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    Stacked and coordinated relative clauses and copular there-clauses
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    Relative clauses may be stacked, just as attributive adjectives may.

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    The relative clauses in the example below are stacked. Both of them may receive either a restrictive or a non-restrictive reading.

    1
    De aaisiker [dy't hjir krekt wie], [dy't sa lilk wie]
    the egg.searcher REL here just was REL so angry was
    The egg searcher who was here just now, who was so angry

    Relative clauses can also be coordinated:

    2
    De aaisiker [dy't in nust fûn] en [dy't it net meldde]
    the egg.searcher who a nest found and who it not reported
    The egg searcher who found a nest and who did not report it

    The following example involves two stacked restrictive relative clauses:

    3
    Gjinien [dy't feroardield waard], [dy't yn heger berop gie] wie tefreden
    no one who convicted was who in higher court went was content
    No one who was convicted who went to a higher court was content

    The order of the relative clauses affects their interpretation in case the process described has a designated order in the real world. As a result, mutual exchange of the two relative clauses leads to a different interpretation. In example (3) above, the conviction precedes the act of appeal to a higher court. In the example below, the conviction follows the act of appeal to a higher court:

    4
    Gjinien [dy't yn heger berop gie], [dy't feroardield waard] wie tefreden
    no one who in higher court went who convicted was was content
    No one who was convicted who went to a higher court was content

    In case a Noun Phrase (NP) in a there-cleft construction is followed by two relative clauses, the first relative clause is interpreted as a restriction on the quantifier's first (nominal) argument, and the second relative clause is interpreted as the quantifier's second (Verb Phrase (VP)) argument:

    5
    Der wie gjinien [dy't feroardield waard], [dy't yn heger berop gie]
    there was no one who convicted was who in higher court go
    There was no one who was convicted who appealed to a higher court

    As a result, the sentence in (5) has the same interpretation as the sentence below:

    6
    Gjinien [dy't feroardield waard], gie yn heger berop
    there who convicted went went in higher court
    No one who was convicted appealed to a higher court

    This is probably a side-effect of the semantics of the verb wêze be, taken in conjunction with the way in which this negative quantifier works. It is not possible to interpret the second relative clause as a restriction on the quantifier's nominal argument and the first relative clause as the VP argument. As a result, the copular there-sentence with two relative clauses cannot be taken to mean the following:

    7
    Gjinien [dy't yn heger berop gie] waard feroardield
    no one who in higher appeal went was convicted
    No one who appealed to a higher court was convicted
    References
      About this article
      Author(s): Eric Hoekstra
      Category: Frisian Syntax
      Keywords: stackedcoordinatecopular there-sentence
      Version: 1.0, December 2015
      Version history:
      version editor(s) date remarks
      1.0 Eric Hoekstra December 2015
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