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Adjunct Clauses
Adjunct clauses include subordinate clauses (i.e. those with overt
subordinating conjunctions), purpose clauses and participial adjuncts.
Subordinating conjunctions each select four trees, allowing them to
appear in four different positions relative to the matrix clause. The
positions are (1) before the matrix clause, (2) after the matrix
clause, (3) before the VP, surrounded by two punctuation marks, and
(4) after the matrix clause, separated by a punctuation mark. Each of
these trees is shown in Figure 15.1.
Figure 15.1:
Auxiliary Trees for Subordinating Conjunctions
|
|
|
|
(1) Pss |
(2) vxPNs |
(3) puPPspuvx |
(4) spuPs |
|
Sentence-initial adjuncts adjoin at the root S of the matrix clause,
while sentence-final adjuncts adjoin at a VP node. In this, the XTAG
analysis follows the findings on the attachment sites of adjunct
clauses for conditional clauses ([#!iatridou91!#]) and for
infinitival clauses ([#!Browning87!#]). One compelling argument is
based on Binding Condition C effects. As can be seen from examples
((231))-((233)) below, no Binding Condition violation occurs when
the adjunct is sentence initial, but the subject of the matrix clause
clearly governs the adjunct clause when it is in sentence final
position and co-indexation of the pronoun with the subject of the
adjunct clause is impossible.
(230)0(230
- (231)
- Unless shei hurries, Maryi will be late for the meeting.
(231)0(231
- (232)
- Shei will be late for the meeting unless Maryi hurries.
(232)0(232
- (233)
- Maryi will be late for the meeting unless shei hurries.
We had previously treated subordinating conjunctions as a subclass of
conjunction, but are now assigning them the POS preposition, as there is such clear overlap between words that
function as prepositions (taking NP complements) and subordinating
conjunctions (taking clausal complements). While there are some
prepositions which only take NP complements and some which only take
clausal complements, many take both as shown in examples
((234))-((237)), and it seems to be artificial to assign them two
different parts-of-speech.
(233)0(233
- (234)
- Helen left before the party.
(234)0(234
- (235)
- Helen left before the party began.
(235)0(235
- (236)
- Since the election, Bill has been elated.
(236)0(236
- (237)
- Since winning the election, Bill has been elated.
Each subordinating conjunction selects the values of the <mode> and <comp> features of the subordinated S. The <mode> value constrains the types of clauses the
subordinating conjunction may appear with and the <comp>
value constrains the complementizers which may adjoin to that
clause. For instance, indicative subordinate clauses may appear with
the complementizer that as in ((238)), while participial
clauses may not have any complementizers ((239)).
(237)0(237
- (238)
- Midge left that car so that Sam could drive to work.
(238)0(238
- (239)
- *Since that seeing the new VW, Midge could think of nothing else.
Next: Multi-word Subordinating Conjunctions
Up: Sentence Types
Previous: Overt Comp constraint on
XTAG Project
1998-09-14