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Free relative

SYNTAX: relative clause that occurs without an antecedent. EXAMPLE: the subject in (i), who finishes first, is a free relative.

	(i) [who finishes first] wins the prize
Usually one assumes that free relatives are NPs with an empty head noun: [NP 0 [S who finishes first]].
LIT. Smits, R.J.C. (1989)