The Development of Relative Clauses in Modern Ukrainian: Lexical Variation over Syntactic Change

Abstract

The paper argues that developments and changes in relative-clause formation in Ukrainian since the end of the 18th c. are due to lexical variation between a relative particle, typically ščo ‘that’, with or without a resumptive pronoun, and the relative pronouns jakyj and kotryj ‘which’. This repertory of relativisers is the result of previous syntactic changes, without any further ones in the modern period. The paper provides evidence that there are no grammaticalised constraints attached to them in modern Standard Ukrainian or the dialects. Due to its lexical nature, relativiser selection is subject to substantial diatopic, diachronic and diaphasic variability, as well as to language contact and linguistic standardisation. The paper shows, with reference to contemporary Standard Ukrainian corpus data, that selection preferences may still correlate with extralinguistic and linguistic factors, such as jakyj as the standardised choice and ščo almost exclusively in subject position.