German question: Restritive vs nonrestrictive relative clauses
Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2018 4:42 pm
One of the readers for my syntax book made a claim about German that I'd like feedback on from the German speakers here.
He claimed that there's no syntactic difference in German between restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses. To save typing, I'm going to write RRC and NRC. So, e.g.
Der König, der die Götter liebt, kann nicht scheitern.
is ambiguous between
The king who loves the Gods cannot fail. (RRC)
The king, who loves the Gods, cannot fail. (NRC)
(If you're shaky on the difference, in a NRC the relative clause is just a parenthetical— the sentence is logically the same as "The king cannot fail" but adds a factoid about the king. In the first sentence the relative clause is essential as it specifies which kings we are talking about.)
Now that may well be, but in English there are other differences between RRCs and NRCs. One, only RRCs can follow an indefinite pronoun:
Everyone who drank Fred's beer ended up snoring.
*Everyone, who drank Fred's beer, ended up snoring.
Two, only NRCs can follow a bare proper noun.
Bruce Wayne, who is my friend, would never be a vigilante.
*Bruce Wayne who is my friend would never be a vigilante.
Three, you can extrapose freely only from RRCs:
Bill, who I know from grade school, was just arrested.
?Bill was just arrested, who I know from grade school.
Four, you can leave out the subordinator only for RRCs:
The king the Gods love cannot fail.
*The king, the Gods love, cannot fail.
Finally, you can move our clitic possessive 's after a RRC, but not after a NRC:
The girl I like’s house is right here.
*The girl, who I like, ’s house is right here.
So, my question is, do any of these differences work for German too? And if not, are there any other things that might distinguish RRC from NRC?
He claimed that there's no syntactic difference in German between restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses. To save typing, I'm going to write RRC and NRC. So, e.g.
Der König, der die Götter liebt, kann nicht scheitern.
is ambiguous between
The king who loves the Gods cannot fail. (RRC)
The king, who loves the Gods, cannot fail. (NRC)
(If you're shaky on the difference, in a NRC the relative clause is just a parenthetical— the sentence is logically the same as "The king cannot fail" but adds a factoid about the king. In the first sentence the relative clause is essential as it specifies which kings we are talking about.)
Now that may well be, but in English there are other differences between RRCs and NRCs. One, only RRCs can follow an indefinite pronoun:
Everyone who drank Fred's beer ended up snoring.
*Everyone, who drank Fred's beer, ended up snoring.
Two, only NRCs can follow a bare proper noun.
Bruce Wayne, who is my friend, would never be a vigilante.
*Bruce Wayne who is my friend would never be a vigilante.
Three, you can extrapose freely only from RRCs:
Bill, who I know from grade school, was just arrested.
?Bill was just arrested, who I know from grade school.
Four, you can leave out the subordinator only for RRCs:
The king the Gods love cannot fail.
*The king, the Gods love, cannot fail.
Finally, you can move our clitic possessive 's after a RRC, but not after a NRC:
The girl I like’s house is right here.
*The girl, who I like, ’s house is right here.
So, my question is, do any of these differences work for German too? And if not, are there any other things that might distinguish RRC from NRC?