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Which That

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2026

Herbert F. W. Stahlke
Herbert F. W. Stahlke*
Affiliation:
Georgia State University
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Abstract

Most grammarians have treated the word that, used in relative clauses, as a relative pronoun. However, its syntactic behavior is not at all like that of a pronoun, and therefore it must be a conjunction. Data from Standard English that-relatives and WH-relatives, non-Standard English that-relatives, and relative clauses in Dari (Kabul Persian) and Yoruba suggest that syntactic islands be added to the Keenan-Comrie Accessibility Hierarchy (1972). The use of that in relative clauses is related to its use as a complementizer with declarative verbs.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 52 , Issue 3 , September 1976 , pp. 584 - 610
Copyright
Copyright © 1976 by Linguistic Society of America

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