Rethinking the Coordinate-Subordinate Dichotomy

This study argues that the domain traditionally covered by coordination and subordination in English can be neatly subdivided into four distinct construction types which differ in the grammatical encoding of speaker-attitude and speaker-interlocutor interaction. The four semantically, syntactically and pragmatically coherent construction types make sense of the many conflicting criteria proposed in the literature to distinguish subordinate constructions from coordinate ones.