Extraposition of relative clauses: Phonological solutions

• Extraposition of relative clauses is examined from a phonological perspective.
• Phonological interface constraints are responsible for extraposition.
• Constraints on prosodic domination do not trigger extraposition.
• The prosodic structure induced by focus does not trigger extraposition.
• English may instead resort to recursive prosodic structures.

The paper investigates whether extraposition of relative clauses is phonologically conditioned. It examines extraposition in focus neutral sentences, in sentences with prosodically light constituents at the right periphery as well as in sentences with variable focus structure. Since these sentences induce different prosodic structures, it is expected that certain phonological constraints are violated by the canonical word order, which could be remedied by rightward movement. It will be shown that only phonological interface constraints, which are needed for an account of phonological phrasing, are responsible for extraposition. Violations of phonological well-formedness constraints are generally avoided by recursive prosodic structures and not by rightward movement.