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4. In the relative clause construction, the relative pronoun must agree on the feature of animacy with the head noun. For example, if the head noun is human, the relative pronoun must be okoii and for the non-human head noun, the relative pronoun must be okoa.

13.	somwari	moyon-ge	h	okoikei	soma
	Somvary	one-emph.	person	whom	soma

sukua	- g - i	- a
like	- present	-cop

‘Somvary is the only person whom Soma likes’.

14.

*somwari

moyonge

okoai

soma

sukua

-g-i-a

‘Somvary is the only person which Soma likes’

15.	ia	bia	moyon	- ge	- jinis	heke	okoaai
	this	book	one	-emph.	thing	is	which

ebul

etan

- re

tai - ken

-a

‘This book is the only thing which was on the table’

16.

*ia

bia

moyon-ge

jinis

heke

okoii

ebul

etan -re

tailena

‘This book is the only thing who was on the table’

17.	aiŋ	hon - ko - ke	darom	- l - i - ko -a-iŋ	okoiakoi
	I	child-pl-case	meet	-ten-pl-cop-PT	whom
	idikata	am	aiŋ - ke	kajia-l-i -a-m
	about	you	I-case	say-past-cop-PT

‘I met the children whom you told me about’

18.	* aiŋ	honkoke	daromlikoaiŋ	okoakoi
	idikata	am	aiŋke	kajiliam

‘I met the children which you told me about’.

5. The relative clause may be moved to the right, away from its head noun as in the following sentences:

19a.	darua	okoai	sa:ima	etan-re	tai - len - a
	plant	which	roof	over-case	is-past-cop

inaa bai - len - a

that fall - tense - cop

‘The plant which was on the roof fell off’

19b.

darua

bai-len-a

okoai

saimaetanre

tailena

‘The pant which was on the roof fell off’.

20a.	ia	bi	okoaai	ale	kriŋ	-ta?t-a-le	ina
	this	book	which	we	buy	perf.-cop-PT	that

tayom-te	kami-re	omowaŋ
time-case	work-case	use.

‘The book which we have bought will be used later’.

20b

tayomte

kamire

okoaai

ale

kriŋ

ta?t-le

‘The book will be used later which we have bought’

21a	ha	okoii	astia-tea	hi?i - len - a- le	ini?
	man	who	Astia-case	come-past-cop-PT	he

ol	-l	-a
write	-tense	-cop

‘The book will be used later which we have bought’

21b.

ol-l-a

okoii

astiatea

hi?i-len-

a-le

‘The man wrote who came from Astia wrote’

6. If the relativized NP is the object of the embedded sentence, then the relative pronoun may be deleted optionally as in the following sentence.

22a.	bia	okoaai	aiŋ	kriŋ-l-a	inaa	gonaŋana
	book	which	I	buy-tense	that	costly

‘The book which I bought is costly’

22b

bia

aiŋ

kriŋla

inaa

gonaŋana

heke

‘The book I bought is costly’

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