correlatieven

Correlatives are a class of words that establish a syntactic or semantic link between parts of a sentence or between sentences. In Dutch they include demonstratives, interrogatives, and relative pronouns such as deze, die, wat, wie, welk and others that refer back to or anticipate an element within a clause. In many languages they perform a similar function, with English correlatives like this, that, which, who, whom serving equivalent roles.

They are typologically distinguished by their ability to cross-reference an antecedent or an anticipated object. For instance, in the Dutch construction Dat is het boek dat ik lees, dat refers back to het boek while the embedded dat refers forward to the clause ik lees. Correlatives often occur with a binding relation, where one element is dependent on or related to another.

These words are essential for cohesion in discourse because they create ellipsis and avoid repetition. For example, after introducing a topic, a speaker can refer to it with dit or dat rather than repeating the full noun phrase. In questions and relative clauses, correlatives activate interrogative or relativizing functions, thereby structuring information flow.

Historically the notion of correlatives has been studied in theoretical linguistics as part of binding theory and cross‑linguistic typology. The Dutch grammar distinguishes between the four main sets of correlatives: demonstrative (dit, dat, etc.), interrogative (wat, wie,), relative (die, dat,), and reflexive (zich, zichzelf,). In comparative studies, languages such as German, Italian, and Japanese also feature similar correlatives, though with different morphological markers.

In contemporary usage, correlatives remain a fundamental tool for creating logical connections, ensuring that texts and spoken discourse remain coherent and efficiently structured.