I know that there are members of this list who do not believe that the main idea in a sentence is generally located in the main clause (MIMC), but there are also members of this list who do believe so. My question is for the latter, and it is not a trick question. 
     Some people I am working with have been trying to develop exercises similar to the "Alicia" passage that Wanda Van Goor presented at an ATEG conference. See:
http://home.pct.edu/~evavra/kiss/wb/G08/Mar/index.htm
These exercises are not easy to create, and the question has arisen ― Does a conjunctive adverb have the same subordinating effect as a subordinate conjunction. MIMCer's would probably say that in a sentence such as

Although we were late, we wanted to go to the ball game.

the main idea is "we wanted to go to the ball game," because the "although" subordinates the "we were late." The KISS psycholinguistic model supports this in that the subordinate clause is, theoretically, held in working memory and chunked to the main clause.

But is the same effect achieved in 

We wanted to go to the ball game; however, we were late.

Thanks,
Ed

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