1

There are example languages for almost all the possible orderings of subject, verb and object in a simple sentence, with the order of frequency being: SOV > SVO > VSO > VOS > OVS > OSV.

My question is analogously about the possible orderings of a main clause, conjunction and subordinate clause in a complex sentence (which I'll abbreviate to M,C,S).

In English we seem to allow two orderings, MCS or CSM, as in the following examples:

  • "I got good grades because I worked hard" (MCS)
  • "Because I worked hard, I got good grades" (CSM)

Are there languages for all the possible orderings of main clause, conjunction and subordinate clause like there are for subject, verb and object?

In particular are there any languages allowing orders where subordinate clause is separated from the conjunction (analogous to the way in the VSO ordering the object is separated from the verb)?

Improve this question
6
  • Without having any particular examples in mind, I feel almost confident that Latin (particularly poetic Latin) could separate the subordinator from the rest of the subordinate clause if it wanted to, since its word order was so extremely free as to allow virtually any order at all. “Grades worked good got hard I because I” would likely be perfectly allowable in Latin (using emphatic pronouns; normally the I’s wouldn’t be there, of course), weaving main and subordinate clause in and out of each other.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Sep 12, 2020 at 12:13
  • A few points about your syntax: "because" is not a conjunction but a preposition, so "because I worked hard" is a prep phrase, not a clause. The matrix (main) clause is not just "I got good grades" but the whole "I got good grades because I worked hard", in which the PP is in adjunct function. In your second example, the PP adjunct is fronted, but it is still part of the matrix (main) clause. Back to basics, Rachel!
    – BillJ
    Commented Sep 12, 2020 at 17:19
  • 1
    @JanusBahsJacquet I'm doubtful that Latin permits that degree of scrambling -- even highly "free word order" languages like Latin and Ancient Greek tend to keep clauses largely separate (because case marking doesn't help much when you don't know which clause a word belongs in). The main exception I can think of is topic fronting, where the topic noun of a subordinate clause appears immediately before the subordinator.
    – TKR
    Commented Sep 12, 2020 at 18:46
  • @BillJ That's a strange analysis. Because of is a compound preposition, but because is a conjunction. Are you saying that I worked hard is a noun phrase?
    – TKR
    Commented Sep 12, 2020 at 18:48
  • @BillJ That’s true of English, but not necessarily of other languages.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Sep 12, 2020 at 18:48

0

Reset to default

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.