[Lingtyp] Aspect as marking strategy for relative clauses

[Zielenbach, M. (Maria)]

Dear Christian,
Thank you for your reply. I’ve already received private responses with examples from similarly functioning languages. My request targets a potential grammaticalization path IMPERFECTIVE ASPECT (> STATIVE) > RELATIVE CLAUSE MARKER, which I find conceivable. As you point out, such a connection becomes undetectable once the marker (or whatever element) is no longer used for aspect. My analysis of Modole relative clauses is not based on a single example, and I also never claimed that reduplication already marks relative clauses in Modole.
Best wishes,
Maria

________________________________
From: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of Christian Lehmann via Lingtyp <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2025 12:09
To: lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] Aspect as marking strategy for relative clauses

Dear Maria,

first of all, let me confirm that I have never seen reduplication or aspect conjugation functioning as markers of a relative clause. From a theoretical point of view, this is even hard to conceive since the same reduplication or aspect marking also occurs outside relative clauses. So you would need an additional condition under which it functions as relative-clause marking.

My suggestion would be to pursue alternative hypotheses. In your example, it is, on the one hand, not at all obvious that the reduplication signals any aspect at all. On the other, reduplication may have the function of intensification or emphasis, which it has in many languages. It would also seem possible that emphasis is frequent in relative clauses, depending on how relative clauses are used in Modole.

On the other hand, it should be clear that there are, in the world, relative clauses which lack any special marking whatsoever. So it is not the case that you need to discover/identify such marking in Modole.

Best, Christian Lehmann
--

Prof. em. Dr. Christian Lehmann
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Tel.:   +49/361/2113417
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