A pronoun does not stand for a noun as the name suggests. subordin subject slot, an object slot, adverbial slots, etc. They can be used on their own as in 'Why?' - 'Because there was no time.' This is a function in a 'communicateme' - a structure on one of the text levels. Subclauses can fill functional slots in mini-paragraphs, e.g. conditional structures: If this is so, topic slot then xxx conclusion slot. Etc. Once we have described the syntactic rules concerning subclauses, we can then look at their position in sentences, communicatemes, paragraphs and so o subclause comes first, it usually refers to some information we already know. If it comes last, focus is on the information it contains - which has to do with our memory span, something biological, rather than linguistic. Why we may want to put this information in focus, may have innumerable reasons - this has to do with life in general. Maybe the information is new to the hearer, or we find it fascinating, or we want to set right what someone else has said, and so on. My 2 cents worth ... Burkhard Leuschner Paedagogische Hochschule, Schwaebisch Gmuend, Germany INTERNET: BITNET: [log in to unmask] Leuschne@dulruu51