Abstract
This thesis investigates the relative clauses (RCs) in Jianshi Squliq Atayal from the viewpoint of Field Linguistics and Generative Syntax. It is argued that RCs with the linker ka□ (ka□-RCs) and RCs without the linker ka□ (bare RCs) are two different kinds of relative clauses. The former are structurally externally-headed and semantically restrictive while the latter are structurally internally-headed and semantically nonrestrictive. This distinction can be buttressed by evidence from word order, resumptive pronoun, temporal adverbial and proper name. The linker ka□ is also proven to be a complementizer rather than a relative pronoun or a case marker. On the basis of externally-headed relative clauses (EHRCs) in Squliq Atayal, we claim that the standard approach is superior to the Antisymmetric approach proposed by Kayne (1994). Although the Antisymmetric approach can easily generate all kinds of linear order, it not only results in the problem of overgeneration but also cannot account for the omission of the complementizer in Squliq Atayal. On the contrary, the standard approach does not have these problems and it can consistently explain the phrase structure of EHRCs in Squliq Atayal, English and Chinese. Besides, EHRCs in Squliq Atayal exhibit the argument-adjunct asymmetry in island effects and the subject-object asymmetry in relativization, which further prefers the standard approach. As for internally-headed relative clauses (IHRCs) in Squliq Atayal, they are not adverbial clauses since their syntactic distribution is different from that of adverbial clauses in Squliq Atayal. In terms of island effects, it is proposed that prenominal IHRCs and postnominal IHRCs are syntactically different: the head noun of prenominal bare RCs moves to Spec-CP to check off T-feature and [REL] while the head noun of postnominal bare RCs is base-generated at Spec-CP. However, whether IHRCs are pronominal or postnominal, they are genuine nonrestrictive relative clauses.