Pivot selection and puzzling relativisation in Indonesian

Abstract

This chapter presents a novel analysis of Indonesian relative clauses that makes use of the Pivot (PIV) notion as an abstract discourse-syntactic overlay function involving prominent GFs (SUBJ/OBJ) and prominent DFs (FOC-C/TOP-C). The analysis resolves certain perennial relativization issues in Indonesian. The PIV-based analysis not only offers a solution to the Indonesian relativization puzzles presented but sheds light upon the fallibilities of previous analyses of Indonesian relativization processes, which assume gapping and pronominal copy strategies to be in complementary distribution. Instead, the PIV-based analysis offers a stronger account for these facts whereby the presence of overt SUBJ in the tight yang structure with nasal AV verbs renders the relativization of OBJ unacceptable, irrespective of which relativization strategy is used. This can be thought of as a ‘hard’ grammatical constraint of SUBJ relativization in Indonesian, which requires gapping. Show more