Degrees of clause cohesion: complementation and subordination in Chiapas Zoque

Abstract

Zoque exhibits various degrees of interclausal cohesion or types of embedding: juxtapostion, use of conjunctions, subordination with complementizers, and synthetic subordination by head marking. These various types of subordination are used for different clause types, such as complement clauses, adverbial clauses, and relative clauses, and they are for the most part native and precolonial in origin. Relative clauses may be formed by external or internal relativization. The former type corresponds to constructions with a nominal head and a clausal modifier, where the relativized element inside the clause is invisible or represented by a relative pronoun. The latter type corresponds to constructions where the relativized element is overtly present inside the clause.

Keywords

• complementation
• clause-combining
• subordination
• Zoque