A Study of Types and Core Constituents of Acehnese Relative Clauses

This research aims to determine and explain the types and the core constituents of Acehnese relative clauses which so far have not been thoroughly discussed. To collect data for this study, a direct elicitation technique is used, and the data is then analyzed through a qualitative descriptive technique. The results showed that the relative clauses in Acehnese were clauses embedded as modifiers of noun phrases. Similar to the relative clauses’ theory proposed by experts in the Acehnese, there are five types of relative clauses: relativization of subject, relativization of predicate, relativization of object, relativization of possessive, and relativization of noun. Relative clauses in Acehnese are formed by connecting core nouns and relative clauses through the connecting word ‘nyang’, except for the relative clause of the predicate element through the ellipsis of the predicate element. The basic structure of the Acehnese relative clauses is the arrangement of the main constituents preceding (postnominal) the relative clauses. The constituents that described the relative clauses could form words or phrases depending on the reference to the meaning of the relative clauses. In the Acehnese, the following elements do not exist: (1) relative clauses that can be reduced by adverbials such as in English, (2) relative pronouns as in German and * Corresponding author, email: denniiskandar@fkip.unsyiah.ac.id Citation in APA style: Iskandar, D., Mulyadi, Nasution, K., & Hanafiah, R. (2021). A study of types and core constituents of Acehnese relative clauses. Studies in English Language and Education, 8(1), 397-410. Received September 25, 2020; Revised December 6, 2020; Accepted December 17, 2020; Published Online January 3, 2021 https://doi.org/10.24815/siele.v8i1.18164 D. Iskandar, Mulyadi, K. Nasution & R. Hanafiah, A study of types and core constituents of Acehnese relative clauses | 398 relative particles such as in Chinese Mandarin; and (3) the attachment of relative suffixes to verbs as in Korean.


INTRODUCTION
A relative clause is one of the bound clauses or subordinate clauses, which in the transformation literature, especially Generative Grammar, is usually called an embedded clause because the clause is embedded in one of the elements or higher constituents. The sentence or clause where the subordinate clause is embedded is called a matrix clause, parent clause, or main clause (De Vries, 2018). The author has yet to find a discussion about the relative clauses of the Acehnese, especially in the form of published articles. This study tries to analyze the characteristics of relative clauses in the Acehnese in order to obtain specific findings from the relative clauses in Acehnese.
The construction of relative clauses of world languages has its specifications (Agustina, 2007). The Indo German language, for example, allows relative pronouns to function as subjects, objects and is indicated by cases that appear in the relative pronoun form. In Acehnese, it is the same as in Indonesian, and it is debatable because the relative clause markers in Acehnese are in the form of a liaison, and in Indonesian, it is a liaison. The concept of relative clauses in the Acehnese can be accepted if we accept Samsuri's (1985) opinion, which states that relative clauses occur when the basic sentence becomes an integral part of a complex sentence whose subject turns into a nyang particle because it is identical to a noun phrase.
This leads to our inquiry if these types of relative clauses mentioned by DeCapua (2008) and Suharsono (2015) can be found in the Acehnese. Furthermore, there have been no discussions on the pattern of core constituents in the noun phrase (or NP) or antecedents that are explained by the Acehnese relative clauses of which are associated with its meaning components. For this reason, it is also important to explore this important issue; what are the patterns of core constituents in the NP or antecedents that are explained by the Acehnese relative clauses? This research fills in those gaps hence provide some contributions toward linguistics theory across languages in general.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Relative clauses are defined as subordinate clauses that have a semantic and syntactic role in both the main and subordinate clauses (Cristofaro, 2003;De Vries, 2018). In English, there are at least three main characteristics of relative clauses, namely (1) there must be antecedents or the previous element (word, phrase, etc.) that are assigned by word/phrase in a clause/sentence, namely the NP of the main clause must be the same as the NP of the relative clause, (2) there must be a relator/coupler of the main clause elements with the relative clause elements positioned before the clause, and (3) the relator must occupy one of the syntactic functions in the relative clause (Agustina, 2007;Koça & Pojani, 2016). The clause is relatively the same as the adjective clause because they both function as qualifiers or modifiers of the parent constituents in the form of nouns (Mallinson & Blake, 1981;Solak, 2019). The construction of a relative clause consists of two components, the head noun, and the relative clause as the delimiter. In Indonesian, the nucleus noun and the relative clause are connected with the word yang. Hogbin andSong (2007, as cited in Sari et al., 2017) state that words called relative words or pronouns are relative and very productive to form relative constructs so that clauses are relatively equated with the yang word. Dixon (2010) explains that the relative clause syntactically functions as an attributive to the common argument in the main clause. A relative clause has the basic structure of a clause, which consists of the predicate and the core arguments required by the predicate. Besides, relative clauses also have the same function as adjectives, so that nouns or pronouns that are limited by relative clauses are called antecedents, which are words that come from the noun category, noun phrase, or pronoun and are redesignated by the relative pronoun. Relative clauses are generally contained in multilevel compound sentences and are one of the important elements in forming multilevel compound sentences that can function as subjects, objects, or other statements. Agustina (2007) states that many experts who have studied relative clauses in languages in the world agree that a relative clause can be identified as a subordinate clause which essentially functions as an extension of one of the main NP clauses and generally the clause is delivered with a relator. Relator as an introduction to the relative clause in English is a relative pronoun. In ancient Hebrew, it is a conjunction ('ašer); in Korean, it is a suffix (-n), while in Indonesian it is a conjunction. In the Acehnese, the relative clause relator used is nyang. Relative clause indicators in this study are (1) the structure forms as a clause and constituent from NP structure, also must have an NP antecedent (Ambarita & Mulyadi, 2019;Downing, 1987), (2) it must have a marker as a relator between the main clause and relative clause(Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman, 1999), (3) the relator could have no syntactic function (De Vries, 2018; Keenan & Comrie, 1977), and (4) the coreference of relative NP and NP antecedent is a must (Ambarita & Mulyadi, 2019;Downing, 1987).
So far, there are not many theories regarding the types and the core constituents of Acehnese relative clauses. The researchers can only provide two references concerning this topic from Durie (1985) and Asyik (1987). Durie (1985) explains that the proclitic relative marker nyang typically precedes a relative clause. There are two distinct types of relativization, distinguished according to the syntactic function in the relative clause of the relativized participant. For core role relativization, a relativized core role NP is omitted from the relative clause itself, and the predicate is the first nonperipheral constituent: the relative clause has no overt core topic NP. This is understandable since the relativized NP is semantically the clause topic. For peripheral relativization, which can be by full ellipsis or by stranding, there is no constraint against having a core topic in the relative clause. Asyik (1987) states that a relative clause is a sentence embedded as a modifier of an NP. In terms of the tree structure, an Acehnese relative clause has a right-branching structure. When an NP is relativized, it is placed before the relative clause, usually preceded by the relative marker nyang glossed variously as 'who, which, that'.

METHODS
This is a qualitative study, in which the data for this research was in the form of speeches (Bungin, 2007;Muhadjir, 1996). The qualitative research aims to understand data deeply by compiling, classifying, assessing, and interpreting data (Sudaryanto, 2015). The data of this study were acquired from the speakers of the North Aceh dialect. On the ground that this dialect is deemed to be the standard one as it has the most speakers, well understood by many, and is the most researched dialect (Djunaidi, 1996). This research is located in North Aceh Regency: Muara Batu District, the westernmost part of the North Aceh, Tanah Luas District, the middle part, and Tanah Jambo Aye District, the easternmost part of North Aceh Regency. The three subdistricts represent the 26 sub-districts in the North Aceh Regency.
The data of this study were spoken Acehnese as the main data and written Acehnese as the supporting data. According to Mallinson and Blake (1981), Swart (2016), Rasul (2018), and Erbach (2020), there are three sources of data to obtain linguistic research data. The data sources are (a) the first source, the language grammar books studied, (b) the second source, the data derived from examples used by other authors and their validity, and (c) the third source, informants, who are native speakers of the language studied and with certain criteria. Sources (a) and (b) are written data sources that are used as secondary data, while data sources (c) produce oral data which are the primary data of this study.
The oral data were obtained with some specific predetermined conditions each participant has to meet. Mahsun (2005) and Djajasudarma (2006) layout seven criteria for the informants. They are(1) male and/or female, (2) native Acehnese speaker, (3) born in Aceh, speaks the mother tongue, and has been living in Aceh for the last five consecutive years, (4) 30-60 years old, with the consideration that at this age one's memory is still very good, (5) having perfect and complete speech tools or are not speech impaired, (6) willing to communicate, and (7) willing to provide honest information. Based on these criteria, three participants were selected from each research location. The researchers also employed one key participant to help them with cross-checking the data so the analyzed data could be accounted for.
The data were collected using the field linguistic method (Cortes et al., 2018;Liebenberg, 2019;Mithun, 2001) through recording and note-taking techniques (Sudaryanto, 2015). After the data were accumulated, the introspection technique was used through the elicitation technique (Djajasudarma, 2006;Etikan et al., 2016;Suri, 2011). These techniques were chosen because the researchers are native speakers of the language. Afterward, the data were analyzed by using the removal, expansion, substitute, and paraphrasing techniques in which the stages of operation outlined by Sudaryanto (2015), which are: (1) data selection, in order to select the valid one, (2) data classification, to choose and classify the data based on the research problem, (3) data analysis, to analyze the data based on the formulated problem, and (4) writing and detailing the data in clear sentences.

RESULTS
Relative clauses in Acehnese sentences are clauses that are embedded as modifiers of noun phrases (Asyik, 1987;Durie, 1985). This is in line with what Alotaibi (2016) defines relative clauses function; to change the noun embedded in the main clause. Its main function is to separate parts, either the subject, noun, or event, according to the message contained in the sentence. The Acehnese relative clauses are preceded by a relative marker nyang, referring to 'who' or 'which one (of someone)', as in the following examples.
(1) a. Sentence (1b) has embedded a relative clause, with aneuk lôn 'my child', (1a) as an antecedent which serves as the NP of the relative clause ka jiikôtujian 'has taken the test'. Relative clauses in Acehnese can occur by placing a noun phrase before a relative clause, as in the following examples.
yet 3-catch again thief REL steal rice Art 'The thief who stole the rice has not been detained'.
A relative clause has been inserted into sentence (2b) by splitting the noun phrase pancuri nyan 'the thief' and inserting the relative clause cue padé 'stealing rice' between the pancuri 'thief' and the nyan 'that' by the relative marker nyang 'who'.

Types of Relative Clause in Acehnese
According to DeCapua (2008) and Suharsono (2015), there are five types of relative clauses. The results of this study found the five types of relative clauses in Acehnese with the following discussion.

Relativization of subject
A subject relative clause is a clause that relativizes the subject as a noun or core noun phrase. The relative position nyang in this clause is behind the subject as in the following example.
house custom Aceh REL Pref-stand majestic Art very crowded people come 'The traditional Aceh house that stands majestically has many visitors'.
(4) Aneuk miet nyang teungöh ék tangèn nyan ka hanalé yah. child little REL Asp ride bicycle Art Asp Neg father 'The little boy who was riding the bicycle had no father'.
Sentences (3) and (4) are sentences that have a subject relative clause construction. In sentence (3), the relative clause nyang teudong meugah 'which stands majestically' refers to the antecedent of rumoh adat Aceh 'Aceh traditional house' which functions as the subject. In sentence (4), the relative clause nyang teungöh ék tangèn'who is riding a bicycle' refers to the antecedent aneuk miet 'child', which serves as the subject. The relative word nyang in both sentences is also behind the subject.

Relativization of predicate
The clause of predicate element relativity in the Acehnese occurs when there is an insertion of the predicate element as in the following examples.
1SG like Prep 3SG not 3SG 'I like him, not him'.
In sentence (5), there has been a drop in the predicate element poh 'hit' in the clause kon lôn 'not me'. If not eliminated, the sentence becomes kon lôn poh 'not I hit'. In sentence (6) there has also been an elimination of the fierce predicate element 'like', in the clause kon jih 'not me'. If not eliminated, the sentence becomes kon jih galak keu lôn 'not him likes to me', In contrast to the concept of relativization of subject that requires a relative marker nyang, in the relativization of predicate, it does not require a relative marker nyang. This predicate relative clause is not in line with the theory put forward by Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman (1999) which states that there must be a marker as a relator/connector between the core clause and the relative clause.

Relativization of object
The object's relative clause is a relative clause that refers to the object's antecedent as in the following example.
3SG 3-see grandchild-3 REL Asp study Prep Medan 'He saw his grandson who was studying in Medan'.
3SG 3-hold sickle REL 3-use cut grass 'He's holding the sickle that was used for cutting grass'. Sentences (7) and (8) are sentences that have the construction of the object's relative. In sentence (7), the relative clause nyang teungöh kuliah 'who is in college' refers to the antecedent cucoegeuh 'his grandson' which functions as an object. In sentence (8), the relative clause nyang jingui koh naleung 'that was used for cutting grass' refers to the antecedent sadeup 'sickle' which functions as an object. The relative marker nyang in both sentences is also behind the object.

Relativization of possessive
The relative clause of a possessive element in Acehnese occurs when a possessive pronoun such as jih 'his/her' describes the ownership of a core noun which is relative by the word nyang as in the following examples.
girls Aceh have ball eyes REL color-3 blue. 'The Acehnese women (girls) have blue eyes'.
The construction of the relative clause of the sentence (9) is nyang warnajih beulau 'which is blue' with the core noun bola mata 'eyeball', and the relative marker is nyang. The pronoun jih 'his/her' describes the possession of the noun of the eyeball which also refers to the subject dara Aceh 'Aceh girl'. The relative clause construction of sentence (10) is nyang rayeuk lam keluargageuh'who grew up in the family' with the core noun of harapan 'hope' and the relative marker is nyang. The enclitic -geuh describes the possession of the core noun harapan 'hope' which also refers to the subject gobnyan 'he'.
Additionally, in Acehnese, the pronoun jih has variations depending on the basic pronoun. In sentence (9) the property element uses the pronoun jih and sentence (10) uses the enclitic -geuh . The pronoun jih is used to refer to a subject of the same age or familiar variety, while the enclitic -geuh is used when a subject is a person who is respected.

Relativization of noun
Relative clause for noun elements in the Acehnese occurs when there is an insertion of noun elements as in the following example.
(11) Na ramèe aneuk miet, nyang sidroe na di sinoe, nyang laén na di likôt. there many child little REL itself have Prep here REL other have Prep back 'There are lots of children, one is here, the other is in the back'.
In sentence (11), there is an insertion of the noun element aneuk miet 'children' in the clause nyang sidroe di sinoe, nyang laén di likôt 'one here, the other behind'. Actually, there is a noun before the relative marker nyang. If the noun is not hidden, the sentence becomes aneuk mit nyang sidroe na di sinoe, aneuk mit nyang laén di likôt 'one child is here, the other child is behind'. Likewise, in sentence (12), there has been an omission of the noun phrase boh timon 'watermelon' in the clause nyang mirah yumjih seuribèe 'the red one costs a thousand'. Actually, there is a noun before the relative marker nyang. If the noun is not hidden, the sentence becomes boh timon nyang mirah yumjih seuribèe'the red watermelon costs a thousand'.

Core Constituents
In Acehnese, the constituents described by the relative clause are in words and phrases. Especially in sentences with relativization of the subject, there are several patterns of core constituents which are explained by relative clauses as in the following example. In the example sentence (13), there is NP rumoh abu 'my father's house' and a relative clause construction of nyang teucèt putéh 'which is painted white'. NP rumoh abu is formed from two words, namely rumoh (N) + abu (N), or both are categorized as nouns. Syntactically, the core constituent of the phrase rumoh abu is rumoh. It is different if the phrase is analyzed by looking at the constituents that explain it so that the core constituents are no longer rumoh, but abu as an example of the following sentence.
(14) Rumoh abu nyang pakèk kupiah nyan ka teu-publo house father REL wear hat Art Asp Pref-sell 'The house of the old man, who wears a hat, has been sold'.  (14) is rumoh abu which the core constituent is rumoh. However, if we pay attention, the relative clause of the nyang pakèk kupiah 'who wears a hat' describes father. Thus, the core constituent of the phrase is no longer rumoh, but abu. In order to ascertain which core noun, the relative clause describes, its meaning components can be analyzed. The phrase rumoh abu can be parsed according to its semantic characteristics as follows.

Sentence
rumoh has the characteristics of: +object -animate -human +concrete abu has the characteristics of: +object +animate +human +concrete +male The construction of the relative clause nyang teucèt putéh 'which is painted white' in a sentence (13) means the inanimate and non-human object that is commonly painted so that the relative clause refers to rumoh 'house'. Otherwise, the relative clause construction of nyang pakèk kupiah 'who wears a hat' in (14) has the meaning of an animate object and a human being able to wear a hat, so that the constituent with these characteristics is abu 'father'.
Constituent analysis of sentences with relative clauses that have core constituents in the form of coordinative phrases can be observed in the following example sentences. In sentence (15), there is an NP buleuen bintang both of which are categorized as nouns, and clause construction is relatively nyang jipeutrang bumoe. The phrase buleuen bintang is a coordinative phrase so that the main constituent is all of the phrases because all of the components of the phrase are defined by relative clause nyang ji-peu-trang bumoe. Therefore, if the construction of a relative clause is changed, there is a shift to core constituents as in (16). The phrase buleun bintang in a sentence (16) is a coordinative phrase so that the whole phrase is a core constituent. However, if we pay attention to the relative clause that explains the phrase, namely nyang meujuta leujih, then the core constituent is no longer the whole phrase. The construction of the clause nyang meujuta leujih more certainly leads to bintang 'star' nouns, which are indeed millions in number and not to buleun 'moon' which are only one. Thus, the core constituents described by the relative clause in sentence (15) above are stars.
The core constituent of sentences that have a pragmatic relationship between the phrase and its relative clause construction is as follows. The noun phrase of abu murid 'the student's father' in sentence (17) is explained by the relative clause of nyang carong 'the smart one'. The core constituent of the phrase cannot be determined by analyzing the meaning of components as in sentence (13) because of the relative clause construction (17) with personality characteristics. Sentence (17) has a reference ambiguity which is explained with the relative clause of nyang carong because it is not clear which constituent it is, whether abu 'father' or the murid 'student'. Therefore, sentences that have such phrases can provide analysis here because they require a linguistic context with pragmatic analysis.

DISCUSSION
Of the five types of relative clauses in Acehnese, four types use the relative marker nyang, and one does not use the relative marker, which is the predicate element relative. The characteristics of the Acehnese's relative clauses differ from the relative clauses of several languages in the world. In English, Supriyanto (2007) explains that the clause 'The man who stands in front of the class is my teacher' is a relatively complete restrictive clause. It can reduce to a relatively incomplete restrictive clause by skipping relative pronouns and changing the finite 'stands' into nonfinite verbs present participle 'standing'. So, the reduction of the relative clause is 'standing in front of the class'. Some relatively complete restrictive clauses can be reduced to phrases, for example, in the sentence, 'A bridge which has been badly designed is damaged' into a sentence, 'A badly designed bridge is damaged'. 'Badly designed' is called an adjective phrase because the construction does not have a predicate (verb). In the core of the construction, it was the adjective 'designed' which was extended to the left with the 'badly' adverbial. In Acehnese, there are no relative clauses that can be reduced by adverbials as in English.
In German, the relative clause or subordinative clause is an extension of the main clause. Widayanto (2016) explains that an expansion based on predicates or verbs in German can be constructed by adjectivization or making verbs an adjective. This development is made in the form of a phrase and does not need to be made in a relative clause as in the sentence Der kommende Gast ist mein onkel 'The guest who came is my uncle'. In this sentence, there is a clause that is marked by the verb sein, namely ist. Even though it is single, the clause can be split into two single clauses, (a) Der Gast ist mein Onkel 'The guest is my uncle' and (b) Der Gast kommt 'The guest came'. The sentence can be arranged in relative terms with the structure Gast, der kommt, ist mein Onkel 'The guest who came was my uncle'. The structure of this clause is a relative clause because the structure is formed by the development of the subordinate clause der kommt even though it has the same meaning. This concept of expanding the main clause of German can also be carried out in Acehnese. The difference is that in German, the relative clause is arranged by first determining the relative pronoun.
Korean does not use a relative pronoun, but the suffix -n which is attached to a verb as exemplified by Berg-Klingenman (Agustina, 2007) in the sentence Hy nsik-i ki lä-Lil ttälįl-n maktäki 'The stick with which Hyensik beat the dog'. Agustina (2007) explained that the suffix -n which is attached to the verb ttälįl, only functions as a marker because it cannot replace one of the syntactic functions in the relative clause. To translate the sentence into English one must use the relative pronoun 'which' instead of 'it' (compare the non-relative clause of Hyensic beat the dog with it), although in Korean there is no 'which' or 'it' equivalent. The antonym noun phrase is maktäkį, which comes after the relative clause. Thus, the position of the clause is relatively prenominal in Korean, while Acehnese is postnominal.
In Mandarin Chinese, the relative clause is also not indicated by the relative pronoun, but by the relative particle de at the end of the irregular verb (therefore, there is no suffix). Downing (1987) gave an example of wo dale (ta) de neige ren laile 'the man that I hit came…'. Agustina (2007) explains that in a case like this, there is a removal of relative noun phrases in the object (ta) function, which is optional (whereas for the subject, it is obligatory). The position of the relative clause is also prenominal; namely, the wo dale (ta) de clause precedes the antonym noun phrase ren, while the relative clause in Acehnese is postnominal.

CONCLUSION
Relative clauses in Acehnese are formed by embedding clauses in other clauses. These clauses are formed through embedding clauses in other clauses. The form of a relative clause is a subordination clause with a conjunctive word as a marker of attachment to one clause to another. The relative characteristics of clauses have similarities to bound clauses, namely predictive constructs that are elements of the sentence, meaning propositions, and characterized by the presence of conjunctions. The term bound means that the cause cannot be independent so that it becomes a sentence and can only be a minor sentence. Likewise, with relative clauses, it is just the naming of relative clauses caused by relative pronouns.
The relative marker nyang is obligatory in the Acehnese relative clause, namely in (1) relativization of a subject, (2) relativization of an object, (3) relativization of possessive, and (4) relativization of a noun. In the predicate relative clause type, Acehnese does not use the relative marker nyang, but rather the relative through ellipsis. The basic structure of the Acehnese relative clauses is the arrangement of the main constituents preceding (postnominal) the relative clauses. The constituents described by the Acehnese relative clauses can be words or phrases. In the Acehnese, we never find the clauses such as (1) relative clauses that can be reduced by adverbials such as in English, (2) relative pronouns as in German and relative particles such as Chinese Mandarin, and (3) the attachment of relative suffixes to verbs as in Korean. Thus, the typology of Acehnese relative clauses has its own distinct characteristics compared to other languages in the world. For this reason, more intensive research is needed in order to explore the idiosyncrasies of Acehnese from other aspects as well, both in micro and macro linguistics facets, which so far has not been explored by researchers.