Internal Relative Clause

Definition

An internal relative clause is a relative clause whose head noun phrase occurs within the relative clause itself.

This type of relative clause, which occurs only in SOV languages, takes the place of a regular noun phrase argument in the main clause.

(Imbabura Quechua)

[kan	kwitsa	-man	kwintu	-ta	willa	-shka	-ka]	llapa
you	girl	to	story	ACCUSATIVE	tell	NOMINALIZER	TOPIC	very

This example means either ‘The girl to whom you told the story is very pretty’ or ‘The story that you told to the girl is very pretty’.