REFERENTIALITY IN NOUN PHRASES AND RELATIVE PRONOUNS
REFERENTIALITY IN NOUN PHRASES AND RELATIVE PRONOUNS

Summary/Abstract: This paper examines the use of who and which with human antecedents in non-restrictive relative clauses. Apart from the cases where the antecedent is a property NP, the contexts that require which are claimed to be those where the antecedent is a non-specific NP (Kuno 1970, Declerck 1991). However, the use of which is not limited to these cases. Moreover, there are cases where which is not allowed even though the antecedent is a non-specific NP. I will argue that in order to fully account for the choice between who and which, it is crucial to consider not only the referentiality and the specificity of the antecedent NP but also the semantic function that the relative pronoun plays in the clause, specifically, whether it is a referential NP, a property NP, or an NP involving a variable.

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