Subordination

This book presents a typology of subordination systems across the world's languages. Traditional definitions of subordination are based on morphosyntactic criteria, such as clausal embedding or non-finiteness. The book shows that these definitions are untenable in a cross-linguistic perspective, and provides a cognitively based definition of subordination.

Sonia Cristofaro received her Ph.D. in Linguistics at the University of Pavia in 1998, and is now Associate Professor of Linguistics at the same university. Her main research areas include syntax, semantics, and typology. She is the author of a book on complementation in Ancient Greek (Aspetti della complementatione frasale in greco antico, 1996). Her publications also include various articles on the syntax and semantics of complex sentences.

"The cross-linguistic analysis of aubordination presented in this book is, beyond a doubt, comprehensive, rigorous, carefully argued for and extensively documented. In addition, it is extremely well-written as well as user-friendly, avoiding unnecessary technicalities and presenting a priori complicated typological considerations in an accessible way. Last but not least, and doing full justice to the title of the series of which the present bookk forms part, Cristofaro shows how typology and linguistic theory can be insightfully combined to broaden the descriptive and explanatory perspectives on subordination expressed in the extensive formal and functional cognitive literature on the topic." --Folia Linguistica
"Impressive in its scope...this is an important study which is bound to stimulate further research on subordination."--Linguist List