On Chinese and Japanese Relative Clauses and NP-Ellipsis

This chapter discusses the interaction of relativization and NP-ellipsis in Chinese and Japanese and highlights that Chinese relatives being in a position lower than Spec,DP cannot license NP-ellipsis, parallel to Japanese relatives. The chapter proposes that this type of Chinese relatives should be analyzed as being adjoined to NP. The chapter also suggests that the Japanese complementizer no cannot select TP with a predicate in the adnominal form. As a consequence, Kaynean head-raising is not an option available in Japanese relatives because the Kaynean approach requires a CP to be the complement of D. The chapter concludes that, in contrast to Japanese, Chinese has two types of relatives: one is in Spec,DP and the other is adjoined to NP.