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9 - Dependency Grammar and Subordination

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 December 2024

By
Jackie Nordström
Edited by
Eva Duran Eppler ,
Nikolas Gisborne  and
Andrew Rosta
Eva Duran Eppler
Affiliation:
Roehampton University, London
Nikolas Gisborne
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
Andrew Rosta
Affiliation:
University of Central Lancashire, Preston
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Summary

In this chapter it is argued that language discretely combines lexical items into dependency structures rather than recursively embedding syntactic objects into phrase structures. This must be the case if language is to be able to manage discrete infinity and specifiers. In particular it is argued that the ubiquity of subordinators and other subordinating elements in the languages of the world and the fact that these are obligatory in many contexts clearly show that language is not recursive embedding. If language were recursive embedding, the subordinators would be completely redundant, since the subordinate clauses would automatically be embedded under the predicates. Other potential functions of universal subordinators such as Germanic that are discussed and refuted. The chapter will discuss several cases in English, Swedish and German where the universal subordinator is needed to embed the clause, and cases where it is not needed but where other subordination strategies are employed instead. Furthermore, it will be shown that in those cases where the subordinator is omitted and there is no other subordinating strategy, the clauses become desubordinated.

Keywords

subordinatorsdesubordinationrecursive embeddingdiscrete combination
Type
Chapter
Information
Word Grammar, Cognition and Dependency , pp. 200 - 230
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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