“subtask”of asking whattypeof battery thecustomer wants. Before thecustomer can answer,though, thesalesperson
realizes thereis a sub-subtask of giving the customer a reason to choose one typerather than the other. The customer
could have initiated this sub-subtask by asking after (72d),What's the difference between them?But the salesperson, having
anticipated this question, embarks on the lengthy explanation (72e, f). Once the explanation is over, the customer can
completethesubtask ofanswering(72d) with(72g). Atthispointthesalespersonhas forgotten howmanybatteries the
customerwants, already presentin(72c).Shethereforemustinitiateyetanothersubtask (72h)tore-establishthispoint,
which the customer completes with (72i). Finally the conversation can return to the main task of concluding the
transaction.
Whatmakesthisanembeddingstructureisthattheconnectionsamongsentencesarenotjustlocal.(72d)and (72g)are
connected as questionand answer, butthisconnectionisinterruptedby(72e,f),whichhavetheirownlocalconnection
to each other. Similarly, (72J) is ultimately a completion of a transaction initiated at (72c), with all the other material
treated as an interpolation.
Sothesame questions arise: What sorts of connectioncan beused non-locally?What kinds ofconnectioncan there be
between embedded constituents and the larger units into which theyare interpolated? How do hearers negotiatethese
connections? And how do theylearnto do it?
Going to a case that is still more complex analytically but totally transparent intuitively, here is the opening of a novel
by Raymond Chandler:
(73) Thefirst time I laid eyes on Terry Lennox he was drunk in a Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith outside the terrace of
The Dancers. The parking lot attendant had brought the car out and he was still holding the door open because
Terry Lennox's left foot was still dangling outside, as if he had forgotten he had one. He had a young-looking face
but his hair was bonewhite.You could tellby his eyes that he was plastered to thehairline, but otherwise he looked
like any other nice young guy in a dinner jacket who had been spending too much money in a joint that exists for
that purpose and for no other.
Therewas a girlbesidehim. Herhairwas a lovelyshade ofdark red and shehad a distantsmileonherlipsand over
her shoulders she had a blue mink that almost made the Rolls-Royce look like just another auto-mobile. It didn't
quite. Nothing can. (Chandler 1953: 3)Some sentences and clauses place the narrator in the scene; others are presented from a distant, omniscient point of
view. Some passages describe action; others are just decorative description. The reader's attentionis drawn sequentially
now to one character, now to another. Some clauses describe events taking place before the scene begins.