Basic English Syntax with Exercises

zero relative

7.4.2 A comparison between relative and interrogative clauses

There is another interesting difference between the use of interrogative and relative pronouns which shows that there is a possibility available for a relative pronoun that is not generally available with interrogatives. The restrictive relative is often noted to come in three different forms. One starts with a wh-relative pronoun and is called a wh-relative. Another starts with the complementiser that and is called a that-relative, and the third has nothing in front of the subject and is called a zero relative. These are exemplified below:

7.4.2 A comparison between relative and interrogative clauses

Interestingly, although they do not start with a wh-element, both that-relatives and zero relatives contain a gap in the same place that they would if they did have a wh-element:

7.4.2 A comparison between relative and interrogative clauses

If that is a complementiser in the that-relatives, then that-relatives and zero relatives are alike in that they do not contain a wh-element and the difference appears to be the standard ability of the complementiser to be overt or covert in a finite clause:

7.4.2 A comparison between relative and interrogative clauses

If this is true, then the same must be true of all relatives, including that and zero ones. The fact that we cannot detect a wh-element in these relatives suggests that they should be analysed as containing an empty wh-element, similar to the empty operator in yes–no questions, but this time behaving like the type of wh-element that originates inside the IP and moves to the spec of CP: