Editing Relative clause (section)

===Position of the head noun with respect to the relative clause===
The positioning of a relative clause before or after a head noun is related to the more general concept of [[Branching (linguistics)|branching]] in linguistics. Languages that place relative clauses after their head noun (so-called ''head-initial'' or ''VO'' languages) generally also have adjectives and [[genitive construction|genitive modifier]]s following the head noun, as well as verbs preceding their objects. [[French language|French]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]] and [[Arabic]] are prototypical languages of this sort. Languages that place relative clauses before their head noun (so-called ''head-final'' or ''OV'' languages) generally also have adjectives and [[genitive construction|genitive modifier]]s preceding the head noun, as well as verbs following their objects. [[Turkish language|Turkish]] and [[Japanese language|Japanese]] are prototypical languages of this sort. Not all languages fit so easily into these categories. English, for example, is generally head-first, but has adjectives preceding their head nouns, and [[genitive construction]]s with both preceding and following modifiers ("the friend of my father" vs. "my father's friend"). [[Chinese language|Chinese]] has the ''VO'' order, with verb preceding object, but otherwise is generally head-final.

Various possibilities for ordering are:
*Relative clause following the head noun, as in English, [[French language|French]] or [[Arabic]].
*Relative clause preceding the head noun, as in [[Turkish language|Turkish]], [[Japanese language|Japanese]], or [[Chinese language|Chinese]].
*Head noun ''within'' the relative clause (an ''internally headed'' relative clause). An example of such a language is [[Navajo language|Navajo]]. These languages are said to have [[#Nonreduction type|nonreduced]] relative clauses. These languages have a structure equivalent to "[I saw the person yesterday] went home".
*Adjoined relative clause. These languages have the relative clause completely outside the main clause, and use a correlative structure to link the two. These languages also have [[#Nonreduction type|nonreduced]] relative clauses. [[Hindi]], the most well-known such language, has a structure similar to "Which person I saw yesterday, that person went home" or (without fronting of the relativized noun in the relative clause) "I saw which person yesterday, that person went home". Another example is [[Warlpiri language|Warlpiri]], which constructs relative clauses of a form similar to "I saw the man yesterday, which he was going home". However, it is sometimes said these languages have no relative clauses at all, since the sentences of this form can equally well translate as "I saw the man who was going home yesterday" or "I saw the man yesterday when/while he was going home".