by Max Wheeler
Keep the change.
(vi) Other ways of translating ‘become’
As illustrated in sections (i-v) above, Catalan tends to particularize the idea of ‘becoming’. This tendency is even more pronounced in other common equivalents:
(a) Convertir-se en ‘change into’ introduces only noun or noun-phrase complements:
El turisme s’ha convertit en la font principal d’ingressos de la regió.
Tourism has become the region’s principal source of income.
El sofà es converteix fàcilment en llit secundari
The sofa easily becomes a spare bed.
Stronger connotations of ‘transformation’ are conveyed by transformarse en:
Ja veuràs com la granota es transformarà en príncep
Just watch how the frog turns into a prince.
(b) Arribar a ser ‘come to be’ expresses the result of a gradual process, often with the idea of ‘manage to become’ or ‘become eventually’:
No arribaràs mai a (ser) mestre d’obres.
You’ll never become foreman.
Tan ase que semblava, i encara ha arribat a ser president
Dim as he seemed, he’s still become president.
(c) ‘Become’ meaning ‘be appointed’ is usually translated by means of nomenar ‘designate’ or simply fer, with the English subject becoming the object of a verb in the impersonal third person (29.3vi):
L’han nomenat/fet Director General. He has become Director General.
31 RELATIVE CLAUSES
31.1 RELATIVE PRONOUNS
Catalan has four relative pronouns. (Unstressed) que and (stressed) qui and què are invariable; the compound el qual (la qual, els quals, les quals) agrees in number and in gender with the head noun or antecedent to which it refers, conforming also with its function as relative adjective (see 31.9). Use of these pronouns is not differentiated in the same way as English ‘who’, ‘whom’, ‘which’, ‘that’.
The functions and syntax of the various relative pronouns are described in 31.2–7.
Adverbial on ‘where’, quan ‘when’ and, less frequently, com ‘how’ may introduce relative clauses, as in És el carrer on vivia en Carles ‘It’s the street where Carles used to live’, see 31.8.
Use of the indicative or subjunctive mood in relative clauses, illustrated in the examples throughout this chapter, is the subject of discussion in 17.1.4.1ii and 19.3.
31.1.1 THE ANTECEDENT OF A RELATIVE CLAUSE
The antecedent is the item in the main clause to which a relative pronoun refers, introducing a subordinate adjectival clause, according to the following basic pattern:
Tinc un gos. El meu gos es diu Tom.→ Tinc un gos que es diu Tom I have a dog. My dog is called Tom.→ I have a dog (which is) called Tom.
The antecedent may be a full noun phrase or a pronoun or pronominal adjective:
Els clients que paguin per endavant rebran un descompte.
Customers paying in advance will receive a discount.
Aquests que ara t’envio són els documents que havies demanat.
These which I am now sending you are the documents you had asked for.
Representa un anar amunt i avall que cansa molt
It means a to-ing and fro-ing which is very tiring.
For further discussion of antecedents, see 31.6.
31.1.2 CHOICE OF RELATIVE PRONOUNS: RESTRICTIVE AND NONRESTRICTIVE CLAUSES
Which Catalan relative pronoun is used is determined by the following factors (often in combination): whether the pronoun is subject or object in the relative clause, whether it follows a preposition, whether the antecedent is human or non-human, and whether the relative clause is restrictive or nonrestrictive.
A restrictive relative clause specifies and limits the scope of its antecedent so that the listener can identify what is intended; the function of a nonrestrictive clause is descriptive, giving additional information about an antecedent that is already identified in the discourse. Thus there is a difference between Tenen tres fills que són arquitectes ‘They have three children who are architects’ and Tenen tres fills, que són arquitectes. The first is restrictive: it indicates how many of the children (of whom there are implied to be more than three) are architects. The second is non-restrictive, giving information about all three children. Similarly for the following pair of sentences:
Els inquilins que se sentien perjudicats van protestar.
The tenants who felt aggrieved protested.
Els inquilins, que se sentien perjudicats, van protestar
The tenants, who felt aggrieved, protested.
In the first the relative limits the antecedent ‘tenants’, identifying which subgroup of them protested. In the second the relative clause supplies additional information about the antecedent already conceived as a whole group.
In writing, a non-restrictive clause is typically separated by commas, corresponding to brief pauses in spoken delivery. Catalan allows the optional use of the compound relative pronoun (in the second example above, els quals for que, see 31.4) to indicate clearly that a clause is non-restrictive, whereas English relies only on the pause or comma to make the distinction. (Note that the important pause is the one before the relative pronoun. Catalan punctuation conventions admit, and even prefer, a comma between a long restrictive clause and a following main verb; so, in Els deixebles que escoltaren i aplaudiren ferverosament aquella conferència, no l’oblidaran mai ‘The pupils who heard and fervently applauded that lecture will never forget it’, the relative clause is obviously restrictive.)
A relative clause referring to the whole of a unique entity is ipso facto non-restrictive:
El camp del Barça, que/el qual acull cada setmana més de 100.000 espectadors, és un dels llocs sagrats del futbol mundial.
Barcelona FC’s ground, which every week welcomes over 100,000 spectators, is one of the shrines of world football.
31.1.3 THE POSITION OF RELATIVE PRONOUNS: GENERAL
Catalan, unlike English, never omits the relative pronoun:
les persones que més admirem the people (who(m)) we most admire
les coses que feien the things (that) they used to do
el dia que va morir Marilyn the day (that) Marilyn died
(On verb + subject word order in relative clauses, see 36.6.) In common with the other Romance languages, Catalan does not allow a preposition to be separated from the relative pronoun that it governs: la pel·lícula de la qual parlaven ‘the film they were talking about/about which they were talking’, un tema damunt del qual s’ha estès un vel de silenci ‘a subject that a veil of silence has been spread over/over which a veil of silence has been spread’.
Less obvious is the fact that Catalan does not allow the relative pronoun to be separated from its antecedent by a verb phrase. The type of sentence sometimes heard in English ‘Those hitch-hikers were Swedish that we picked up yesterday’ can only go into Catalan as Aquelles autoestopistes que vam recollir ahir eren sueques or Eren sueques aquelles autoestopistes que vam recollir ahir. Only an adjectival phrase, standing in apposition to the head noun, can come between that antecedent and a relative clause:
els informes, alguns d’ells negatius però la gran majoria favorables, que s’han rebut sobre l’esdeveniment
the reports, some of them negative but in the majority favourable, that have come in on the event
When a Catalan relative clause refers to the subject of a preceding main clause whose order is verb-subject, it can have a contrastive force which English tends to make explicit:
Van arribar poc després els bombers, que tampoc no van poder apagar aquell infern
The firefighters arrived shortly afterwards, but they could not quench that inferno either.
Whether or not this effect is present, the pattern of a main clause verb + subject followed by a relative clause (restrictive or non-restrictive) is very typical:
Han demanat la paraul a 3 to 4 diputats que no havien intervingut fins llavors.
>
Three or four MPs who had not intervened until then asked for permission to speak.
Els seguien els holandesos, que duien el vestit nacional
They were followed by the Dutch, who were wearing their national costume.
31.2 THE UNSTRESSED RELATIVE PRONOUN QUE
This is the most frequently used of the Catalan relative pronouns. Que can refer to both human and non-human antecedents; it can function as either subject or object inside the relative clause, which itself may be restrictive or non-restrictive (31.1.2), It can be exemplified, then, under four main headings:
(i) Que as relative subject in a restrictive clause:
els especuladors que s’hi van cremar els dits
the speculators who got their fingers burnt
el torn que comença a les nou del vespre
the shift that begins at 9.00 p.m.
(ii) Que as relative object in a restrictive clause:
els especuladors que ha interpel·lat el fiscal
the speculators who have been questioned by the public prosecutor
l’autobús que vam agafar ahir
the bus we caught yesterday
el xicot que acompanyava la Núria
the guy that Núria had with her
(In this context, as in (iv) below, referring to human direct objects, a qui is frequently heard for que – el xicot a qui acompanyava la Núria – but que is also frequent and correct, even when there is ambiguity: el xicot que acompanyava la Núria could mean either ‘the guy that Núria had with her’ or ‘the guy that had Núria with him’.)
(iii) Que as relative subject in a non-restrictive clause:
la música, que apaivaga l’esperit més atribolat,…
music, which soothes the most troubled spirit, …
Penso en la Maria, que se les sap totes
I’m thinking about Maria, who never misses a trick.
(iv) Que as relative object in a non-restrictive clause:
la cançó que cantà a Paris, i que després va gravar en el seu primer elapé
the song he sang in Paris, and which he later recorded on his first LP.
(Here only the second of the two relative clauses is non-restrictive.)
els principiants, que posarem en un grup a part
the beginners, whom we shall put in a separate group
On the use of compound el qual in non-restrictive clauses, see 31.4.
31.2.1 QUE IN RELATIVE CLAUSES OF TIME
Que is used in restrictive relative clauses of time where the antecedent is a nominal time expression:
l’any que ens vam conèixer the year that we met
Ho faré el dia que vindràs. I’ll do it (on) the day you come.
la setmana/el mes/I’any que ve next week/month/year
Non-restrictive relative clauses of time are formed with quan ‘when’, see 31.8.
La notícia va esclatar per aquelles dates, quan tothom feia vacances
The news broke around that time, when everybody was on holiday.
When the antecedent is introduced by an indefinite article, a construction with en + stressed què or en + compound el qual is used:
Eren uns anys en què/en els quals tots vam patir fam
They were years in which we all went hungry.
Thus a distinction is generally observed between el moment que m’ho diguis ‘the moment you tell me’ and un moment en què ell badava ‘a moment when he was not paying attention’.
Many temporal adverbial clauses are literally constructed on the basis of an adverb or noun phrase plus a relative clause:
ara que vostés han vingut now that you have come
Likewise with així que ‘as soon as’, sempre que ‘whenever’, cada vegada que ‘every time that’, a mesura que ‘as’, and so on; see 33.2.2.
31.2.2 NON-STANDARD/COLLOQUIAL CONSTRUCTIONS WITH QUE
In colloquial usage a bare que is used to head a relative clause which in more formal style would follow stricter conventions involving combination of prepositions and relative pronouns. A grasp of these patterns is important in order to understand everyday spoken Catalan. The basic mechanism of these simplified non-standard constructions involves the support of que by the presence of a weak pronoun that supplies required information about the role of the antecedent within the relative clause, as is seen in:
la noia que li vaig donar les claus (non-standard)
la noia a qui vaig donar les claus (standard)
the girl that I gave the keys to (lit. the girl that I gave her the keys)
and in
És una dona que la veiem cada dia. (non-standard)
És una dona que veiem cada dia. (standard)
She is a woman that we see every day.
Són coses que sempre les hauríem de tenir presents. (non-standard)
Són coses que sempre hauríem de tenir presents. (standard)
They are things which we should always bear in mind.
In these last two examples the weak pronoun – strictly redundant (see 12.8) picks up the simple direct object function of que (see 33.3.4.1), The pattern is least common when, as here, the relative pronoun is a direct object. The phenomenon may sometimes be found in writing, particularly if several words separate the relative pronoun from the verb which affects it:
Ara et faré una confessió que mai abans no m’havia atrevit a fer-la a ningú. (non-standard)
Ara et faré una confessió que mai abans no m’havia atrevit a fer a ningú. (standard)
I’ll now make to you a confession that I never dared make to anyone before.
Els gramàtics aconsellen moltes construccions que en la llengua viva la gent no les usa. (non-standard)
Els gramàtics aconsellen moltes construccions que en la llengua viva la gent no usa. (standard)
Grammarians recommend many constructions that people do not use in the living language.
With other roles than direct object within the relative clause, the pattern is common in spontaneous casual speech, but, again, is avoided in writing.
un jugador de rugby que li han operat el fèmur (non-standard)
un jugador de rugby a qui/al qual han operat el fèmur (standard)
a rugby-player who has had a thigh operation
una tela que se’n fan cortines (non-standard)
una tela de què/de la qual es fan cortines (standard)
a material which curtains are made from
un home que mai no li surten bé les coses (non-standard)
un home a qui/al qual mai no li surten bé les coses (standard)
a man who things never turn out right for
When the relative pronoun has the role of possessor (object of the preposition de) the non-standard construction with expanded que is frequently found (sometimes with the possessive adjective introducing the object of possession):
un poble que totes les cases són d’una sola planta (non-standard)
a town whose/where the houses are all single-storeyed
el matrimoni vell que el fill major estudia a Lleida (non-standard)
the old couple whose eldest son is studying in Lleida
Són amics de tota la vida que coneixem massa bé les seves debilitats. (nonstandard)
They’re lifelong friends whose weaknesses we know only too well.
The last group displays avoidance of the possessive relative formed with de + compound el qual (see 31.5), with which construction the standard versions would be: un poble totes les cases del qual …, el matrimoni vell el fill major del qual …,… amics de tota la vida les debilitats dels quals …
In informal style que can stand for a preposition + relative pronoun, provided its antecedent is governed by the same preposition:
Amb els amics que sortia abans, vaig arribar a avorrir-m’hi molt.
I got very bored with the friends I used to go around with.
Dels projectes que et vam parlar, més val que ens n’oblidem.
We might as well forget about the plans we talked to
you about.
Als llocs que ja has anat, no val la pena de tornar-hi
There’s no point in going back to places you’ve been to already.
This construction is not conventionally included in the non-standard set discussed above (though some grammarians might feel it belongs there). On relative pronouns governed by prepositions, see 31.3 and 31.4.2.
31.3 THE STRESSED RELATIVE PRONOUNS QUÈ AND QUI
These forms are invariable and appear only after a preposition, què referring to things or (non-human) concepts and qui to persons.
Examples with què:
Aquestes són les fotos de què et parlava.
These are the photos I was telling you about.
l’assumpte a què ens referíem
the matter we were referring to
No trobo cap llibre amb què distreure’m.
I can’t find any book to entertain myself with.
el motiu per què s’ha presentat
the reason why he turned up
Examples with qui:
Els amies en qui confiava m’han traït.
The friends I used to trust have betrayed me.
aquell amb qui sortia la Rosa
that guy Rosa used to go out with
l’artista de qui avui es parla tant
the artist that is so talked about nowadays
la persona a qui vaig entregar el paquet
