Relative Clause Structure in Mesoamerican Languages. Preface.

International audienceThis book is on relative clause structure in the Mesoamerican languages. The book consists of a total of nine chapters in the form of independent articles. We use the concept ‘RC structure’ as an umbrella term here to refer to relevant aspects of linguistic structure that revolve around relative clauses (RCs) and relative constructions. Seven chapters are on different language families of the Mesoamerica linguistic area, including Nahuatl, Mayan, Mixe-Zoquean, Chatino, Zapotec and Otomian, while an eighth chapter is on Pesh, a Chibchan language spoken in Honduras, outside the limits of Mesoamerica. While we do not consider Pesh a Mesoamerican language, we include it in the book to show the extent to which the relative constructions found in the other languages of this book can indeed be said to be Mesoamerican. In this connection, the first article in the book sets the typological scene, as it were, taking an areal view of the phenomenon and thus allowing us to propose what type of RC structure is typically Mesoamerican