In this chapter I examine a number of features that involve ways that words are organized in sentences and how sentences are joined together. The study of the organization of words is referred to as syntax. Syntactic variation in language is another way that dialects distinguish themselves. Variation among different word orders is a common feature that distinguishes languages of the world, but it is not typically a feature that distinguishes dialects. Nevertheless, the specific markers of linking words can often differ from one community to the next. English has many ways of joining sentences together and dialects often use different strategies from mainstream English. Moreover, the forms linking sentences together have changed considerably in the history of English.

Relative clauses

One of the most frequent ways of joining sentences together is by attaching a subordinate clause to a main clause. When the subordinate clause adds information about what is being talked about in the main clause, it is typically headed by a relative pronoun. In contemporary English the standard relative pronouns are who, which, whose and whom, as in (1), the so-called WH- forms. However, at least two other forms exist: that, as in (2), and no marker at all, the ‘zero’ relative pronoun, as in (3).