diff --git a/common/changes/@typespec/compiler/few-fixes_2023-04-21-17-55.json b/common/changes/@typespec/compiler/few-fixes_2023-04-21-17-55.json
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..9c5917b3181
--- /dev/null
+++ b/common/changes/@typespec/compiler/few-fixes_2023-04-21-17-55.json
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+{
+  "changes": [
+    {
+      "packageName": "@typespec/compiler",
+      "comment": "Add relative file path utils, and allow emitter framework's ObjectBuilder to be initialized with a placeholder object.",
+      "type": "none"
+    }
+  ],
+  "packageName": "@typespec/compiler"
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/cspell.yaml b/cspell.yaml
index 92fce3962e8..53f4c6b32b4 100644
--- a/cspell.yaml
+++ b/cspell.yaml
@@ -66,6 +66,7 @@ words:
   - xplat
   - keyer
   - interner
+  - unprefixed
 ignorePaths:
   - "**/node_modules/**"
   - "**/dist/**"
diff --git a/packages/compiler/core/path-utils.ts b/packages/compiler/core/path-utils.ts
index fd0d6db7b0e..b042ba5d7b2 100644
--- a/packages/compiler/core/path-utils.ts
+++ b/packages/compiler/core/path-utils.ts
@@ -470,7 +470,164 @@ export function normalizeSlashes(path: string): string {
 }
 
 //#endregion
+// #region relative paths
+type GetCanonicalFileName = (fileName: string) => string;
 
+/** @internal */
+function equateValues<T>(a: T, b: T) {
+  return a === b;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Compare the equality of two strings using a case-sensitive ordinal comparison.
+ *
+ * Case-sensitive comparisons compare both strings one code-point at a time using the integer
+ * value of each code-point after applying `toUpperCase` to each string. We always map both
+ * strings to their upper-case form as some unicode characters do not properly round-trip to
+ * lowercase (such as `ẞ` (German sharp capital s)).
+ *
+ * @internal
+ */
+function equateStringsCaseInsensitive(a: string, b: string) {
+  return a === b || (a !== undefined && b !== undefined && a.toUpperCase() === b.toUpperCase());
+}
+
+/**
+ * Compare the equality of two strings using a case-sensitive ordinal comparison.
+ *
+ * Case-sensitive comparisons compare both strings one code-point at a time using the
+ * integer value of each code-point.
+ *
+ * @internal
+ */
+function equateStringsCaseSensitive(a: string, b: string) {
+  return equateValues(a, b);
+}
+
+/**
+ * Returns its argument.
+ *
+ * @internal
+ */
+function identity<T>(x: T) {
+  return x;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Determines whether a path starts with an absolute path component (i.e. `/`, `c:/`, `file://`, etc.).
+ *
+ * ```ts
+ * // POSIX
+ * pathIsAbsolute("/path/to/file.ext") === true
+ * // DOS
+ * pathIsAbsolute("c:/path/to/file.ext") === true
+ * // URL
+ * pathIsAbsolute("file:///path/to/file.ext") === true
+ * // Non-absolute
+ * pathIsAbsolute("path/to/file.ext") === false
+ * pathIsAbsolute("./path/to/file.ext") === false
+ * ```
+ *
+ * @internal
+ */
+function pathIsAbsolute(path: string): boolean {
+  return getEncodedRootLength(path) !== 0;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Determines whether a path starts with a relative path component (i.e. `.` or `..`).
+ *
+ * @internal
+ */
+function pathIsRelative(path: string): boolean {
+  return /^\.\.?($|[\\/])/.test(path);
+}
+
+/**
+ * Ensures a path is either absolute (prefixed with `/` or `c:`) or dot-relative (prefixed
+ * with `./` or `../`) so as not to be confused with an unprefixed module name.
+ *
+ * ```ts
+ * ensurePathIsNonModuleName("/path/to/file.ext") === "/path/to/file.ext"
+ * ensurePathIsNonModuleName("./path/to/file.ext") === "./path/to/file.ext"
+ * ensurePathIsNonModuleName("../path/to/file.ext") === "../path/to/file.ext"
+ * ensurePathIsNonModuleName("path/to/file.ext") === "./path/to/file.ext"
+ * ```
+ *
+ * @internal
+ */
+export function ensurePathIsNonModuleName(path: string): string {
+  return !pathIsAbsolute(path) && !pathIsRelative(path) ? "./" + path : path;
+}
+
+/** @internal */
+function getPathComponentsRelativeTo(
+  from: string,
+  to: string,
+  stringEqualityComparer: (a: string, b: string) => boolean,
+  getCanonicalFileName: GetCanonicalFileName
+) {
+  const fromComponents = reducePathComponents(getPathComponents(from));
+  const toComponents = reducePathComponents(getPathComponents(to));
+
+  let start: number;
+  for (start = 0; start < fromComponents.length && start < toComponents.length; start++) {
+    const fromComponent = getCanonicalFileName(fromComponents[start]);
+    const toComponent = getCanonicalFileName(toComponents[start]);
+    const comparer = start === 0 ? equateStringsCaseInsensitive : stringEqualityComparer;
+    if (!comparer(fromComponent, toComponent)) break;
+  }
+
+  if (start === 0) {
+    return toComponents;
+  }
+
+  const components = toComponents.slice(start);
+  const relative: string[] = [];
+  for (; start < fromComponents.length; start++) {
+    relative.push("..");
+  }
+  return ["", ...relative, ...components];
+}
+
+/**
+ * Gets a relative path that can be used to traverse between `from` and `to`.
+ */
+export function getRelativePathFromDirectory(from: string, to: string, ignoreCase: boolean): string;
+/**
+ * Gets a relative path that can be used to traverse between `from` and `to`.
+ */
+export function getRelativePathFromDirectory(
+  fromDirectory: string,
+  to: string,
+  getCanonicalFileName: GetCanonicalFileName
+): string; // eslint-disable-line @typescript-eslint/unified-signatures
+export function getRelativePathFromDirectory(
+  fromDirectory: string,
+  to: string,
+  getCanonicalFileNameOrIgnoreCase: GetCanonicalFileName | boolean
+) {
+  if (getRootLength(fromDirectory) > 0 !== getRootLength(to) > 0) {
+    throw new Error("Paths must either both be absolute or both be relative");
+  }
+  const getCanonicalFileName =
+    typeof getCanonicalFileNameOrIgnoreCase === "function"
+      ? getCanonicalFileNameOrIgnoreCase
+      : identity;
+  const ignoreCase =
+    typeof getCanonicalFileNameOrIgnoreCase === "boolean"
+      ? getCanonicalFileNameOrIgnoreCase
+      : false;
+  const pathComponents = getPathComponentsRelativeTo(
+    fromDirectory,
+    to,
+    ignoreCase ? equateStringsCaseInsensitive : equateStringsCaseSensitive,
+    getCanonicalFileName
+  );
+  return getPathFromPathComponents(pathComponents);
+}
+
+// #endregion
 const enum CharacterCodes {
   nullCharacter = 0,
   maxAsciiCharacter = 0x7f,
diff --git a/packages/compiler/emitter-framework/builders/object-builder.ts b/packages/compiler/emitter-framework/builders/object-builder.ts
index bc3ce70bec2..e83f4e00d5f 100644
--- a/packages/compiler/emitter-framework/builders/object-builder.ts
+++ b/packages/compiler/emitter-framework/builders/object-builder.ts
@@ -6,11 +6,20 @@ import { EmitEntity, EmitterResult } from "../types.js";
 // eslint-disable-next-line @typescript-eslint/no-unused-vars
 export interface ObjectBuilder<T> extends Record<string, any> {}
 export class ObjectBuilder<T> {
-  constructor(initializer: Record<string, unknown> = {}) {
-    for (const [key, value] of Object.entries(initializer)) {
-      this.set(key, value as any);
+  constructor(initializer: Record<string, unknown> | Placeholder<Record<string, unknown>> = {}) {
+    if (initializer instanceof Placeholder) {
+      initializer.onValue((v) => {
+        for (const [key, value] of Object.entries(v)) {
+          this.set(key, value as any);
+        }
+      });
+    } else {
+      for (const [key, value] of Object.entries(initializer)) {
+        this.set(key, value as any);
+      }
     }
   }
+
   set(key: string, v: EmitEntity<T> | Placeholder<T> | T) {
     let value = v;
     if (v instanceof EmitterResult) {
diff --git a/packages/compiler/emitter-framework/type-emitter.ts b/packages/compiler/emitter-framework/type-emitter.ts
index 0d39fd8d781..a6978231542 100644
--- a/packages/compiler/emitter-framework/type-emitter.ts
+++ b/packages/compiler/emitter-framework/type-emitter.ts
@@ -387,7 +387,6 @@ export class TypeEmitter<T, TOptions extends object = Record<string, never>> {
   }
 
   arrayDeclarationReferenceContext(array: Model): Context {
-    this.emitter.emitType(array.indexer!.value);
     return {};
   }
 
diff --git a/packages/compiler/test/emitter-framework/emitter.test.ts b/packages/compiler/test/emitter-framework/emitter.test.ts
index 48d3d507344..7a7d2cf4e38 100644
--- a/packages/compiler/test/emitter-framework/emitter.test.ts
+++ b/packages/compiler/test/emitter-framework/emitter.test.ts
@@ -139,6 +139,16 @@ describe("emitter-framework: typescript emitter", () => {
     assert.match(contents, /z: 12/);
   });
 
+  it("emits unknown", async () => {
+    const contents = await emitTypeSpecToTs(`
+      model A {
+        x: unknown
+      }
+    `);
+
+    assert.match(contents, /x: unknown/);
+  });
+
   it("emits array literals", async () => {
     const contents = await emitTypeSpecToTs(`
       model MyArray2 is Array<string>;
@@ -155,6 +165,15 @@ describe("emitter-framework: typescript emitter", () => {
     assert.match(contents, /y: string\[\]/);
     assert.match(contents, /z: \(string \| number\)\[\]/);
   });
+
+  it("emits arrays of unknown", async () => {
+    const contents = await emitTypeSpecToTs(`
+      model MyArray2 is Array<unknown>;
+    `);
+
+    assert.match(contents, /MyArray2 extends Array<unknown>/);
+  });
+
   // todo: what to do with optionals not at the end??
   it("emits operations", async () => {
     const contents = await emitTypeSpecToTs(`
diff --git a/packages/compiler/test/emitter-framework/typescript-emitter.ts b/packages/compiler/test/emitter-framework/typescript-emitter.ts
index 5c274c0a365..f8cf826b704 100644
--- a/packages/compiler/test/emitter-framework/typescript-emitter.ts
+++ b/packages/compiler/test/emitter-framework/typescript-emitter.ts
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ export function isArrayType(m: Model) {
 }
 
 export const intrinsicNameToTSType = new Map<string, string>([
+  ["unknown", "unknown"],
   ["string", "string"],
   ["int32", "number"],
   ["int16", "number"],