Subordination (linguistics)

In linguistics, subordination (abbreviated variously , , or ) is a principle of the hierarchical organization of linguistic units. While the principle is applicable in semantics, morphology, and phonology, most work in linguistics employs the term "subordination" in the context of syntax, and that is the context in which it is considered here. The syntactic units of sentences are often either subordinate or coordinate to each other. Hence an understanding of subordination is promoted by an understanding of coordination, and vice versa. Subordination as a concept of syntactic organization is associated closely with the distinction between coordinate and subordinate clauses. One clause is subordinate to another if it depends on it. The dependent clause is called a subordinate clause and the independent clause is called the main clause (= matrix clause). Subordinate clauses are usually introduced by subordinators (= subordinate conjunctions) such as after, because, before, if, so that, that, when, while, etc. For example: Before we play again, we should do our homework. We are doing our homework now because we want to play again. The strings in bold are subordinate clauses, and the strings in non-bold are the main clauses. Sentences must consist of at least one main clause, whereas the number of subordinate clauses is hypothetically without limitation. Long sentences that contain many subordinate clauses are characterized in terms of hypotaxis, the Greek term meaning the grammatical arrangement of "unequal" constructs (hypo="beneath", taxis="arrangement"). Sentences that contain few or no subordinate clauses but that may contain coordinated clauses are characterized in terms of parataxis. In a broader sense, subordination is a relation existing between two syntactic units, whereby the one unit is subordinate to the other and the latter is superordinate to the former.