Chapter 7
Syntax: complex sentences
Is the DGS construction below a combination of a main clause with an embedded clause, or a combination of two main clauses? Provide arguments and also describe the structure of the two sentences that are combined.
index2 always on-time come but poss2 brother
‘You always come on time, but your brother never.’
The sentence contains the conjunction but, which signals adversative coordination; that is, we are dealing with two main clauses. The first main clause can appear by itself. The second clause is special because it could not appear by itself despite the fact that it is a main clause. This is due to the fact that we are dealing with ellipsis of the verb and the adverb, which are identical in both clauses.
Students are not expected to provide a bracketed structure, but if they do, it should look like as below. Note that the first VP contains two adverbials which combine with come to form the VP (structure slightly simplified), and that we also indicate the gaps in the second conjunct:
[ [index2]np [ [always]a dvP [on-time]a dvP [come]v ]vp ]s
[ [but]c onj [ [poss2] Art [brother]n ]np [ [never]advp [gap]a dvP [gap]V ]VP ]s