RCnonObl: While the nominal head of an oblique-headed relative clause can be understood to fulfill an oblique role in the clause, this role is not marked grammatically; instead, the noun is only marked for its syntactic role in the main clause.

RelPro: Oblique-headed relative clauses include both the nominal head of the relative clause in the main clause and an obligatory coreferential pronoun in the relative clause, generally marked for its oblique role.

(1) säm-a pīt-m-am pūɣəʌ ənəʌ ʌɔ̄r qɔ̄nəŋ-nə ɔ̄məs-ʌ.

eye-lat fall-ptc.pst-1sg village big lake shore-loc sit-prs.3sg

‘The village, where I was born, is on the shore of a large lake.’ (Csepregi 2012b)

(2) pūɣəʌ, qot mā säm-a pīt-əm, ənəʌ ʌɔ̄r qɔ̄nəŋ-nə ɔ̄məs-ʌ.

village where I eye-lat fall-pst.1sg big lake shore-loc sit-prs.3sg

‘The village, where I was born, is on the shore of a large lake.’ (Csepregi 2012b)

In Surgut Khanty, the head noun of a relative construction does not reflect its function in its immediate clause because it takes the case ending corresponding to its sentence function. Hence, in the examples above, the head noun (pūɣəʌ ‘village’) would take a locative case ending in the participle construction but as the subject of the sentence, it takes the nominative case instead (1). Sometimes, the head noun can be specified by a relative pronoun which expresses the appropriate oblique case function (in the present example it is the relative pronoun meaning ‘where’ (2)).