The relative clause in Kiembu

Abstract

The present paper attempts to give a basic description of the formation of relative clauses in Kiembu, a Bantu language of Kenya. As an SVO language, Kiembu employs postnominal relative clauses. The language uses three different relative clause strategies: the relative pronoun, the gap and the resumptive pronoun strategy. The correlations between the relativizable positions and the different strategies used follow the universal, expected tendencies. Kiembu fully supports the Keenan and Comrie Noun Phrase Accessibility Hierarchy. Unlike several other Bantu languages, Kiembu does not employ applicatives on the verb to promote obliques into a higher (subject or object) position to enable relativization. The language also has a type of relative clause, which does not have an overt head. Some of these may be interpreted as null headed, and others as headless relative clauses.