A few days ago, Edward Vavra raised the question of subordination and
coordination.
Some further thoughts on the subject, if I may.
1. BASIC CONSIDERATIONS
Traditional grammar has a wordclass ('parts of speech') called
'conjunctions'. This class has two subclasses, the 'subordinating
conjunctions' and the 'coordinating conjunctions'.
This suggests that subordination and coordination are similar
types of relationships. And that the words expressing these
relationships basically do the same thing in sentences. This is,
however, not quite true.
(a) Subordination and coordination
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SUBORDINATING conjunctions become part of a new entity, which I
call 'subclause'. 'Subclause' used in this way denotes a
linguistic object, not the relationship of subordination.
Traditionally also the wh-sentences in the following entity are
called subordinate clauses: 'Why you see / is / what you get' -
which have a completely different structure.
A subclause consists of two slots: the first slot is filled by
words like 'if,that,because,since,while,...', the second slot is
filled by a sentence (major or minor, finite or non-finite).
because / he didn't like her
while / running around in a circle
if / blue
COORDINATING conjunctions sort of stay outside the linguistic
objects they connect. The objects can be any type of
building-block, i.e. sentences or noun groups or words or
morphemes or paragraphs, and so on. When two or more objects are
connected in this way, the result can be called a 'chain', thus
there are sentence chains, morpheme chains, etc.
The connecting words are mainly these: 'and, or, but'.
EXAMPLES
Then they embraced AND [connects two sentences]
Parrado, Canessa AND [single words] Vizintin set off up the
mountain.
There was no light from the moon OR [noun groups] the stars.
(b) Terminoloy
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Subordinating conjunctions could be called 'subordinators', the
coordinating conjunctions 'connectors'.
(c) The problem of 'when'
------------------------
'When' I can't see as a subordinator, although traditionally it
is interpreted as one. 'When' is used like any other of the nine
'wh-pronouns'. While subordinators fill the first slot in a
subclause and is followed by a sentence (see above), wh-pronouns
fill a functional slot in the sentence, they are sentence parts
(subject, object, adverbial, part of prepositional phrases, etc).
'When' functions as adverbial (usually of time-point).
When a wh-pronoun functions as a sentence part or as a part of a
sentence part, it usually moves to the front of the sentence. But
it still plays its original functional role. A sentence which has
a wh-pronoun at its front, is a 'wh-sentence' (either as
statement - mostly - or as question).
The wh-statement can then be used in a great variety of ways: as
subject, object, etc. When it has attributive function, we
usually call it 'defining relative clause'; if its function leans
towards being an appositive, we call it 'non-defining relative
clause'. We find wh-statements in cleft sentences. And in the
conclusion slot of paragraphs (especially which-sentences). And
we find them on their own, e.g. in headlines (How the horse came
to the American West).
Examples with WHEN- and WHERE-SENTENCES - nobody would call
'where' a subordinating conjunction, so why should 'when' be one?
OBJECTS
As he followed he kept an eye on the path and watched to see
/ WHEN to make his move.
I think I know / WHERE he is.
ADVERBIALS
I'll be here / WHEN you need me.
Andrew shoved Alyssa under the table as part of the steel
frame crashed down / WHERE she stood.
IN PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE
Why don't you read up [ on / WHERE we're going/ ]
Our reservations staff will advise [ on / WHEN this option is
available / ].
The Guard looked out over a large room [ from / WHERE he
stood / ].
So erm Yes. Oh I used to pay a year from when you [ from
/ WHEN you first started paying / ]
ATTRIBUTES (RELATIVE CLAUSE)
Still, it was obvious that the moment / WHEN the Sorcerer came back
down / would be my best chance.
When you entered my portal, you were transported to a place
/ WHERE creatures your people only dream about / truly
exist.
2. FUNCTIONS OF SUBCLAUSES
When a subclause is embedded (not connected!) in another
sentence, the subclause fills some functional slot.
(a) Subclauses as sentence parts
--------------------------------
Subclauses may fill a sentence slot like subject, object,
adverbial, etc. Then they are part of the sentence in which they
fill a slot.
OBJECTS
Boon could see / that the snake was very big.
to see / if they came to the top [if=whether]
ADVERBIALS
He did not see Boon / because he was busy. (adverbial of
reason)
(b) Subclauses as parts of sentences parts
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The entity in square brackets is an appositional structure with
the that-clause as one of the two appositives. (The whole thing
is a verbless sentence, in the sentence from which it can be
thought to be derived it would play the role of subject
complement.)
Parrado walked back to Canessa, clutching the bread in his
hands, [ a tangible sign / that they finally had made contact with
the outside world/].
(c) Subclauses and textgrammar
------------------------------
Sentences are not the end of the grammatical ladder. Above
sentence grammar there comes text grammar. Many problems of
traditional grammar have to do with not recognizing that there
are also grammatical rules beyond the sentence.
There are a number of levels beyond the sentence level, a central
one is the paragraph level. Paragraphs have functional slots in
the same way that sentences have functional slots (subject,
subject complement, etc.). The basic paragraph type offers 4
slots:
topic slot
description slot
antithesis slot
conclusion slot
In sentences some slots are (structurally) necessary (dependent
on the full verb, see the valence discussion some time ago),
others are free, e.g. time adverbials or manner adverbials can be
added freely to the kernel of a sentence when there is a
communicative need.
Similarly, in paragraphs the topic and the conclusion slots are
necessary to make a paragraphs, the other two are free slots.
Back to subclause-containing structures. Intuitively we sometimes feel that
there is a difference between structures that contain, say,
conditional clauses (if-clauses) and structures that contain,
say, that-clauses. To solve the problem we sometimes think
this might have to do with subordination and coordination.
I rather think that all this is a problem of textgrammar. E.g. a
structure like
If we ration it, it should last us for 20 days.
might be interpreted as a (kernel) paragraph:
TOPIC: IF we ration it
CONCLUSION: it should last us for 20 day.
Similarly, structures with so-that-clauses could perhaps be
interpreted in this way:
TOPIC: There Canessa untied it and sent back the strap
CONLCUSION: SO THAT their clothes, sticks, knapsacks and
shoes could be thrown across in the same way.
Both subclause-structures cannot be interpreted as adverbials,
there is neither an adverbial of condition nor one of result.
As to because-sentences - they are often adverbials of reason, but when
there is comma before 'because', they, too, might be interpreted as kernel
paragraphs.
Any comments on the above suggestions?
Burkhard
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Burkhard Leuschner - Paedagogische Hochschule Schwaebisch Gmuend, Germany
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