Projectability and clause combining in interaction

Hopper, Paul J.; Thompson, Sandra A.

doi:10.1075/tsl.80.06hop

In:Crosslinguistic Studies of Clause Combining: The multifunctionality of conjunctions
Edited by Ritva Laury
[Typological Studies in Language 80] 2008
► pp. 99–123

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Projectability and clause combining in interaction

Paul J. Hopper | Carnegie Mellon University

Sandra A. Thompson | University of California, Santa Barbara

Published online: 29 October 2008

https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.80.06hop

We examine a set of supposedly “biclausal” constructions in natural conversations in English and German, and argue that: (1) these constructions are not biclausal, since the second “clause” is typically not a clause but an indeterminate stretch of discourse without a consistent syntactic structure; (2) the first “clause” functions to strongly project this upcoming discourse segment; (3) in certain of the allegedly biclausal constructions even the first part is not really a clause but is instead a fixed sequence with limited lexical choices. We suggest that these apparently “biclausal” constructions should be analyzed as single, partly formulaic clauses deployed by speakers in managing interactional discourse. This analysis accounts for a number of previously unnoticed restrictions on the grammatical and prosodic form the formulaic clauses take, as well as for their projective properties.

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