Clause Linking and Clause Hierarchy

Clause chaining in Papuan languages is a keystone of the literature on switch-reference (Haiman & Munro 1983, Stirling 1993). Canonically, a clause chain is considered to comprise one or more ‘medial’ clauses, followed by a single ‘final’ clause. In Nungon and other Papuan languages, canonical clause chains coexist with non-canonical clause chains, which either feature medial clauses postposed after the final clause, or lack a final clause altogether. I examine the functions of non-canonical medial clauses in Nungon and other Papuan languages in a first attempt at a typology of these uses, given scanty data. Non-canonical medial clauses are argued to represent canny use of the features of clause chains and switch-reference systems to convey meaning efficiently. The exposition also solves an outstanding puzzle of the Amele switch-reference system (Roberts 1988, Stirling 1993).

The chapter describes specific features of Turkic clause chains, which are sequences of recursively subordinated converb clauses headed by serial converbs grammaticalized for this function. Serial converb suffixes assign a vague meaning, expressing the completion of the relevant phase of the event and pointing forward to the next event as an ‘and’ in English. Clause chains have semantic and syntactic properties distinguishing them from clause combining strategies characteristic of complement, relative, and adverbial clauses. Clause chains are typical of narrative discourse types in several Turkic languages. The use of clause chains based on the same non-modifying converb is highly restricted in contemporary Turkish.

This study investigates a low-frequency verbal inflection called the ‘narrative past’ in child and child-directed speech in the Bantu language Sesotho. Since the function of the Sesotho narrative past is not well-described, this study aimed to illuminate both function and acquisition trends in the Demuth Sesotho Corpus (Demuth, 1992). This construction has been assumed to be under-specified for tense, comparable in function to the better-known Swahili -ka- inflection. The Swahili form, in turn, has been said to function in ‘clause chains’ that are functionally and structurally similar to such chains in Papuan and other languages. We expected that if the Sesotho narrative past is indeed functionally similar to Swahili -ka-, its distribution in child-directed speech and acquisition by children may pattern similarly to tense-less verb forms in non-Bantu clause chaining languages such as the Papuan language Nungon, where such verb forms can comprise over 20% of all verb tokens in child-directed and child speech at age 3;3. This study thus examined the conversational interactions of four children acquiring Sesotho in a village setting, aged 2;1 to 4;7. All 492 tokens of the narrative past form were coded for syntactic and discourse categories. Results show that the Sesotho narrative past generally occurs in much ‘looser’ discourse chains than in the clause chains of languages like Nungon; for Sesotho, other turns or elements can intervene between narrative past-framed mentions of previously-introduced topics. Further, the Sesotho narrative past has very low frequency in both child and child-directed speech, representing less than 3% of all verb tokens for both registers. There is possible evidence that one of the target children uses the Sesotho narrative past in increasing proportions as his linguistic sophistication increases, though there is no proportional increase in child-directed speech. Thus, in function and distribution, in both child-directed and child speech, the Sesotho narrative past form differs greatly from tense-less forms in more canonical clause chaining languages.

This study aimed to describe tertiary students’ difficulties in combining English clauses to generate complex sentences. A descriptive quantitative method was applied by involving 30 tertiary English students at IAIN Curup as the samples. They were selected using a quota sampling technique. The present study revealed that many students (62.82%) had difficulties in combining between adjective clauses and independent clauses to generate English complex sentences. They also found it difficult to use subordinate connectors “who, whose, whom, and which” properly. Some students (42.64%) had difficulties in combining between adverbial clauses and independent clauses to generate English complex sentences. They found it difficult to use some subordinate connectors such as “after, if, before, nevertheless, nonetheless, and however” appropriately. Subsequently, many students (69.31%) had difficulties in combining between noun clauses and independent clauses to generate English complex sentences. They found it difficult to use subordinate connectors such as “what, where, why, whose, when, and how” properly. Further studies are expected to conduct experimentations and classroom-action research to help improve students’ English grammatical competence.Key words:Independent clause, dependent clause, complex sentence

\n Com base nos pressupostos teórico-metodológicos da Sociolinguística Variacionista (LABOV, 2008 [1972]; 2001), esta pesquisa investiga o emprego de formas verbais subjuntivas e indicativas em três contextos de subordinação orações adverbiais, substantivas (na posição de complemento do verbo da oração principal) e relativas. Os dados foram extraídos de 36 entrevistas sociolinguísticas com paulistanos e 36 entrevistas com ludovicenses, estratificadas de acordo com o sexo/gênero dos informantes, sua faixa etária (18 a 35; 36 a 59; e 60 anos ou mais) e seu nível de escolaridade (médio superior). Examinam-se as variáveis linguísticas e sociais que se correlacionam à ocorrência dessas formas. Entre as linguísticas, incluem-se variáveis como o tempo verbal da oração subordinada; o tipo de subordinador (tais como se e embora, no caso das orações adverbiais); o verbo da oração principal e o tempo verbal da oração principal (no caso das orações substantivas). Propõe-se que, em português, formas subjuntivas e indicativas funcionam como variantes de uma variável apenas nas orações adverbiais, ao passo que, nos outros dois contextos, tais formas se alternam mas não constituem sempre formas de dizer a mesma coisa (LABOV, 1972; 1978). A análise quantitativa dos dados foi feita com o pacote estatístico GoldVarb X (SANKOFF, TAGLIAMONTE, SMITH, 2005). Os resultados indicam que, no geral, é maior a tendência de ocorrência do modo indicativo em São Paulo relativamente a São Luís. Por outro lado, há indício de mudança na fala ludovicense, na direção do indicativo, em orações adverbiais e substantivas.\n

This chapter shows clause chaining is a robust feature of all documented languages of the proposed Finisterre language group in Madang and Morobe Provinces, Papua New Guinea. In the ten best-documented of these languages, clause chains are a prominent, frequently used, complex sentence type. Medial verbs bear suffixes indicating switch-reference; same-subject (SS) suffixes do not also involve agreement with the marked clause’s subject, while different-subject (DS) suffixes do. In all ten languages, the subject person/number desinences used in DS marking, which are cognate across the languages, are formally similar to the subject desinences used in contrafactual inflection, and, usually, also immediate imperatives. The languages can be divided into three groups based on the complexity of the medial verb systems; maximally complex systems involve multiple medial markers with different relative-temporal and -aspectual semantics. Most languages exhibit non-canonical medial clause use, bridging linkage, and grammaticalized or lexicalized functions of two-clause chains.

This chapter investigates clause linkage in the Bantu language family group, paying particular attention to resultant dependency relations (both morphological and syntactic) in different types of linked clauses. The chapter notes that clause linkage in Bantu languages is of three types: a) coordination, b) subordination, and c) cosubordination. A survey of the literature determined that Bantu languages make use of two types of coordination strategies namely: using a coordinating conjunction and juxtaposing clauses. The chapter also identifies different types of subordinate clauses found within the Bantu family, including complement clauses, nominals, relative clauses, and adverbials noting that subordinate clauses usually have a subordinating conjunction used to link the clauses. With regards to cosubordination, the chapter demonstrates that this is a relation determined by operator sharing. The overarching finding is that while coordination structures hardly manifest any dependency, both subordinates and cosubordinates manifest structural as well as morphological dependencies.

This scientific article examines the textual and stylistic possibilities in speech of complex sentences with several subordinate clauses. As well as their features when compiling a text. In both Russian and Kyrgyz, as well as in the Turkic languages, complex sentences with several subordinate clauses or complex sentences of a complex type cannot form special syntactic units that contradict a complex whole formed from two predicative units. But from this opinion it cannot be said that such constructions are not of interest for syntax. Rather, they require serious attention to themselves, but are stylistically viewed from the point of view of syntax. One of the main tasks of syntactic stylistics is to determine which type of complex constructions are most often used in various forms and styles of the language. Complex sentences with multiple subordinate clauses that are used in an artistic style are more expressive of nature. Therefore, in sentences where the beauty of nature is given, expressiveness and musicality are strong. Complex sentences with several subordinate clauses are especially common in journalistic and poetic works. Stylistic goals such as comparing facts and evidence, drawing appropriate conclusions, contrasting two things can be achieved with complex sentences with multiple subordinate clauses.

The subordinate clauses typically used as qualifiers in technical writing are of two types: that and which clauses and adverb clauses. This chapter begins by looking at that and which clauses because (1) they are ubiquitous in technical writing; (2) the rule for punctuating that and which clauses can serve as a model for the punctuation of all other qualifiers; and (3) most of the other qualifiers, both clauses and phrases, can be recast as that or which clauses. That and which clauses were qualifiers that modify nouns, adverb clauses are qualifiers that may modify a verb, an adjective, another adverb, or perhaps the entire core of the sentence. Finally the chapter presents general rule for punctuating the subordinate clauses.

Hittite attests a set of complex sentences in which (mostly) relative clauses (other subordinate clauses are also attested) appear in linear syntax to be within another subordinate (usually conditional, rarely temporal) clause or main clause. The relative clause can be preceded by a very limited array of constituents from the matrix clause, e.g., mān ‘if’ or the quotative particle ⸗wa(r). There are also examples which attest the conditional subordinator and the irrealis particle in two positions simultaneously, at the left edge of the whole sentence and in the conditional clause (= main clause for the relative clause). I provide a fine-grained descriptive and structural analysis of the structure and show that the type cannot be explained as bare indefinites, embedded relative clauses or parenthetic clauses. It is shown that, structurally, the sentences containing subordinate (mostly relative) clauses within other clauses are heterogenous and of three types. The difference lies in the elements that precede the relative clause and in the structure of the sentences, whereby a standard Hittite relative clause adjoins at different heights. All three types display the same mismatch between prosodic domains and syntax/semantics—the constituent that is part of the main clause from the semantic and syntactic perspective is prosodically part of the relative clause. Since there is a clause boundary delimiting the end of the subordinate clause within the main clause, it makes sense to treat the surface structure as a distinct taxonomic unit, which is correspondingly labelled a mismatch sentence. The new evidence allows us to obtain a fuller understanding of the Hittite left periphery than was previously possible. It thus offers an important window into hitherto unrecognized aspects of the underlying structure of the complex sentence in Hittite.

This study aims at investigating the ``verb-second`` phenomena indicated in complex sentences of medieval Spanish. Especially, when the complex sentence is composed of a preposed adverbial clause and its succeeding main clause, the subject inversion is noticeable in the latter. The fundamental motive of this type of inversion is due to the ``verb-second`` structure, in which a topic appears in the first position and the verb immediately after the topic. So it can be said that the subject inversion is a prerequisite for a verb to be located in the second position when the adverbial clause functions as a topic to the main clause, as is often the case with Germanic languages like German, Dutch, etc.. On the contrary, modern Spanish complex sentences do not show this phenomenon, with a strong tendency to locate a grammatical subject in the preverbal position. Therefore, medieval Spanish might be typologically closer to Germanic languages than to modern Spanish. In order to argue for this assumption, the formal and functional criteria by which the preposed adverbial clause could be defined as a topic NP will be examined across the comparison with left-dislocation structure. (Seoul National University)

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The problems of studying complex sentences, considered in the field of traditional syntax of Kyrgyz linguistics, are studied from different points of view and are not fully scientifically justified, which can be traced in general textbooks, scientific and theoretical works. Therefore, the relevance of the article is due to the need to study the issues of complex sentences in the framework of the syntax of the Kyrgyz language. In addition, some scientists note that the issue we are considering is still controversial among scientists. For example, the scientist M. V. Muratalieva, in her scientific work on “Complex Sentences in the Kyrgyz language”, published in the 1980s, identifies the main types of complex sentences and examines the differences between them. The paper describes the relationship between equal simple sentences that have independent semantic meanings as part of a compound sentence, and also considers the relationship between the main sentence and one or more subordinate clauses. The author sets the main goal of the study to study the possibility of using a simple sentence as part of a complex sentence separately, the presence of simple sentences in their structure and structure of features that distinguish them from complex sentences, and as a result, comes to the conclusion that it is unacceptable to separate individual parts of a complex sentence, thereby excluding the possibility of using and considering them outside of complex sentences. Thus, simple sentences in a compound sentence are closely interrelated with each other, forming a unity not only in semantic terms, but also in structural terms.

This study deals with the analysis and classification of complex sentences in terms of both syntactical and semantical features. There are many kinds of the complex sentences and they frequently consist of a main clause and a subordinate clause or a complement clause. Especially the complement clauses which are at the object position of the the main clauses are used widely and vary widely both syntactically and semantically. In addition the complex sentences can be constituted by the relative clauses which modify a constituent such as a subject, object or an indirect object in a clause; the modal, manipulative verbs’s clauses and aspective verbs. However, there are complex sentences which are separated and include two or more different types of clauses mentioned above.
 In this paper all sorts of the complex sentences are comprehensively researched according to data based on Mardin’s accent from the typological point of view.

This article deals with the peculiarities of the translation of non-finite forms of the verb from English into Russian in the belles-lettres. This problem is not studied well enough in modern scientific literature, while when translating non-finite forms into Russian one can face some difficulties.Sometimes while translating a text the accent falls on the lexical aspect, first of all on the shades of meaning, but sometimes invisible syntactic mistakes lead not only to stylistic mistakes, but also the misrepresentation of the meaning. Non-finite forms can be used as a subject, a predicative, part of a compound verbal and modal predicate, an object, an adverbial modifier and an attribute.The infinitive has some nominal characteristics and can be used as a subject, part of a compound nominal predicate, an object and an attribute. As for its verbal characteristics it can take a direct object and has tense and voice distinguishes. As a subject, predicative and adverbial modifiers, it can be translated with the help of the infinitive or a noun. Complexes with the infinitive can be translated by subordinate clauses. If the infinitive is passive, the Russian subordinate clause should have either a passive construction or a non-finite form. If the infinitive is perfect the predicate in the Russian sentence should be used in the past tense. If the perfect infinitive has a passive form the predicative in the Russian subordinate clause should be used in the past tense and have passive voice or a non-finite form.Complex object can be translated by a subordinate clause, while complex subject can be translated only by a compound sentence.The gerund is such a non-finite form, which cannot be found in the Russian language. It can be translated into the Russian language with the help of the infinitive, a verbal noun or a subordinate clause.The combination of the gerund with a possessive pronoun or a noun in the possessive case form an equivalent of a subordinate clause.Russian present participles can be used only as an attribute, when used in the active voice, while English participles active can be used not only as an attribute, but also as an adverbial modifier. When translating a text, one should pay attention to the place of the participle in the sentence. If it is an attribute it is translated by a Russian participle, if it is used as an adverbial modifier, it is translated by a Russian adverbial participle in the imperative aspect.Participial constructions have no any equivalents in the Russian language, so they should be translated by an adverbial subordinate clause.