COORDINATION

Coordination is the linking together of two phrases of the same type or two clauses of
equal rank.
Smith must [hit the ball] and [run to first base].
conjoined VPs
The baby seemed [very tired] and [somewhat cross].
conjoined APs
[John] and [the man from Huston] share the same surname. conjoined NPs
[John might take them by car], (or) [Mary might go with them by bus] IPs
conjoined main clauses
I believe [that Mary is in London] and [that John is in York]. conjoined CPs
conjoined that complement clauses
The term coordination is used by some grammarians for both syndetic coordination
when explicit indicators of coordination are present and asyndetic coordination
when the relationship of coordination is not marked overtly. The following example
illustrates coordination of two AdvPs:
[Slowly] and [stealthily], he crept towards his victim. syndetic coordination
[Slowly], [stealthily] he crept towards his victim.
asyndetic coordination
Explicit indicators of coordination are called coordinating conjunctions (or
coordinators). Not all juxtaposed phrases or clauses are in a relationship of asyndetic
coordination. The construction is asyndetic coordination only when the insertion of
the coordinator and is allowed.
Coordinators
The main coordinators are: and, or, but. Both, either and neither are used as the first in
a correlative pair with and, or and nor, respectively.
and, or, but
As clause coordinators, and and or are only allowed to appear before the second
coordinate clause:
[John plays the guitar] and [his sister plays the piano].
[*John plays the guitar] [his sister and plays the piano].
Clauses beginning with and or or are sequentially fixed in relation to the previous
clause. The transposition of clauses produces unacceptable sentences:
[They are living in England] or [they are spending a vacation there].
*[Or they are spending a vacation there], [they are living in England].
Related to the fixed position of clauses is the fact that a pronoun in the first clause
cannot have cataphoric (i.e. forward) reference to a noun in the second clause. For
example, she cannot refer to Mary, but to a different person:
She was unhappy, and Mary stayed the whole evening.

And and or allow ellipsis of the subject of the clause they introduce, if the subject is
co-referential with that of the preceding linked clause:
[John read the book] and [ _ saw the film].
As well as linking two main clauses, and and or can link subordinate clauses (for
example, adverbial clauses of cause or reason below):
He asked to be transferred, [because he was unhappy] and [(because) he saw
no prospect of promotion], and [(because) conditions were far better at the
other office].
I wonder [whether you should go and see him] or [whether it is better to write
to him].
The subordinator (because, whether) always follows the coordinator. In each case the
second and subsequent subordinators may be ellipted.
The coordinator is usually omitted in all but the final instance when the same
coordinator links more than two clauses:
Attend all the lectures, (and) write full notes on them, and read the prescribed
books, or youll be in trouble at the examination.
Correlatives pairs
Bothand
The correlative both and is allowed in clause coordination only when there is a kind
of ellipsis. Ellipsis occurs when either the subject NP or the VP is repeated:
[Mary washed the dishes] and [she dried them].
Mary both washed the dishes and dried them.
[John

washed the dishes] and [Mary washed the dishes].

Both John and Mary washed the dishes.
In the first example the same person performs two different activities, in the second
two different persons are involved in the same activity.
Neither nor
This correlative pair negates two clauses conjoined by and. For example, the
following compound sentence can be negated in two ways:
David loves Joan and wants to marry her.
David does not love Joan and does not want to marry her.
David neither loves Joan nor wants to marry her.
Thus two affirmative clauses in coordination can be negated either by inserting the
negator not after the auxiliary verb or by using the correlative pair neither
nor
The first member of the correlative pair, neither is mobile, its position reflecting the
scope of negation:

John neither has long hair, nor does he wear jeans.

Mary was neither happy, nor was she sad.
The second member of the correlative pair, nor is usually followed by subjectauxiliary inversion:
Neither Peter wanted the responsibility, nor did his wife.
Other correlatives
The correlative not only but also is used when the content of both clauses is felt to
be surprising:
They not only broke into his office and stole his books, but they (also) tore up
his manuscripts.
The correlative just asso is used when the second clause makes a point similar to
the first:
Just as they must put aside their prejudices, so we must be prepared to accept
their good faith.
ELLIPSIS
When two or more clauses are coordinated, certain clause constituents ore often
elliped from all but one of the clauses. Ellipsis avoids repetition:
We can go for a walk or we can watch TV.
We can go for a walk or _ _ watch TV.
The syntactic rules that allow the deletion of something which is identical to
something else in the sentence are called ellipsis rules. English has several important
rules of this type.
The Gapping rule
The gapping rule applies specifically to conjoined structures and it has the effect of
removing an identical middle part from the second conjoined clause:
Kevin likes dancing and Annie likes athletics.
Kevin likes dancing and Annie _ athletics.
Pete must eat meat, and Fred must eat bread.
Pete must eat meat, and Fred, bread.
This rule works only in conjoined sentences. When applied to embedded clauses, the
gapping rule yields ungrammatical examples:
Sam encouraged Pam because Willis encouraged Phyllis.
*Sam encouraged Pam because Willis, Phyllis.

Long-distance ellipsis rules

These rules delete repeated material at the end of the second conjoined clauses. For
each example, we will specify the type of phrase that has been deleted and the
constituent which occupies the final position after deletion has taken place.
1. Ellipsis after Auxiliary Verbs, To, and Not
Repetition can be avoided by using an auxiliary verb instead of a complete VP, if the
meaning is clear.
The deletion of identical APs, VPs and NPs is allowed after the copulative BE
(in a.,e.) , the auxiliaries BE (in b.) and HAVE (in c.) and the modal verbs:
a. John appears to be fond of sweets, but Im not sure that he really is (fond of
sweets).
b. We thought that Fred would be working hard on the project, but it turns out
that he hasnt been (working hard on the project).
c. Whenever Martha has drunk a beer, Fred has (drunk a beer), too.
d. Carter said that he wouldnt sign the bill, but I bet that he will (sign the bill).
e. Martha once thought that George would soon be the richest man in Texas,
but now its doubtful that he ever will be (the richest man in Texas).
In each example, the deletable phrases are parenthesized, while the constituents that allow deletion are written in bold letters:
Deletion after the auxiliary verb DO is also possible, if there is no other
auxiliary to repeat:
Mary speaks French, and Jerry speaks French, too.
Mary speaks French, and Jerry does (speak French), too.
The infinitive marker to can be used instead of the whole infinitive of a repeated verb
(and a following complement):
I dont dance much now, but I used to (dance) a lot.
Im not positive that John knows the answer, but he certainly seems to (know
the answer).
If you ask Martha to add your name, Im sure that shell be glad to (add your
name).
In some cases the whole infinitive can be left out after nouns, adjectives and verbs
that can stand alone (without a following infinitive):
Hell never leave home; he hasnt got the courage (to).
You cant force him to leave home if hes not ready (to).
Can you start the car? Ill try (to).
A similar kind of ellipsis is possible after an occurrence of not that accompanies an
auxiliary verb:
4

James is conscientious, but Billy is not (conscientious).

Sandra will read your reports, but Harold will not (read your reports).
Summarizing these observations, the rule would be the following:
Optionally delete the second of two identical phrases if the second comes after one of
the following:
copulative BE
auxiliaries: perfect HAVE, progressive BE, DO
modals
the infinitive marker to
not associated with one of the above verbs.
This rule is called long-distance ellipsis rule because the second occurrence of the
phrase can be quite far away from the first.
2. So / neither constructions
In certain cases an ordinary ellipsis after an auxiliary verb may be replaced by
a structure introduced by so or neither which trigger inversion of the NP with the
auxiliary verb:
David knows how much money was taken, and Bill knows how much money
was taken.
David knows how much money was taken, and Bill does __, too.
David knows how much money was taken, and so does Bill.
The rule for this construction would be:
If a sentence has the structure:
and NP + auxiliary verb + too
then optionally substitute for it:
and so + auxiliary verb + NP
James didnt erase the blackboard, and Bob didnt erase the blackboard.
James didnt erase the blackboard, and Bob didnt __ either.
James didnt erase the blackboard, and neither did Bob.
The rule would be:
If a sentence has the structure:
then optionally substitute for it:

and NP + auxiliary verb +nt + either

and neither + auxiliary verb + NP

However, this rule is restricted in use to independent sentences joined by

conjunctions. The use of this rule in that complement clauses is not possible:
George doesnt read Latin and Joan doesnt read Latin.
George doesnt read Latin, and neither does Joan.
*George doesnt read Latin and I am convinced that neither does Joan.
2. Ellipsis in Indirect questions
English allows for the deletion of repeated material after a questioned phrase:

Someones been stealing our flowers, but I dont know who (has been stealing
them).
Become a successful writer. This book shows you how (to become a
successful writer).
A rule for this kind of ellipsis would be:
Optionally delete an indirect question that follows a wh-phrase, if there is a
sentence earlier in the discourse that duplicates the meaning of this question.
This rule does not apply to relative clauses (which may be similar in form to indirect
questions, as shown below):
John cooked something, but Betty didnt know [what John cooked] indirect q.
John cooked something, but Betty didnt eat [what John cooked] relative s.
John cooked something, but Betty didnt know [what.__].
*John cooked something, but Betty didnt eat [what __].
4. Ellipsis in NPs
A third kind of long-distance ellipsis involves deletion that occurs within an NP after
one of its constituent elements:
- Determiners: demonstratives (these), possessive adjectives (my, his, etc), indefinite
quantifiers (some, many, few):
Those are Helens gloves, and these (gloves) are mine.
Many animals were saved, but many (animals) were lost.
Some people say one thing, some (people) say another.
Nora fed her dog, and Danny fed your dog (yours __)
- s genitives
You take Petes car and Ill take Susies (car).
- adjectives
We havent got any large eggs. Only small (eggs).