A Grammar of Turkish Sign Language (TİD)

There is no differentiation with respect to the human/non-human specificity of the head noun and the relativization sign used and with respect to the order of the relative clause to the rest of the main clause. However, there is an interaction between animacy and the use of subject vs. object relative clause. Namely, there is a preference for subject relativization with an animate entity whereas an inanimate entity most often occurs with object relativization. Although all four combinations of the function of the noun+relative clause and what is targeted to be the head inside the relative clause (Subject-Subject, Subject-Object, Object-Object, Object-Subject) are possible in TİD, Subject-Subject relative clauses are commonly used with an animate head noun while Object-Object relative clauses are commonly used with an inanimate head noun. Example of a Subject-Subject relative clause with an animate head noun is provided below. Here, the subject of the relative clause is an animate entity which is referred to by a finger-listing buoy [Lexicon - 1.2.3.], i.e. the first woman. The relativization sign is the index, ix_3a, pointed to the entity in neutral space.

 

 

                                        [o]

                                       hn  hn

                                       sq   re           sq

(h1) [ıx        marry fınısh ıx_3a]  sıngle_3b CL:‘meet’_3a,3b

(h2)  fırst

'The first (woman), who was already married, met (the woman), who was single.'

(Adapted from Kubus 2016: 206)

 

Example of a Subject-Object relative clause with an inanimate head noun is provided below. An inanimate head, water, occurs at the beginning and at the end of the relative clause and both the head nouns and the relative clause are in the scope of squint. The head noun (‘water’) is the object of relative clause, whereas the complex noun modified by the relative clause, (‘the water that İbrahim had brought earlier.’), is the subject of the main clause.

                                                                sq

... [water before ibrahiım bring water] over palm-up

'The water that İbrahim had brought earlier was gone.'

 (Kubus 2016: 206)

 

An example of an Object-Subject relative clause with an inanimate head noun is provided below. In this example, the head noun is animate, baby, and it is the subject of the relative clause but the complex noun modified by the relative clause (‘the baby who was sleeping’) is object for the main clause.

 

                                                 sq   hn

nurse_{a a}look_at_b [baby_b sleep]

'The nurse looked at the baby who was sleeping.'

   (Kubus 2016: 344)

 

An example of an Object-Object relative clause with an inanimate head noun is provided below. The head of the relative clause is the inanimate entity, money, which is the object targeted by relativization. In turn, the entire noun phrase [Syntax - 4] modified the relative clause (‘the money that he got’) is used as the object of the main clause predicate [Syntax - 2.1.1.], spend^not.

 

                                                'bu'

                               sq    re                          hs                ht

[son_3a money _3bgive_3b ix_3b] money what_do spend^not

'The son did not save the money that he got (from his parents).'

(Kubus 2016: 318)