Differences between Externally and Internally Headed Relative Clause Constructions

They all describe events of an apple’s being on the tray and Tom’s eating it. But, there exist several intriguing differences between the two constructions. One crucial difference between the IHRC and EHRC comes from the fact that the semantic object of mekessta ‘ate’ in IHRC examples like (1)a is the NP sakwa ‘apple’ buried inside the embedded clause followed by kes. It is thus the subject of the embedded clause apples that serves as the semantic argument of the main predicate. In the analysis of such IHRCs, of central interest are thus (a) how we can analyze the constructions in syntax and (b) how we can associate the internal head of the IHRC clause with the matrix predicate so that the head can function as its semantic argument, and (c) what makes