47.3. Headless relative clauses
Models
| 1) | U¸ XĆIT SW̱ ȻSE QENNEN. | ‘You know what I saw.’ |
| 2) | U¸ XĆIT SEN ȻSE QENNEW̱. | ‘I know what you saw.’ |
| 3) | U¸ XĆIT SW̱ ȻSE QENNEȽTE. | ‘You know what we saw.’ |
| 4) | U¸ XĆIT SW̱ ȻSE QENNES. | ‘You know what he/she/they saw.’ |
‣ 1 Compare these models with those in §47.2 and you we see that the models here are basically the same as those, but here the relative clause has no head.
‣ 2 These are called headless relative clauses because the head is unstated.
‣ 3 In English, there are various ways of translating these. The first model could be translated ‘You know that which I saw’ or ‘You know the one I saw’ as well as ‘You know what I saw.’
‣ 4 Just as with the other relative clauses, these headless relative clauses can be the subject of an intransitive main verb or the object of a transitive main verb. They cannot be subjects of transitive verbs.
 | XĆIT E SW̱ ȻSE QENNEN? | ‘Do you know what I saw?’ |
 | EWE. STÁṈ? | ‘No. What?’ |
| QENNEW̱ SEN ȻSE ĆEḴ SṮÁLEḴEM. | ‘I saw a big monster.’ |
| ḴEL¸ḴEL¸OŦEN LE¸ YEW̱ SW̱. | ‘You must have been dreaming.’ |
| 47.3A. Translate into English. 1. XĆIT SEN ŦE QENNEN. 2. QENNEṈ SEN ¸E TŦE QENNEW̱. 3. XĆIT SW̱ ȻSE QENNEȽTE. 4. QENNES ȻSE XĆITEW̱. | 47.3B. Translate into SENĆOŦEN 1. Do you know what we saw? 2. It was the one that arrived that you saw. 3. The one you saw arrived. 4. I know what you saw. |