多重関係節のメモ―関係詞の生起順序について

英語のインプットと用例収集のため，2年ぐらい前から英語のペーパーバックを読み続けている。そうしていると，書き手によって使う言い回しや文法の「クセ」があることにだんだん気付いてくる。年明けに最初に読んだのはDolly Alderton の Everything I Know About Love という作品で，ストーリーもなかなか面白かったが，読んでいるうちに多重関係節が多用されていることに気付いた（ただし彼女の他の作品は読んでいないので，この作品だけかも）。

多重関係節（積み重ね関係節）は，参考書等では「二重限定」などと呼ばれているが，（1）のように一つの先行詞に複数の関係節が後続している例を指す。この例では，いずれも関係代名詞には that が使われている。
（1）The theory of light [that Newton proposed] [that everyone laughed at] was more accurate than the one that met with instant acceptance. （McCawley 1998: 382）

制限関係節の関係詞には，表面上何も現れないゼロ形（φ），that，wh-形の3つがある。河野（2021）は，それぞれの先行詞との結合力について（2）の仮説を出し，実例を基にこの仮説を妥当性を検証している。
（2）英語の三種類の関係詞の中で，先行詞との結合力が相対的に一番強いのがゼロ形関係詞であり，二番目に強いのが that であり，3番目に強いのが wh形である。（河野 2021: 59）

Everything I Know About Love では，1ページから最後の360ページまでに，（メモのし忘れが無ければ）制限節の多重関係節が12例出てきた。せっかくなので，果たして（2）の仮説通りなのかデータを見てみる。

A. φ-wh形
（3）No moment in my life will ever be as romantic as when me and Lauren were playing that gig on Valentine’s Day at that weird pub in St Albans and I sang ‘Lover, You Should’ve Come Over’ and Joe Sawyer sat at the front and closed his eyes because earlier we’d talked about Jeff Becky and basically he is the only boy [I’ve ever met] [who fully understands me] and where I’m coming from.（p. 2）
（4）She was in a cab going home from a club when she got a text from a boy [she fancied] [who was still at university] and she asked the driver if he could turn around and go, instead, to Devon.（p. 45）
（5）He is the first person of my age [I have ever met] [who chooses not to be on Facebook].（p. 52）
（6）Nearly every adult [I’ve met] [who went to boarding school] cannot believe they now live a life where they can go to a Kentish Town old man’s pub on a Tuesday night and not be given a detention or a suspension or a rustication, whatever that means.（p. 108）

B. φ-that
（7）Here was something [I could control] [that would lead me somewhere new, somewhere I could be someone different].（p. 67）
（8）I will assume you’ll bring Oyster Bay as it’s the only one [we all know] [that isn’t rubbish-tasting but also only costs a tenner].（p. 124）
（9）I told him that my favourite singer was John Martyn; that his music had been the only love affair [I’d had with a man] [that had lasted longer than a handful of years].（p. 272）
（10）We talked about a book [we’d both read] [that turned me vegetarian]; we both got angry about the same stats and passages.（p. 272）
（11）I sat on a bench on a viewpoint overlooking the city skyline, stretched my bare legs out under the light of the moon and told him about another bench [I’d seen here] [that had made me cry when I read the tribute carved into it].（p. 276）
（12）India has a comfort blanket, a frayed old navy jumper [she calls Nigh Nigh] [that she likes to sleep with].（p. 315）

C. wh形-wh形
（13）Lauren had graduated from Oxford at this point so I didn’t call her; instead, I texted a few of her friends [who I had met on my visits there] [who I knew were in their final year].（p. 40）

以上の通り，wh形-φ や that-φ，that-wh形 など，（2）の仮説に反する例は無かった。なお，以上の例は全て関係節が2つ積み重なっている例だが，3つ積み重なっている例も1つあった。
（14）He told me about a wild-haired woman [he’d once dated] [who lived in Highgate] [who gave him a thirty-second start on running into the Heath at night and then chased after him].（p. 276）

この例でも φ-wh形-wh形 という（2）の仮説通りの順序になっている。

なお，制限関係節と非制限関係節が並ぶ場合には，非制限関係節が後に来なければならないと言われている（McCawley 1998; Huddleston and Pullum 2002）。以下はその例の一部。
（15）No moment in my life will ever be as heartbreaking as when Will Young came out as gay and I had to pretend I was fine about it but I cried while I burnt the leather book [I was given for my confirmation], [in which I had written about our life together].（p. 3）
（16）Just as we’re losing hope, someone bites. Felix—a friend from school [who was in the year below me], [who I’ve always had a gigantic crush on].（p. 54）
（17）Online dating is for the brave. It’s increasingly hard to meet people in real life and those [who take matters into their own hands] – [who pay a monthly fee for the chance to edge closer to love], [who fill out an embarrassing profile saying they’re looking for a special someone to hold hands with in the supermarket] – are towering romantic heroes.（p. 324）

References
Huddleston, R. and G. Pullum（2002）The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, Cambridge Univ. Press.
河野継代（2021）「多重関係節における関係詞の生起順序」『英語語法文法研究』28, 59-64.
McCawley, J.（1998）The Syntactic Phenomena of English, 2nd ed., Univ. of Chicago Press.