Embedding non-restrictive relative clauses

Abstract

Schlenker (2010) recently provided data from English and French suggesting that,
contrary to standard assumptions (McCawley, 1982; Potts, 2005; Arnold, 2007; AnderBois
et al., 2011), non-restrictive relative clauses (NRCs) can take narrow scope under operators of
the sentence within which they are embedded. This paper presents three experiments in German
confirming this claim. The results show that embedded readings are available with NRCs in
German and give first insights into the puzzle under which conditions these embedded readings
do or do not show up.
Keywords: relative clauses, appositives, projection, rhetorical relations.