Relativizer

In linguistics, a relativizer (abbreviated RELZ) is a type of conjunction that introduces a relative clause.[1] For example, in English, the conjunction that may be considered a relativizer in a sentence such as "I have one that you can use."[2] Relativizers do not appear, at least overtly, in all languages; even in languages that do have overt or pronounced relativizers, they do not necessarily appear all of the time.[3] For these reasons it has been suggested that in some cases, a "zero relativizer" may be involved, meaning that a relativizer is implied in the grammar but is omitted in speech or writing.[2] For example, the word that can be omitted in the above English example, producing "I have one you can use", using (on this analysis) a zero relativizer.