3.4.2.3. Optionality or obligatoriness of the relativization sign

The sign self is optional and it may be absent from the relative construction without affecting the grammaticality of the structure.

 

                                                re, sq

          self mushroom collect++ basket cl(6) / cl(?): ‘put in the basket’.

          ‘I’ll put in the basket the mushrooms that I find.’                             

(© Marta Mosella 2012. Reprinted with permission from Mosella, 2012: 176)

 

However, when the sign is not explicit it may trigger ambiguity between a relative construction reading and a counterfactual conditional reading.

                                         re, sq

          mushroom collect++ basket cl(6) / cl(?): ‘put in the basket’.

         â€˜I’ll put in the basket the mushrooms that I find. / If I had found mushrooms I’d had put them in the basket.’

                                                                   (© Marta Mosella 2012. Reprinted with permission from Mosella, 2012: 177)