3.5 page paper (Due in 8 hours)

In the chapter, the authors investigate coordination and subordination in sign languages. Because morphosyntactic devices are not always present, the authors show how general diagnostics of grammatical dependency, especially constraints on grammatical operations, can be used to determine if a construction is an example of coordination or subordination.

Coordination and Subordination

Within all natural languages, clauses can be combined to form complex sentences.

Clause combining generally involves combining like categories, a characteristic of coordination, or unlike categories, as in subordination.

Coordination

In English, constituents that are alike can be linked with coordinating conjunctions such as and, or, and but.

I like pizza, but I don’t like tomatoes.

American sign language may use true conjunctions in coordinate structures if a pause

appears between the two clausal conjuncts and the second conjunct is accompanied by

a sharp headshake (hs)

_________hs________

1persuadei but change mind

‘I persuaded her to do it but I/she/he changed my mind.’

Coordination can also occur in English by juxtaposing two similar constituents without a

conjunction.

This restaurant is too crowded; let’s go to a different one.

In ASL, juxtaposition can be used to express sequential or simultaneous events. Here is an example of simultaneous events.

house blow-up, car icl:3-flip-over

‘The house blew up and the car flipped over.’

The author(s) of the article are interested in whether and how nonmanuals are used in ASL and other sign languages to delineate the boundaries of constituents in coordination and subordination. Past research has identified eye blinks and facial expressions as markers of phrase and sentence boundaries sign languages, so the authors wanted to see if they are used to mark clause boundaries as well.

Diagnostics for coordination

Extraction

Extraction of a conjunct out of a coordinate structure violates the coordinate structure constraint (CSC).

In ASL as in English, it is not allowed to topicalize the objects of the two constituents due to the CSC:

*flower, 2give1 money, jgivei

‘Flowers, he gave me money but she gave me.’

Gapping

Gapping is when the second constituent in a conjunction is reduced by omitting (gapping) its verb. This is possible when the verbs in both clauses are the same and perform a similar function.

I ordered a soda, and Paul, a water.

Gapping is also possible in ASL. The speaker uses a head nod (hn) to indicate the gapped verb:

have wonderful picnic. pro.1 bring salad, john beer, sandy chicken, ted hamburger

hn hn hn

‘We had a wonderful picnic. I brought the salad, John (brought) the beer, Sandy (brought) the chicken and Ted (brought) the hamburger.’

Negation

When negation “scopes over” both conjuncts, it is another sign of coordination. Here is an examples from Hong Kong Sign Language where the negation in “not have” scopes over both conjuncts:

teacher play speedboat eat cow^cl:cut-with-fork-and-knife not-have

‘The teacher did not ride the speedboat and did not eat beef steak.’

Subordination

In English subordination, clauses are linked with complementizers: subordinating conjunctions relative pronouns, and relative adverbs that indicate one clause in a sentence is dependent, or subordinate, to the other:

They’ll figure it out when they get there.

The book that I bought was missing ten pages.

In some cases, there can be a null complement:

The book I bought was missing ten pages.

As with coordination, there are certain diagnostics that can determine if a construction contains a null complementizer and subordination.

Subject Pronoun Copy

When a sentence is complex, and a pronoun copy appears in the clause-final position without a pause, the copy will refer to the subject of the matrix clause.

1index decide iindex should idrivej see children 1index

‘I decided he ought to drive over to see his children, I did.

Wh-extraction

There are constraints on the movement of wh- islands in several sign languages, and these constraints can indicate embedded question subordination.

Relative clauses and Nonmanuals

One of the ways that relative subordinate clauses can be marked in various sign languages is through nonmanuals. These include brow raises, backward head tilt, raised upper lips, a slight body lean towards the location of the relative pronoun, and tensed eyes and pursed lips.