Colloquial Resumptive Pronouns in Relative Clauses

Spontaneous Catalan often builds a relative clause with invariant que as a linker and a weak pronoun inside the clause to represent the antecedent: (informal) el tema que en parlàvem. The clitic en resumes el tema in the position required by parlar de. Formal Catalan instead packages linkage, reference, and syntactic function into the relative phrase: (formal) el tema de què parlàvem. Understanding both systems is essential: one explains real speech; the other is expected in careful edited prose.

Synthetic and analytic relatives

In a synthetic relative, the relative expression itself marks the internal function of the antecedent. In an analytic relative, que mainly links the clause while a clitic, possessive, or sometimes a bare noun phrase carries the internal relationship.

In the neutral version, relative que itself fills the direct-object gap, so another l' would duplicate that function. In the informal analytic version, speakers treat que more like a general connector and let l' carry gender, number, and object status.

A derivation shows what the clitic encodes

Start with a full clause:

Parlarem *del pressupost demà.*

To modify el pressupost, formal Catalan fronts the selected preposition with the relative:

Spoken analytic Catalan can instead leave a resumptive en in the verbal clause:

The clitic is en, not a generic word meaning “it,” because the lexical frame is parlar *de una cosa. With viure **en un lloc, the corresponding clitic is *hi:

This is why en and hi cannot be learned as simple equivalents of English “it” or “there.” They encode the governing preposition or locative relation and signal that the referent is already active in the discourse. English usually leaves a silent gap or strands a preposition; Catalan has both a synthetic relative strategy and this colloquial resumptive strategy.

Why speakers resume an antecedent

Resumption keeps the antecedent recoverable while the speaker plans a clause in real time. It is especially attractive when the relation is oblique (de, en, a), possessive, or separated from the antecedent by intervening material. The invariant linker que is available immediately; the later clitic then supplies the exact syntactic role.

The interruption makes the resumptive en easier to process than maintaining a silent dependency across the parenthetical clause. That processing benefit explains the pattern, but it does not make it appropriate in every register.

Modern grammars describe analytic relatives as characteristic of informal speech. In formal, academic, journalistic, administrative, and carefully edited writing, use de què/del qual, on/en què, a qui/al qual, or a gap with direct-object que. The prepositional relatives page gives the selection rules. The possessive relative uses nom + del qual; often the best conversational and editorial repair is simply to split or recast the sentence.

The negative does not alter the dependency: refiar-se de still selects de, expressed by de qui formally or resumptive en informally.

Position, attachment, and clusters

A resumptive element is an ordinary Catalan weak pronoun. Its position and spelling follow the usual clitic rules:

• before a finite verb: que en parlarem, que *li vaig donar les claus*;
• elided before a vowel where required: que l'he llegit;
• attached with a hyphen after an infinitive, gerund, or affirmative imperative: que volia parlar-ne;
• in the normal order within a cluster: el document que *te'l vaig enviar *(informal), never que el te vaig enviar.

The first has a nonfinite host: en is attached to infinitive parlar. Pronoun climbing also yields (informal) un assumpte que no en volia parlar. Neither placement changes its resumptive status. Formal repair removes the clitic and realizes de in del qual.

Analytic, pleonastic, and legitimate clitics

Three patterns must be kept apart:

1. Analytic (informal): el tema que en parlarem. Que links; en carries the syntactic relation.
2. Pleonastic hybrid (avoided formally): el tema de què en parlarem. Both de què and en express the same complement.
3. Independent clitic (fully standard): a relative expression fills one role and the clitic fills another.

Here que is the subject (“the girl”), while li is the recipient. Nothing is resumed. Similarly, la ciutat on hi ha el congrés is standard because hi belongs to the existential verb haver-hi; it is not a locative copy of on.

The dialogue fixes la jove as the antecedent. Here li resumes the recipient in an analytic relative. Formal prose would use la jove, a qui vaig deixar les claus abans de marxar.

Possession and zero resumption

Possession cannot be carried by an object clitic, so informal speech often uses a possessive:

Some analytic relatives contain no overt resumptive form at all: (informal) una dona que tots els fills són músics. The intended possession is inferred. Formal Catalan makes it explicit: una dona tots els fills de la qual són músics. This confirms that the larger phenomenon is not merely “extra pronouns”; it is an analytic relative strategy in which que does less grammatical work.

Prepositions and English transfer

English speakers may strand a preposition: “the colleague I spoke with.” Standard Catalan fronts it: la companya amb qui vaig parlar. Do not write la companya que vaig parlar amb. Informal Catalan instead uses a clitic only where Catalan has the appropriate one; amb often corresponds to hi in pronominalization, but natural speakers may choose a different paraphrase rather than mechanically manufacture one.

Spanish influence may reinforce que + possessive and indiscriminate personal a, but resumptive relatives are structurally integrated into Catalan and occur across varieties. For a direct-object relative, the neutral baseline is la persona que vaig veure. La persona a qui vaig veure can be licensed, especially to avoid ambiguity, but do not insert a simply because Spanish would. None of these choices licenses la persona que la vaig veure in formal prose.

The same synthetic/analytic contrast is documented in both IEC-oriented and AVL-oriented standards. It is not useful to label the analytic strategy “Valencian,” “Central,” or “Balearic”: its frequency and exact clitic forms vary regionally, but the decisive label is informal. Regional clitic morphology—such as Valencian combinations with li—continues to follow the norms of that variety.

Common Mistakes

1. Keeping a resumptive direct-object clitic in formal prose.

2. Deleting en without restoring the governed preposition.

3. Combining a synthetic relative with a redundant clitic.

4. Stranding a preposition by English word order.

5. Misordering a clitic cluster in the informal construction.

For formal prose, remove resumption as well: el document que et vaig enviar.

Key Takeaways

Colloquial Catalan can use que as a general relative linker and let el/la/els/les, li, en, hi, or a possessive identify the antecedent's internal role. This analytic strategy is meaningful and widespread in speech, but formal prose prefers synthetic relatives with the required preposition and no redundant clitic. Always check whether a nearby clitic truly resumes the antecedent: it may instead represent another participant or belong inherently to haver-hi.