relativizer

In linguistics, a relativizer is a word or morpheme that introduces a relative clause, a subordinate clause that modifies a noun or noun phrase. The relativizer marks the connection between the head noun and the embedded clause and can function as a relative pronoun, a relative adverb, or a zero morpheme in languages that encode the relationship through inflection or syntax rather than a separate word.

In English, common relativizers are the relative pronouns who, whom, whose, which, and that, as well as the relative adverbs where, when, and why. The choice of relativizer often correlates with formality and clause type: restrictive relative clauses typically use that or which, while nonrestrictive clauses commonly employ which accompanied by commas; who and whom refer to people, which to things, and whose to possession. An example is The author who won the prize, or The place where we met.

Cross-linguistic variation is broad. Some languages use explicit relative markers or pronouns, while others rely on participial or nominal forms. Mandarin Chinese uses a particle like 的 de to link a preceding relative clause to its noun. Japanese forms relative clauses by placing a preceding verb phrase before a noun, with no separate relative pronoun. Turkish and Finnish employ participial or affixal strategies to index the relation. Other languages may omit a dedicated relativizer altogether, forming zero-relatives or using resumptive pronouns in the embedded clause.

Relativizers thus play a central role in structuring information about referents, enabling speakers to attach descriptive clauses to nouns and to encode distinctions such as person, object, time, or reason within complex sentences.