However, free and selected interrogatives are not formally distinguished in many languages, including Saterland Frisian and English. The same pronouns are used to introduce both free relatives and selected interrogatives, as the examples above make clear. The introductory pronoun does not have an antecedent in either clause type.

The free relative / interrogative pronoun may have various syntactic functions inside the relative clause. The free relative pronoun may have the following syntactic functions in the subordinate clause:

• Argument of a verb, that is subject or object
• Argument of an adposition, that is an adpositional complement
• Adverbial of time, manner, type, reason or place

Free relative pronouns in Germanic languages are either homophonous to relative pronouns or to interrogative pronouns. For example, Old Frisian free relative pronouns were homophonous to relative pronouns, but in Modern West Frisian they are homophonous to interrogative pronouns. This is also the case in Saterland Frisian, where interrogative pronouns are also used as free relatives. Note that we have a terminological mismatch between syntax and morphology here. Morphologically or lexically, these pronouns have the outward appearance of interrogatives. But they can be syntactically used as free relative pronouns. Thus the reader is asked to bear in mind that the classificatory term we use may be based on outward appearance. The first example below features a selected interrogative, the second one a free interrogative.

The interrogative pronoun functions as the predicate of the embedded clause in the first example above. In the second example above, it functions as the subject. In proverbs, we may still find the demonstrative pronoun die ‘that’ used as a free relative. The example below features two relative clauses containing a relative pronoun functioning as object:

This example is a free relative because the verb geskjo ‘happen’ does not select an embedded question.

The interrogative pronoun can in principle be used as a nominalised possessor with elided noun, in examples like the following:

The form and interpretation of a relative or interrogative pronoun depends on the paradigm to which it belongs. If we compare paradigms of relative and interrogative pronouns, we note the following. Relative pronouns homophonous to articles cannot be used to introduce free or selected interrogatives. As such, they show a four way distinction which correlates with the grammatical gender of the antecedent. We restrict ourselves to relative pronouns functioning as subject and object. So the table for this relative pronoun is the same as for the definite article. We know that the interrogative intrudes upon the relative pronoun in the Neuter so there is variation there. The resulting system of relatives with an antecedent is given below:

REL MSC SG	REL FEM SG	REL NTR SG	REL PL
die	ju	dät (wät)	do

Free relative pronouns are homophonous to selected interrogative pronouns, as we discussed already. Interrogative pronouns, however, do not show a gender distinction, nor do they show a number distinction. They only show a semantic distinction between persons and things. Thus the basic interrogative paradigm exhibits a binary distinction, which is independent of person and gender, as follows:

Persons	Non-persons
wäl ‘who’	wät ‘what’

Free relative / interrogative pronouns, selected or not, are insensitive to grammatical gender, since there is no antecedent. This makes sense because in the absence of an antecedent, features like number and gender are irrelevant.