Rethinking the Coordinate-Subordinate Dichotomy

Interpersonal Grammar and the Analysis of Adverbial Clauses in English

Jean-Christophe Verstraete

• Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9783110199505
• eBook ISBN: 9783110918199
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Languages
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

This study argues that the domain traditionally covered by 'coordination' and 'subordination' in English can be subdivided into four distinct construction types. The constructions are defined on the basis of differences in their 'interpersonal' structure, i.e. the grammatical encoding of speaker-attitude and speaker-interlocutor interaction. It is shown that the four types constitute syntactically, semantically and pragmatically coherent categories, with differences in interpersonal structure defining and motivating distinct syntactic behaviour, distinct pragmatic functions and distinct semantic classes of clause linkage.

The validity of the analysis is demonstrated in three ways. First, it is shown that the analysis can make sense of the wide range of apparently conflicting criteria found in the literature on complex sentences, which can now be explained as reflections of four different construction types rather than as alternative perspectives on one single contrast between coordination and subordination. Second, it is shown how the analysis can deal with two specific problems in the more general area of clause combining, viz. the syntactic basis of the distinction between 'content', 'epistemic' and 'speech act' levels of clause linkage, and the distinct discursive functions associated with initial and final position of adverbial clauses. Finally, it is also shown that the proposed analysis is useful beyond the analysis of English, with parallels in a number of cross-linguistically recurrent phenomena of clause linkage.

The book is mainly of interest to linguistics researchers in the areas of syntax, semantics and pragmatics as well as to graduate students with a focus on these fields.

Table of contents

• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Tables
• Figures
• Introduction
• Part 1. Parameters of interpersonal grammar in the simple clause
• Introduction to Part 1
• Chapter 1. Modality: Construing a position
• 1. Introduction
• 1.1. Modal verbs as an interpersonal phenomenon
• 1.2. Moods and modal verbs
• 2. Modal verbs: subjective versus objective
• 2.1. Two problem areas
• 2.2. A semiotic account of the criteria
• 2.3. Back to the problem of delineation
• 3. Moods
• 3.1. Introduction
• 3.2. Moods and subjective modality
• 3.3. Moods and objective modality
• 3.4. Summary
• Chapter 2. Speech function: Assigning responsibility
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Declarative and interrogative
• 2.1. Alternative assignments of responsibility
• 2.2. The role of modality in interrogative structures
• 2.3. Conclusion
• 3. The position of the imperative
• 4. Modality and speech function in relation to illocutionary force
• 4.1. Interpersonal grammar as a prerequisite for illocutionary force
• 4.2. Interpersonal grammar and types of illocutionary force
• 4.3. Conclusion
• 5. Conclusion
• Chapter 3. Focus and scope: Delineating a domain
• 1. Introduction
• 2. The scope of interpersonal elements
• 2.1. Focus-presupposition structure
• 2.2. The scope of interpersonal elements
• 2.3. Conclusion
• 3. Scope and clausehood
• 3.1. Extra-clausal status and scope
• 3.2. Arguments versus adjuncts
• 4. Conclusion
• Part 2. Interpersonal grammar and clause combining
• Introduction to Part 2
• Chapter 4. Parameters of interpersonal grammar and the analysis of clause combining
• 1. Introduction
• 1.1. Relation to previous analyses
• 1.2. Initial delineation of the domain
• 2. Speech function and clause combining
• 2.1. Relevance to clause combining
• 2.2. Categories defined by the values of the parameter
• 3. Modality and clause combining
• 3.1. Relevance to clause combining
• 3.2. Categories defined by the values of the parameter
• 4. Scope and clause combining
• 4.1. Relevance to clause combining
• 4.2. Categories defined by the values of the parameter
• 5. Summary
• Chapter 5. Combining the parameters: A typology
• 1. Relations between the parameters
• 1.1. Modality and speech function
• 1.2. Scope and the other two parameters
• 1.3. Summary
• 2. A typology of four construction types
• 3. Why this typology?
• Chapter 6. Motivating the typology: Function
• 1. Introduction
• 2. General interpersonal profiles of the construction types
• 3. Functional generalizations in clause combining
• 4. Integration versus non-integration
• 5. Presupposition
• 5.1. Presupposition and modality
• 5.2. Condition and reason
• 5.3. Challengeability and foregrounding
• 5.4. Conclusion
• 6. Equality versus inequality
• 7. Terminology
• 8. Conclusion
• Chapter 7. Motivating the typology: Grammar
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Preposability
• 2.1. Preposing and the parameter of speech function
• 2.2. Preposing and the parameter of scope
• 3. Clefting and wh-questioning
• 3.1. Clefting and wh-questioning as focusing constructions
• 3.2. Comparison of the resulting categorizations
• 4. Intonational integration
• 4.1. Intonation and scope
• 4.2. Non-integrated intonation and degrees of subordination
• 5. ‘Main clause phenomena’
• 6. A comparative perspective: word order in the other Germanic languages
• 6.1. Word order and the parameter of speech function
• 6.2. Explaining the marking by word order
• 7. Conclusion
• Chapter 8. Motivating the typology: Semantics
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Conjunctions associated with more than one construction type
• 2.1. As and since
• 2.2. When and while
• 2.3. Because
• 2.4. So that
• 2.5. Conclusion
• 3. The general semantic profile of the construction types
• 3.1. The primary distinction
• 3.2. Narrative uses as a principled exception
• 3.3. The other distinctions in the typology
• 4. Secondary parameters: further semantic differentiation
• 4.1. Coordinaton: argumentative and non-argumentative subcategories
• 4.2. Free/bound subordination: temporal and non-temporal subcategories
• 5. Conclusion
• Part 3. Applications and implications
• Introduction to Part 3
• Chapter 9. Speaker-related versus SoA-related interpretations
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Explaining syntactic behaviour
• 2.1. Speaker-related interpretation and bound subordination
• 2.2. Explaining the criteria
• 3. The subdivision of the speaker-related category
• 3.1. Modality and speech function
• 3.2. The status of structures with non-declarative main clauses
• 4. Conclusion
• Chapter 10. Initial and final position
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Interpersonal properties of initial secondary clauses
• 2.1. Speech function
• 2.2. Scope
• 2.3. Conclusion
• 3. The relevance of [+/- Scope]
• 3.1. The parameter of scope
• 3.2. Relation to initial and final position
• 4. The relevance of [+/- Speech Function]
• 4.1. The parameter of speech function
• 4.2. Relation to initial and final position
• 5. Conclusion
• Chapter 11. Typological outlook
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Moods in the verb phrase
• 2.1. Non-indicative moods and absence of illocutionary force
• 2.2. Moods as markers?
• 3. Integration phenomena
• 3.1. Russian converbs: intonation marking for scope distinctions
• 3.2. Types of subordination in Belhare: lexical marking for scope distinctions
• 4. The status of deranked verb forms
• 4.1. Subordinate deranking constructions
• 4.2. Coordinate deranking constructions
• 4.3. Conclusion
• 5. Conclusion
• Conclusion
• Notes
• References
• Subject index
• Author index