"Zein" erlatiboaren historiaz / About the history of the "zein" relative

Abstract

The present paper deals with one of the Basque relativization strategies: the zein relative, in which an interrogative pronoun, usually zein 'which', heads the subordinate clause. The goal is to analyze its use in the 16th to 19th century texts. I set aside the question of whether it was modeled on the syntax of neighboring Romance languages, and focus instead on the analysis of texts and properties of the construction. First, I describe the occurrences of the construction since the earliest texts to the 19th century, including, apart from printed sources, also private letters. Then, I analyze several grammatical properties of the zein relative: the form of the pronoun, the use or lack of subordinating affix, arguments that tend to be relativized or the complexity of the subordinate clause. I try to show that zein relative was not a «barbarism» or alien element not integrated in the grammar, but rather a construction just like any other (even though it did not spread to all registers), with its specific functions and contexts of use.