LingLunch : Lena Karssenberg

Lena Karssenberg (U. Leuven)
The functions of the relative clause in 'il y a' clefts

Abstract: in this presentation, I will show that the traditional distinction between restrictive relative clauses and non-restrictive cleft relative clauses cannot account for all instances of `il y a .. qui' sentences. Instead of seeing these types as discrete morphosyntactic categories, I will propose that there is one basic type of relative clause, which can have different prototypical functions in discourse.