Noun-modifying clause constructions in Ainu

Abstract The Ainu (Southern Hokkaido) relative clause construction is built on the model of the nominal attributive construction, while the noun-complement construction is based on that of the nominal possessive construction in which the head is marked with a possessive suffix. Also, relative and noun-complement clauses behave differently with regard to island violation constraints: only the latter allow such violations. However, there is a small number of noun-complement clauses without possessive marking on the perception/relational head noun, which makes them look like relative clauses; these are the so-called emergent GNMCCs. I suggest that these head nouns appear in non-possessive form in order to dissociate themselves from the few homonymous possessive heads which are grammaticalized as modal/evidential markers in the relevant constructions.