dutch does not allow preposition stranding by extracting a noun phrase; cf. Section P5. Note in passing that mee in (102c) is the stranded form of the preposition met.

Example 102

de student diei ik mijn boek [PP aan ti] heb gegeven

het boek dati ik de kaft [PP van ti] heb gescheurd

de vriend diei op vakantie [PP mee ti] ben geweest

het huis dati ik [PP in ti] geboren ben

This means that Dutch must appeal to other means to express the intended meanings. Subsection B below will show that, in the case of +human antecedents, this can be done by replacing die/dat by the pronoun wie. An alternative option, which is also available if the antecedent is -human and which will be discussed in Subsection III, is to use a (split) pronominal PP waar ... P.
The examples in (103) and (104) show that die/dat can also be used in restrictive relative clauses with an antecedent functioning as a complementive. This is possible regardless of whether the relative pronoun functions as an argument or a predicate in the relative clause. This is shown in the (a)- and (b)-examples, respectively. Relative clauses of this sort will be discussed more extensively in Section 3.3.2.3.3, sub IC.

Example 103

a.	Ik	ben	niet	de dwaas	die men denkt dat ik ben.	complementive
	I	am	not	the fool	who one thinks that I am
	'Iʼm not the fool people think I am.'

b.	Ik	ben	niet	een dwaas	die altijd doet wat hem gezegd wordt.	argument
	I	am	not	a fool	who always does what him said is
	'Iʼm not a fool who always does as he is told.'

Example 104

a.	Ik	vind	Jan niet	de dwaas	die men denkt dat hij is.	complementive
	I	find	Jan not	the fool	who one thinks that he is
	'I donʼt consider Jan the fool people think he is.'

b.	Ik	vind	Jan	een dwaas	die altijd doet wat hem gezegd wordt.	argument
	I	find	Jan	a fool	who always does what him said is
	'I consider Jan a fool who always does as he is told.'

[+] 5. Possessive use

In some varieties of spoken Dutch, the relative pronoun die is sometimes used in possessive constructions such as (105a), in which it is followed by the reduced possessive pronouns zʼn'his' or dʼr'her', which can also be found in possessive constructions like Jan zʼn boek'Janʼs book' and Marie dʼr boek'Marieʼs book'. Example (105a') shows that the resulting construction, which is considered substandard and is not acceptable to all speakers of Dutch, is restricted to the singular, which may be related to the fact that the third person plural possessive pronoun hun'their' does not have a reduced form; cf. the discussion in Section 5.2.2.5, sub I. Example (105b) shows that the relative pronoun dat markedly differs from die in that it can never be used in this way.

Example 105

a.	%	de docent	die zʼn boek	ik	heb	geleend
		the teacher	who his book	I	have	borrowed
		'the teacher whose book Iʼve borrowed'

a'.	*	de studenten	die hun examens	ik	heb	nagekeken
		the students	who their exams	I	have	corrected
		'the students whose exams Iʼve corrected'

b.	*	het meisje	dat dʼr moeder	ik	ken
		the girl	who her mother	I	know

[+] B. Wie'who'

The relative pronoun wie differs sharply from die/dat in that it is typically used as the complement of a PP, as in the structures in (106). The indices indicate the relations with the structure: the index i indicates that the full PP has been moved into the initial position of the relative clause, and the index j indicates that the noun (phrase) modified by the relative clause acts as the antecedent of the relative pronoun. The relative pronoun can sometimes also be used as a nominal argument in the relative clause, that is, with the structure in (91), but its use is then more restricted than that of die/dat.

Example 106

a.	Restrictive relative clauses: [DP D [NP [... N ...]j [RC [PP P wiej ]i ... ti ...]]]
	[DP	de [NP	studentj [RC	[aan wiej]i	ik [PPti ]	mijn boek	heb	gegeven]]]
	[DP	the	student	to who(m)	I	my book	have	given
	'the student to whom I gave the book'

b.	Non-restrictive relative clauses: [DP D [NP ... N ...]i , [RC [PP P wiej ]i ... ti ...]]
	[DP	de [NP	student] j , [RC	[aan wiej]i	ik [PPti ]	mijn boek	heb	gegeven]]
	[DP	the	student	to who(m)	I	my book	have	given
	'the student, to whom I gave the book'

[+] 1. Features of the antecedent

The relative pronoun wie is restricted to +human referents and can be used regardless of the gender, number or definiteness of its antecedent. This is illustrated in examples (107).

Example 107

a.	de/een studentnon-neuter	aan wie	ik	gisteren	een boek	heb	gegeven
	the/a student	to who	I	yesterday	a book	have	given
	'the/a student who I have given a book yesterday'

b.		het/een meisjeneuter	aan wie	ik	gisteren	een boek	heb	gegeven
		the/a girl	to whom	I	yesterday	a book	have	given

c.		de studenten/meisjes	aan wie	ik	gisteren	een boek	heb	gegeven
		the students/girls	to whom	I	yesterday	a book	have	given

[+] 2. Quantified antecedents

Example (108) shows that it is not easy for wie to take an existentially or universally quantified antecedent: the pronoun die is generally the strongly preferred option in that case. This is shown by (108).

Example 108

a.	(n)iemand	die/*?wie	ik	ken
	no/somebody	who/who	I	know
	'no/somebody I know'

b.	iedereen	die/*wie	ik	ken
	everyone	who/who	I	know
	'everyone I know'

The examples in (109a&b) show, however, that the pronoun wie can be used to modify the universally quantified pronoun al'all' if this pronoun is used to refer to persons, although this particular use is characterized by a high degree of formality. Note that the antecedent and pronoun can both be interpreted either as singular or (perhaps somewhat marked) as plural, as shown by the form of the finite verbs of the main and relative clause.

Example 109

a.		Al wie aanwezig was,	werd	ondervraagd.
		all who present was	was	interrogated

b.	?	Al wie aanwezig waren,	werden	ondervraagd.
		all who present were	were	interrogated

Example (110a) shows that the universally quantified pronoun al cannot be used without the relative clause introduced by wie. This also explains why it cannot be used with a non-restrictive relative clause, as shown in (110b). For more details on the quantifier al, see Section 7.1.2.1.

Example 110

a.	*	Al	werd/werden	ondervraagd.
		all	was/were	interrogated

b.	*	Al, wie aanwezig waren,	werden	ondervraagd.
		all who present were	were	interrogated

[+] 3. Free and semi-free relative constructions

Relative clauses introduced by the pronoun wie can readily be used as free relatives, that is, without a phonetically expressed antecedent. Some examples are given in (111). Free relatives occur most frequently as the subject of a generic matrix clause like (111a&b), but (111c) shows that it is certainly not impossible to use a free relative subject to refer to a specific individual.

Example 111

a.	[Wie	dit	leest]	is gek.
	who	this	reads	is mad
	'Whoever reads this is mad.'

b.	[Wie	te laat	komt]	wordt gestraft.
	who	too late	comes	is punished
	'Whoever comes late will be punished.'

c.	[Wie	daar	staat]	is erg knap.
	who	there	stands	is very handsome
	'The person standing there is very handsome.'

In (111) there is matching in syntactic function between the free relative in the main clause and the relative pronoun in the relative clause, but it is also possible to have a mismatch between these two functions. In (112a), for example, the free relative functions as the subject of the main clause, whereas the relative pronoun functions as the direct object of the relative clause. The acceptability of (112a) contrasts sharply with the ungrammaticality of the German example in (112b) (cf. Van Riemsdijk 2006: 353), which is generally attributed to the fact that, unlike Dutch, German has morphological case: the relative pronoun in the German example must be accusative in order to be able to perform its role within the relative clause, but nominative in order for the free relative clause to perform its role in the main clause: this morphological clash, which is absent in Dutch, causes the ungrammaticality of (112b).

Example 112

a.	[Wie	hij	niet	kent]	is onbelangrijk.
	who	he	not	knows	is unimportant
	'Who he doesnʼt know is unimportant.'

b.	*	[Wen/wer	Got	schwach	geschaffen	hat],	muss	klug	sein.
		whoacc/whonom	God	weak	created	has	must	clever	be
		'Who God has created weak must be clever.'

The examples in (113) show that free relatives can also function as direct objects; again the free relative can have a generic or a specific interpretation. These examples show again that Dutch is not subject to a matching restriction: the free relative clauses in (113) function as direct objects of the main clauses whereas the relative pronouns function as subjects of the relative clauses. In German, examples such as (113) are reported to be ungrammatical or archaic; see Van Riemsdijk (2006: 355-6) for discussion.

Example 113

a.	Ik	bewonder	wie	zoiets	kan.
	I	admire	who	such.thing	can
	'I admire whoever is able to do such a thing.'

b.	We	straften	[wie	dat	gedaan	had]	streng.
	we	punished	who	that	done	had	severely
	'We have punished the person who did it.'

Example (114a), taken from the internet, shows that a free relatives can also be used as the complement of a preposition, although it should be noted that using a free relative as part of an indirect object introduced by aan'to', as in (113b), seems less favored than using a nominal indirect object.

Example 114

a.	Het is een hel	als	je wacht	op	[wie	er	het eerste	dood	gaat].
	it is a hell	if	one waits	for	who	there	the first	dead	goes
	'Itʼs hell if one waits for who will die first.'

b.	Ik zal	[(?aan)	wie	daar	om	gevraagd	heeft]	een exemplaar	toesturen.
	I will	to	who	there	for	asked	has	a copy	prt.-send
	'Weʼll send a copy to whoever asked for one.'

A free relative is normally analyzed as a noun phrase headed by a phonetically empty antecedent for the relative pronoun noun wie, and not as a clause (Van Riemsdijk 2006). Evidence in favor of this claim is that the free relatives with wie have the syntactic distribution of noun phrases, and not that of clauses: they must precede the verbs in clause-final position, even if an anticipatory pronoun is present. This is illustrated in (115) by means of free relatives functioning as the subject and the object of the clause, respectively.

Example 115

a.		dat	[wie	dit	leest]	gek	is.