Abstract
This paper proposes a general structural-functional classification of Danish subclauses, based on their distributional properties. It is argued that traditional divisions into, for example, nominal/complement, attributive/relative and adverbial subclauses are inadequate on their own, because they only account for the syntactic functions of the clauses in realized discourse. Attempts at classifying subclauses at an abstract level tend to rely on the idea that each subclause form has a "default" syntactic function, but this paper argues that Danish subclauses may be dealt with more accurately by acknowledging and indeed exploiting their multifunctionality. Thus, a division into five distinct subclause classes is proposed, grouping the clauses according to their abstract potentials for occurring in specific syntactic functions and positions in the superordinate clause. The main inventory of Danish subclauses are classified on this basis, allowing for predictability between individual subclause types and their functional potentials.
| Translated title of the contribution | En distributionel tilgang til funktionel dansk ledsætningsklassifikation |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Journal | Acta Linguistica Hafniensia: International Journal of Linguistics |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Pages (from-to) | 127-175 |
| Number of pages | 49 |
| ISSN | 0374-0463 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Nov 2011 |
Keywords
- Faculty of Humanities