Recoverability in the syntax of natural language

The system of natural language has the ability to interpret linguistic material that is present in the structure of a sentence but left unpronounced. What can be omitted in this way, however, seems to be limited by certain conditions. Individual languages and their dialects vary as to what parts of a given grammatical construction are pronounced. We propose to explore this source of variation and its limits in order to establish under what conditions the omitted material is recoverable as well as how these conditions vary across languages. Specifically, we are concerned with relative clause constructions compared across a set of languages which display interesting and informative variation patterns. Conducting this research will further the linguistic endeavour with respect to the broad and important questions concerning natural language variation and the recoverability properties of the language system.