THE POSITION AND FUNCTIONS OF RELATIVE CLAUSES IN HAUSA

Abstract

A relative clause is a clause that is attached to an antecedent by a relative pronoun. Relative pronouns in English include who, which, whom, whose and that. It is an independent clause that gives the reader more information about another noun in a sentence. In Hausa, there are two types of relative pronouns. Type A include wanda/wacce/waxandawho. It has (AGR features) variation for person, gender and number respectively. Type B has da/who,which, whom, whose and that with no variation for person, number and gender. Generally, there are two types of relative clauses, Restrictive (defining) clause and Non-Restrictive (non–defining) clause. In both types of clauses, the relative pronoun can function as a subject, an object or a possessive pronoun, however, each type has a different function within a sentence. The aim of this paper is to sketch and study the position and functions of relative clause constructions in Hausa based on the notion of construction type.