Free relatives

[Tracy Holloway King]

Hello,
   This is a much belated reply for information about LFG analyses
of free relatives.  The ParGram project has a relatively simple analysis
of free relatives which is as follows:

C-structure: free relatives are a type of NP or ADVP which involve a free 
             relative pronoun or determiner followed by a sentence.

  Example c-structures:

              NP
               |
            NPfree  
         /          \   
    PRONfree           S
    whatever          I see


               NP
               |
            NPfree  
      /       |        \
    Dfree    NPadj       S
  whosever   book     is on the table 



              ADVP
               |
           ADVPfree  
         /          \      
   PRONfree           S
  wherever           I go

F-structure: The relative pronoun is treated as the head of the
             f-structure.  The clausal complement is treated like
             a relative clause; since there is no overt relative
             pronoun, a dummy one is provided for the f-structure.
             
  Example f-structure for "whatever I see":

	PRED		'pro'
	PRON-TYPE	free
	PRON-FORM	whatever
	NUM		sg
	PERS		3
	ADJUNCT		PRED		'see<SUBJ,OBJ>'
			STMT-TYPE	declarative
			PRON-REL	PRED		'pro'
					CASE		acc	
					PRON-TYPE	rel     
			TOPIC-REL 	=PRON-REL
			SUBJ		PRED 		'pro'
					PRON-TYPE	pers
					PRON-FORM	I
					ANIM		+
					CASE		nom
			OBJ		=PRON-REL

Example rule:

NPfree ->   { PRONfree: "pronominal head; Ex: whatever you choose"
 	     |Dfree: (^ SPEC)=!; "Ex: whichever tractor you choose"
 	      NPadj}

 	    S: !$(^ ADJUNCT) "treated as a relative clause"
	       (! TOPIC-REL)=(! PRON-REL) "creates a PRON-REL"
	       (! STMT-TYPE)=declarative
	       { "non-subject grammatical function; Ex: whatever you choose"
		 (! (XCOMP) {OBJ|OBL})=(! TOPIC-REL) 
		 (! TOPIC-REL CASE)=acc

		|"subject function; Ex: whatever pushes it"
		 (! TOPIC-REL)=(! SUBJ)
		 (! TOPIC-REL CASE)=nom
		 (! SUBJ NUM)=sg  "provides features for verb agreement"
		 (! SUBJ PERS)=3 }

	       (! TOPIC-REL PRED)='pro' "provides features of PRON-REL"
	       (! TOPIC-REL PRON-TYPE)=rel.

Similar rules and structures are provided for the German project
grammar.   However, in the case of German, the overt pronoun is taken
to be the head of the ADJUNCT relative clause, while a dummy pronoun
is provided to head the entire f-structure.  Consider the free relative:

wer zuerst kommt
who first  comes

C-structure:

     CPfreerel
   /         \
PRONint        VP
 wer        zuerst kommt

F-structure:

	PRED		'pro'
	GEND		masc
	CASE		nom
	PRON-TYPE	null
	PERS 		3
	NUM		sg
	ADJUNCT		PRED		'kommen<SUBJ>'
			STMT-TYPE	declarative
			PRON-REL	PRED		'pro'
					PRON-TYPE	int
					GEND		masc
					CASE		nom
					NUM		sg
					PRON-FORM	wer
					PERS		3
			TOPIC-REL	=PRON-REL
			SUBJ		=PRON-REL
			ADJUNCT		PRED		'zuerst'

We hope this is helpful,

Tracy Holloway King