• Dutch
  • Frisian
  • Saterfrisian
  • Afrikaans
Show all
Syntactic category of the antecedent
quickinfo

Restrictive relative clauses necessarily have an antecedent of the category Noun Phrase (NP), whereas non-restrictive relatives can also target other syntactic categories.

readmore

In the example below, a non-restrictive relative clause targets a clause:

1
Hy woe neat sizze, wat de plysje kûgelsk makke
he wanted nothing say which the police very.angry made
He did not want to say anything, which made the police very angry

However, the intended meaning would normally be expressed in a coordinate structure involving a topic pronoun, and that is clearly preferred in spoken language:

2
Hy woe neat sizze, en dat makke de plysje kûgelsk
he wanted nothing say and that made the police very.angry
He did not want to say anything, which made the police very angry

Restrictive relative clauses cannot target a clause. They are only found with antecedents of the category NP.

References
    printreport errorcite