Some thoughts on que : Description, theory, and L2

TLDR: In this article, the authors contrast the bare que' hypothesis -that a prepositionless que' is always a complementizer and never a relative pronoun -to the unique que'' hypothesis, that que'' is a complementary pronoun even when preceded by a prior preposition.

Abstract: To study the alleged ambiguity of bare que' it is necessary to contrast the bare que' hypothesis - a prepositionless que' is always a complementizer and never a relative pronoun - to the unique que' hypothesis - que' is a complementizer even when preceded by a preposition. The argumentation favors the bare que' hypothesis, a hypothesis which also demonstrates that the determiner in prepositionless art + que' is the indicator of a partial antecedent. Pedagogical recommendations for the teaching of relative clauses close the discussion.