W is used to attach the subject of main clauses to the wall (hereafter "the wall" means the left-wall). Almost all kinds of main clauses - declaratives, most questions (object-type, subject-type, where/when/why, and prepositional), and imperatives - use a W of some kind to attach to the wall. The only exception is "yes-no" questions, which attach to the wall with Q. See "Q". The WV attaches the main verb of the main caluse to the wall; thus, W and WV form a cycle. See WV for more details.
+---W------+ | | ///// The dog ran (Wd) ///// Who did you hit (Wq) ///// Who is coming (Ws) ///// To whom did you speak (Wj) ///// Go away (Wi) ///// Going shopping (Wg) ///// ... like wedding cakes (We) ///// Under the tree slept Jim (Wp) ///// Under the tree (Wl) ///// Cheaper than dirt, slime is greener (Wr) ///// The twin (Wa) ///// That I did not know (Wt) ///// What do you think? (Wb) ///// Why run away? (Wv) ///// Why not? (Ww) ///// How many times? (Wh & Wa)
Note that the wall is automatically inserted at the beginning of every sentence, and is then treated like a normal word; by the connectivity rule, therefore, it must make some kind of connection to the sentence. The wall thus has "W+ or Q+".
W is also used to attach clauses back to coordinating conjunctions in declarative sentences; coordinating conjunctions thus have "CC- & (Wd+ or Wq+ or Ws+)". CC then makes a link back to the subject of the previous main clause.
dog: (({@CO-} & Wd-) or ({@CO-} & C-) or R+) & S+
+-------------->WV-------------->+
| +<---------PFt<---------+
+-->Wp-->+ |
| | |
///// here the remains can be found
+---------->WV--------->+
| +<-----PF<-----+
| | +--SIs---+
+-->Wp-->+ | |
| | | |
///// down the stairs came the dog
The Wp link is used for both locative and directive inversions.
For comparative inversion, Wr is used to link to the
fronted comparative adjective.
For quotative inversion, the CP
link is used.
For questions, Wq, Ws and Wj links are used;
see below.
For locative declarations without a verb, the Wl link is used.
The Wv link is used for "why?" questions with an action verb: "why run away?"
The Wh link is used for "how?" questions with an object:
+------->Wa-------+
+->Wh--+--H-+-Dmc-+
| | | |
///// how many times.n
This is unusual, in that two W links appear: one to the
question-word, and one to the object. This is analogous to verb
questions, where WV links the wall to the verb; here, however,
the Wa link is used to connect the object to the wall.
+------------B------------+
| +-----I*d-----+
+---Wt--+--Rn-+-Sp*i+---N--+ |
| | | | | |
///// that I did not know
The B link points to the left, from the head-verb (know) to the topic
(that). In the above, ther is no way to link the subject (I) to the
wall, without crossing the B link. Thus, the Wt link serves to start
the sentence.
Topic questions have a similar structure:
+-------BW---------+
| +-----I*d----+
+---Wb--+--Rw-+-SIp-+ |
| | | | |
///// what do you think
+------Wa------+
| +----Ds---+
| | +--A--+
| | | |
///// a red.a car.n
+--Wi-+
| |
///// Go away
Imperative verb forms have "Wi-", conjoined with their complement connectors. Since the imperative verb form is always the same as the infinitive form (and the plural, in every case except "be"), the same expression can be used. Infinitive verbs thus carry
(Sp- or I- or Wi-) & [complement];
+>--------Wg-------+
| |
///// Going shopping!
///// Sang with the church choir today
///// Frequently chats with the grocer
+---Os---+
+---Wn--+ +Ds**c+
| | | |
///// what a mess
+-----Xp----+
+--Wx--+ |
| | |
///// sad.a !
+---Js--+
+--Wl--+ +-Ds-+
| | | |
///// on the table
Such expressions can be conjoined, and become quite long; for example,
"on the table, just to the left of the lamp, just over there".
+---CC---+-Wd+
| | |
John left but he returned later
+-MVs+-Cs+
| | |
John left after I saw you
Note that subordinating and coordinating conjunctions use very different linking structures. First of all, both the left-pointing and right-pointing connectors on the conjunctions are different; "but" has "CC- & Wd+", "after" has "MVs- & Cs+". Secondly, coordinating conjunctions connect back to the subject of the previous clause, subordinating conjunctions to the verb. There are several reasons for making these distinctions. First of all, coordinating conjunctions may not be used in relative clauses:
*The man I tried to hit but Jane stopped me is here
*The man I tried to stop Jane but she hit is here
*The man I hit but Jane comforted is here
(There are other constraints on relative clauses: the main noun of a relative clause may not link to something inside an embedded clause. We handle this using Ce and Cs; see "C".) So, we need to prevent these constructions. Coordinating conjunctions have another related property. They may be used to connect clauses in sequence, like subordinating conjunctions. But whereas subordinating conjunctions seem to link in a nested way, with each modifying the last, coordinating conjunctions seem to "leap" over any preceding subordinating conjunctions:
+------------+-C-+-S-+------+--C--+--S--+
| | | | | | |
1. John screamed when I arrived after Sue left (seems right)
+---- ? ---+
+------------+-C-+-S-+ +--W--+--S--+
| | | | | | |
2. John screamed when I arrived but Sue left (seems wrong)
+-------------CC------------+
+------------+-C-+-S-+ +--C--+--S--+
| | | | | | |
3. John screamed when I arrived but Sue left (seems right)
We handle this in the following way. In the first place, coordinating conjunctions link to the left not with MVs-, like other conjunctions, but with CC-.
and but: CC- & W+;
dog: {R- or C- or (W- & {CC+})} & S+...;
Note that subject nouns may make a CC connection to the right, but only if a W is being made to the left (i.e., if the noun in a subject of a main clause), not if a C is being made. In other words, while subordinating conjunctions connect to the main verb of the nearest clause to the left, coordinating conjunctions connect to the subject of the nearest main clause to the left. Thus ex. 3 above is allowed, but ex. 2 is prevented. The problem with relative clauses is solved also. In relative clauses, the main subject of the relative always makes either a C- or an R- to the left, and neither one is conjoined with CC+; so no coordinating conjunctions can appear.
Note that the above expressions also allow coordinating conjunctions to link clauses in sequence:
+-------CC---+--W-+---CC--+-W-+
| | | | |
Jane screamed and Fred ran but Dave cried
Coordinating conjunctions may also connect directly to the wall: "And Jane screamed". Thus they carry a "Wc-" connector, which can link to the wall's W+. Furthermore, a coordinating conjunction may link to a following question, rather than to a declarative clause. They may not, however, link from a question to a declarative clause:
I know you don't like Joe, but why did you send him that nasty note *Why did you send Joe that nasty note, but I know you don't like him
Thus we give such conjunctions the following:
(CC- or Wc-) & (Wd+ or Wq+ or Ws+ or Qd+);
Another reason for distinguishing between W and C is that certain openers like participle openers may be used in main clauses but not dependent ones; see "CO: Participles as openers".
+---We--+
| |
///// ... like a shot
An ellipsis denotes the intentional ommission of a part of a sentence.
Very little can be assumed about what has been omitted, other than
that it must have been grammatical. Thus, We- is conjoined with a
reasonably broad set of generic links, so that the trailing phrase
can parse properly.