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    3.3.2.4.Coordinated antecedents
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    This section discusses relative clauses with coordinated antecedents. The discussion will be mainly restricted to conjunctive coordination with en'and' and disjunctive coordination with of'or'. Some examples are given in (372) and (373). Further we will focus on those features of coordination relevant to the form and the interpretation of the relative clause.

    372
    Conjunctive coordination (en'and')
    a. Jan speelt straks preludes en etudes die hij onlangs gecomponeerd heeft.
      Jan plays  later  preludes and etudes  which he recently composed has
      'Later Jan will play preludes and etudes which he has recently composed.'
    b. Jan speelt straks een prelude en een etude die hij onlangs gecomponeerd heeft.
      Jan plays  later  a prelude and an etude  which he recently composed has
      'Later Jan will play a prelude and an etude which he has recently composed.'
    373
    Disjunctive coordination (of'or')
    a. Jan speelt straks preludes of etudes die hij onlangs gecomponeerd heeft.
      Jan plays  later  preludes or etudes  which he recently composed has
      'Later Jan will play preludes or etudes which he has recently composed.'
    b. Jan speelt straks een prelude of een etude die hij onlangs gecomponeerd heeft.
      Jan plays  later  a prelude or an etude  which he recently composed has
      'Later Jan will play a prelude or an etude which he has recently composed.'

    In (372) and (373) we are dealing with restrictive relative clauses, but we will see that modification by means of non-restrictive relative clauses is usually acceptable as well. The fact that the coordinated antecedents in these examples involve indefinite noun phrases and are headed by nouns of the same gender (non-neuter) is also accidental; coordinated antecedents may just as well involve definite noun phrases and, at least under certain circumstances, be headed by nouns of a different gender. The discussion will be restricted to cases with at most two conjuncts, despite the fact that, in principle, the number of coordinated elements is unlimited (although in practice their number will be restricted by the limited capacity of short-term memory). Examples with three conjuncts with the conjunction en are given in (374a) and (374b) for, respectively, restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses. In (375), we give comparable examples with the disjunctive conjunction of'or'.

    374
    a. De boeken, artikelen en recensies die ik wil lezen, bleken niet beschikbaar.
      the books articles and reviews  that I want read  proved  not  available
      'The books, articles and reviews that I want to read appeared not to be available.'
    b. Deze boeken, artikelen en recensies, die ik wil lezen, zijn niet beschikbaar.
      these books articles and reviews  which I want read  are not available
      'These books, articles and reviews, which I want to read, are not available.'
    375
    a. We mogen honden, katten of andere huisdieren die geen overlast bezorgen houden.
      we may  dogs  cats  or other pets which  no trouble  cause is  keep
      'Weʼre allowed to keep dogs, cats or other pets that cause no trouble.'
    b. We mogen honden, katten of andere kleine huisdieren, die immers geen overlast bezorgen, houden.
      we may  dogs  cats  or other small pets  which  after.all  no trouble  cause  keep
      'Weʼre allowed to keep dogs, cats or other small pets, which after all donʼt cause any trouble.'

    Conjunctive and disjunctive coordination will be discussed separately in Sections 3.3.2.4.2 and 3.3.2.4.3, respectively. In both sections, we will discuss constructions with different types of coordinated antecedent such as coordinated plurals, coordinated singulars, etc. Section 3.3.2.4.1 will start, however, with a more general discussion of the scope of the relative clause, that is, the fact that relative constructions with a coordinated antecedent may give rise to ambiguity concerning the size of the antecedent of the relative clause.

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      About this article
      Author(s): Hans Broekhuis, Evelien Keizer
      Category: Dutch Syntax
      Keywords: Antecedent of Relative PronounCoordinationPronounRelative Pronoun
      Version: 1.0, December 2015
      Version history:
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      1.0 Hans Broekhuis, Evelien Keizer December 2015
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