Advances in Role and Reference Grammar

CLAUSE COMBINING IN NOOTKA 257

12. Summary

To summarize these findings, Table 1 shows the structures discussed in

terms of the intersection of juncture and nexus:

Table 1. Nootka nexus-juncture linkages

This two-dimensional display seems easier to apprehend than one in

terms of the one-dimensional syntactic bondedness hierarchy (section 1),

and it avoids a difficult decision as to whether juncture or nexus takes pre­

cedence. Within juncture, clearly the inner-layer combinations are tighter

linkages than the outer-layer ones. Within nexus, relative strength of link­

age is less clear, but I have followed Foley and Van Valin in showing

cosubordination as the tightest and coordination the weakest. Thus the

tightest linkage is at the upper left (nuclear cosubordination) and the

weakest at the lower right (clausal coordination).

13. Conclusions

I will finally consider some issues — whether empirical or nomenclatural —

suggesed by these findings: frequency of subordination, cosubordination vs.