Rethinking the Coordinate-Subordinate Dichotomy: Interpersonal Grammar and the Analysis of Adverbial Clauses in English

340 Pages·2007·1.88 MB·English

by  Jean-Christophe Verstraete

Rethinking the Coordinate-Subordinate Dichotomy
≥
Topics in English Linguistics
55
Editors
Bernd Kortmann
Elizabeth Closs Traugott
Mouton de Gruyter
Berlin · New York
Rethinking
the Coordinate-Subordinate
Dichotomy
Interpersonal Grammar and
the Analysis of Adverbial Clauses in English
by
Jean-Christophe Verstraete
Mouton de Gruyter
Berlin · New York
MoutondeGruyter(formerlyMouton,TheHague)
isaDivisionofWalterdeGruyterGmbH&Co.KG,Berlin.
(cid:2)(cid:2)Printedonacid-freepaperwhichfallswithintheguidelines
oftheANSItoensurepermanenceanddurability.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Verstraete,Jean-Christophe,1976(cid:2)
Rethinking the coordinate-subordinate dichotomy : interper-
sonalgrammarandtheanalysisofadverbialclausesinEnglish/by
Jean-ChristopheVerstraete.
p.cm.(cid:2)(TopicsinEnglishlinguistics;55)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-3-11-019950-5(alk.paper)
1.Englishlanguage(cid:2)Modality. 2.Englishlanguage(cid:2)Adverb.
3.Englishlanguage(cid:2)Clauses. I.Title.
PE1315.M6V47 2007
425(cid:2)dc22
2007007831
ISBN 978-3-11-019950-5
ISSN 1434-3452
BibliographicinformationpublishedbytheDeutscheNationalbibliothek
TheDeutscheNationalbibliothekliststhispublicationintheDeutscheNationalbibliografie;
detailedbibliographicdataareavailableintheInternetathttp://dnb.d-nb.de.
”Copyright2007byWalterdeGruyterGmbH&Co.KG,10785Berlin
All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this
bookmaybereproducedortransmittedinanyformorbyanymeans,electronicormechan-
ical,includingphotocopy,recording,oranyinformationstorageandretrievalsystem,without
permissioninwritingfromthepublisher.
Coverdesign:ChristopherSchneider,Berlin.
PrintedinGermany.
Acknowledgements

This book could not have been written without the support and encourage-
ment of many people.
First of all, I would like to thank my former supervisors Kristin Davidse
and Bill McGregor, for the freedom they gave me to find my own way, for
the time they spent discussing draft versions, even when they really did not
have the time, and for the generosity with which they always shared their
ideas and comments.
I am grateful to a number of other people for their comments on the
entire manuscript: Renaat Declerck, William Van Belle, David Wilkins,
and the series editors of Topics in English Linguistics, Bernd Kortmann and
Elizabeth Closs Traugott. I would also like to thank Bernd Kortmann,
Birgit Sievert and Wolfgang Konwitschny for guiding me through the
publication process.
I am grateful to a large number of people who in some way or other
contributed to parts of this work. A special word of thanks goes to Patrick
Goethals and Peter Lauwers, for our stimulating lunchtime talks about
causal constructions, modality and other topics, to An Laffut, for our
discussions about methodology and functional analysis, and to Jan Nuyts,
for our discussions about modality. Furthermore, I am indebted to the late
Machtelt Bolkestein, and to Bert Cappelle, Keith Carlon, Michael Clyne,
Bert Cornillie, Mily Crevels, Hubert Cuyckens, Barbara Dancygier, Eirian
Davies, Barbara De Cock, Hendrik De Smet, Nick Evans, Ad Foolen,
Liliane Haegeman, Kees Hengeveld, Caroline Heycock, Liesbet Heyvaert,
Judit Horváth, Anne Jensen, Mary Laughren, Alexander Loengarov,
Lachlan Mackenzie, Ricardo Maldonado, Piet Mertens, Philip Miller,
Rachel Nordlinger, Susan Reed, Jan Rijkhoff, Stéphane Robert, Ted
Sanders, Eva Schultze-Berndt, Anne-Marie Simon-Vandenbergen, Jakob
Steensig, Miriam Taverniers, Paul Thibault, Ingrid Van Canegem-Ardijns,
Lieven Vandelanotte, Wim Vandenberghe, Karel Van den Eynde, Johan
Van der Auwera, Willy Van Langendonck and Dieter Vermandere, for their
help, suggestions, comments and criticisms at various occasions.
I would like to thank the Fund for Scientific Research-Flanders for its
financial support of this work, in the form of a doctoral fellowship and a
research stay at the University of Aarhus.
vi Acknowledgements
On a personal level, finally, I would like to thank my parents and fam-
ily. I am deeply grateful to my father and mother for everything they have
done for me. And I thank Barbara for her love and support, and for being
with me.
It is my greatest regret that my mother is not with us anymore, so I dedi-
cate this book to her memory.
Contents

Acknowledgements v
Abbreviations xii
Tables xiv
Figures xvi

Introduction 1

Part 1. Parameters of interpersonal grammar in the simple clause

Introduction to Part 1 7

Chapter 1. Modality: Construing a position 13
1. Introduction 13
1.1. Modal verbs as an interpersonal phenomenon 13
1.2. Moods and modal verbs 15
2. Modal verbs: subjective versus objective 16
2.1. Two problem areas 17
2.1.1. Delineation of the categories 17
2.1.2. Criteria 21
2.2. A semiotic account of the criteria 22
2.2.1. Conditional constructions 22
2.2.2. Interrogation 26
2.2.3. Conclusion 28
2.3. Back to the problem of delineation 29
2.3.1. Subjective deontic modality? 32
2.3.2. Objective epistemic modality? 36
2.3.3. Summary 38
3. Moods 38
3.1. Introduction 38
3.2. Moods and subjective modality 40
3.2.1. The functional correlation 40
3.2.2. Further justification: the category of tense 42
3.2.3. Two definitions of the imperative-indicative contrast 46
3.2.4. Moods as unmarked options? 47
3.3. Moods and objective modality 52
3.3.1. Objective deontic modality and the moods 53
viii Contents
3.3.2. Objective modality and indicative mood 55
3.4. Summary 57

Chapter 2. Speech function: Assigning responsibility 59
1. Introduction 59
2. Declarative and interrogative 60
2.1. Alternative assignments of responsibility 60
2.2. The role of modality in interrogative structures 62
2.2.1. Marked and unmarked modal values in polar interrogatives 62
2.2.2. Marked and unmarked modal values in wh-interrogatives 64
2.3. Conclusion 66
3. The position of the imperative 66
4. Modality and speech function in relation to illocutionary force 69
4.1. Interpersonal grammar as a prerequisite for illocutionary force 70
4.2. Interpersonal grammar and types of illocutionary force 72
4.2.1. Interpersonal grammar and patterns of interaction 72
4.2.2. Interpersonal grammar and indirect speech acts 75
4.3. Conclusion 77
5. Conclusion 77

Chapter 3. Focus and scope: Delineating a domain 79
1. Introduction 79
2. The scope of interpersonal elements 80
2.1. Focus-presupposition structure 80
2.2. The scope of interpersonal elements 83
2.3. Conclusion 88
3. Scope and clausehood 88
3.1. Extra-clausal status and scope 88
3.2. Arguments versus adjuncts 92
4. Conclusion 94

Part 2. Interpersonal grammar and clause combining

Introduction to Part 2 97

Chapter 4. Parameters of interpersonal grammar and the analysis
of clause combining 103
1. Introduction 103
1.1. Relation to previous analyses 103
1.2. Initial delineation of the domain 104
2. Speech function and clause combining 106
Contents ix
2.1. Relevance to clause combining 107
2.2. Categories defined by the values of the parameter 109
3. Modality and clause combining 112
3.1. Relevance to clause combining 113
3.2. Categories defined by the values of the parameter 114
4. Scope and clause combining 117
4.1. Relevance to clause combining 118
4.2. Categories defined by the values of the parameter 120
5. Summary 124

Chapter 5. Combining the parameters: A typology 127
1. Relations between the parameters 127
1.1. Modality and speech function 127
1.2. Scope and the other two parameters 129
1.3. Summary 132
2. A typology of four construction types 132
3. Why this typology? 134

Chapter 6. Motivating the typology: Function 137
1. Introduction 137
2. General interpersonal profiles of the construction types 138
3. Functional generalizations in clause combining 141
4. Integration versus non-integration 143
5. Presupposition 145
5.1. Presupposition and modality 146
5.2. Condition and reason 147
5.3. Challengeability and foregrounding 150
5.4. Conclusion 151
6. Equality versus inequality 152
7. Terminology 156
8. Conclusion 157

Chapter 7. Motivating the typology: Grammar 161
1. Introduction 161
2. Preposability 162
2.1. Preposing and the parameter of speech function 163
2.2. Preposing and the parameter of scope 165
3. Clefting and wh-questioning 167
3.1. Clefting and wh-questioning as focusing constructions 168
3.2. Comparison of the resulting categorizations 170
x Contents
4. Intonational integration 172
4.1. Intonation and scope 174
4.2. Non-integrated intonation and degrees of subordination 175
5. ‘Main clause phenomena’ 178
6. A comparative perspective: word order in the other Germanic
languages 181
6.1. Word order and the parameter of speech function 182
6.2. Explaining the marking by word order 184
7. Conclusion 186

Chapter 8. Motivating the typology: Semantics 187
1. Introduction 187
2. Conjunctions associated with more than one construction type 188
2.1. As and since 189
2.2. When and while 193
2.3. Because 197
2.4. So that 200
2.5. Conclusion 203
3. The general semantic profile of the construction types 204
3.1. The primary distinction 205
3.2. Narrative uses as a principled exception 207
3.3. The other distinctions in the typology 208
4. Secondary parameters: further semantic differentiation 210
4.1. Coordinaton: argumentative and non-argumentative
subcategories 211
4.2. Free/bound subordination: temporal and non-temporal
subcategories 215
5. Conclusion 218

Part 3. Applications and implications

Introduction to Part 3 223

Chapter 9. Speaker-related versus SoA-related interpretations 227
1. Introduction 227
2. Explaining syntactic behaviour 229
2.1. Speaker-related interpretation and bound subordination 231
2.2. Explaining the criteria 233
3. The subdivision of the speaker-related category 236
3.1. Modality and speech function 237
3.2. The status of structures with non-declarative main clauses 240