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In linguistics, a relativizer is a type of conjunction (part of speech) that introduces a relative clause, associating it to its head noun/verb. It appears in a sentence in the form of a grammatical particle, (function word), as an argument to the noun or verb phrase. Relativizers do not overtly appear in all languages, English being one. However, it has been suggested that in languages such as English, a zero relativizer may be present, being that, a relativizer is theoretically existent in the sentence, but not realized phonologically. When a relativizer is present in English, it is found in the form of that. For example, “I have one that you can use”

Relativizer Omission
Relativizers have been analyzed to be optional in certain languages and are variably omitted in the English language. Such relativizer omission, or use of the null or zero variant of relativizers, has been predicted to be conditioned and constrained by a number of linguistic and social factors. These social factors and the potential influence of age, gender, and education have been minimally explored and seem to exhibit a lesser effect on relativizer omission. Linguistic constraints, such as sentence structure and syntactic position of the relativizer, matrix clause construction type, lexical specificity of the head NP, animacy, type of antecedent, and the adjacency, length, and grammatical subject of the relative clause have been implicated as having more significant influence on the patterning of relativizer omission in Canadian English.

Relativizer Typology
There are two separate phrasal heads that relativizers can occupy. Cross-linguistically, relativizers may occupy either the head of a complementizer phrase (C-Type Relativizer) or the head of a determiner phrase (D-Type Relativizer). C-Type Relativizers can introduce a relative clause as an argument of a noun phrase, or they can introduce a relative clause as an argument of a verb phrase. D-Type Relativizers may only introduce a relative clause as an argument of a noun phrase. English is a language which uses a C-Type Relativizer, that, as a part of its relativization strategy. Conversely, Arabic uses two phonologically distinct morphemes to account for these syntactic phenomena. The following examples from Lebanese Arabic, along with their respective English translations illustrate this:

Relative clause as an argument of a noun phrase:
 * (*1-)paris lli bħibba
 * the-Paris RM I.love.it
 * The Paris that I love

Relative clause as an argument of a verb phrase:
 * xabbaret-na laila ʔenno l-mmaslin mʔadrabiin
 * told-us laila that the-actors on.strike
 * Laila told us that the actors are on strike.

Relativizers of Modern English
There are three types of relativizers used in English to introduce relative clauses: zero or null relativizers, pronominal relativizers, and invariable relativizers.

Pronominal relativizers
Pronominal relativizers are pronouns that are used to introduce relative clauses. The modern English pronominal relativizers include the wh-words “who” or “whom”, “whose”, “what”, “which”, “where” and “when”, which can be referred to as “wh-relativizers”, and also the complementizer “that”. Pronominal relativizers appear after the noun that they are referencing, and each wh-relativizer refers to a different type of noun phrase.
 * "Where" is a locative pronominal relativizer, which refers to a location, a situation or a context. For example:
 * I remember [NPthe placei] [CP[Cwherei] we first met].

Indonesian Teochew
Teochew is a Chinese language originating from the Chaoshan region of the eastern Guangdong province. Indonesian Teochew refers to the Teochew dialect spoken in Indonesia. The most common way to form relative clauses in Indonesian Teochew is to use the relativizer kai. These relative clauses can appear head-finally or head-initially.

Jambi Teochew
Jambi Teochew is a variety of Indonesian Teochew that is spoken in the province of Jambi on the island of Sumatra. In Jambi Teochew, the relativizer kai is obligatory. This relativizer comes from the Chinese language. The relativizer yang is optional, and is borrowed from Malaysian. The relativizer kai must always follow the modifying clause. If the optional relativizer yang is used, it would precede the modifying clause. If the relativizer kai is not present, the sentence becomes ungrammatical, regardless of whether yang is present or not.

Pontianak Teochew
Pontianak Teochew is a variety of Indonesian Teochew that is spoken in the capital city of Pontianak in the province of West Kalimantan. The relativizer kai is obligatory in head-final relative clauses. If kai is not present in the sentence, the sentence becomes ungrammatical. Pontianak Teochew does not allow the use of the Malaysian relativizer yang. When this relativizer is present, the sentence becomes ungrammatical.