Variation of prepositional restrictive relative clause and the grammaticalization of locative relative pronouns: a cross-linguistic study

Abstract

Relative clauses are a strong candidate for a linguistic universal since relativization is a phenomenon recurrent in several languages, representing the linguistic encoding of a specification or comment on a nominal element of the sentence structure (KEENAN, COMRIE, 1977,1979; KEENAN, 1985). More recently, changes in the functionality of relative markers have also become the object of interest and investigation, such as the locative relative marker (NICHOLAS, 1998; BROOK, 2011; KUTEVA et al, 2019; BALLARÈ, INGLESE, 2021). Although the prevalence of the phenomenon of relativization is firmly attested, there are still not many studies which adopt a cross-linguistic perspective. This scenario constitutes one of the bases and main motivations for the present cross-linguistic study proposal. Our main aims are to investigate variation in prepositional relativization strategies in the context of restrictive relative clauses, trying to identify if and how they are related to the expansion of the locative relative marker to designate other semantic-cognitive categories in different languages. We also intend to identify the conditions that made this expansion possible, by considering the operation of possible grammaticalization processes (HOPPER, TRAUGOTT, 2003). For this to be possible, we will adopt the methodological approach of Variationist Sociolinguistics (WEINREICH, LABOV, HERZOG, 1968; LABOV, 1972), employing sophisticated quantitative techniques to produce a reliable and comprehensive cross-linguistic description. The study will be divided into three parts: (i) a bibliographic survey of the phenomena described above in different languages; (ii) a meta-analysis of the results of the studies surveyed in phase (i) (FREITAG, 2021) produced in platform R (CORE TEAM, 2023) and (iii) a data analysis comparison between synchronic speech samples from Brazilian Portuguese (ALMEIDA, 2022) and Canadian English. (AU)