Eckhard Bick - VISL

Apart from the presence of predications or subjects, yet another argument,
motivated by descriptional consistency, can be cited in favour of elliptic clausal
readings: - the fact that, in Portuguese (unlike English and Danish), the co-occurrence
of complementisers (conjunctions and relative or interrogative adverbs) and finite
subclauses is 100%: There are no finite subclauses without complementisers, so why
should there be complementisers without (at least incomplete) subclauses?
In my system, I call this kind of predicator-elliptic, but subordinated clauses for
averbal subclauses (@#AS). ‘Averbal small clauses’ would be another possibility, but
might perhaps create confusion, since the term ‘small clause’ has been suggested, with
another meaning, for English clauses with verbs and without complementisers (Radford,
1988).
In terms of CG-notation, marking such averbal subclauses (@#AS) is both
unproblematic and logical: Clause form and function has so far been marked on the
main verb for non-finite subclauses (@#ICL), and on the (obligatory) complementiser
for finite subclauses (@#FS), so averbal subclauses, featuring a complementiser but
lacking a verb, belong naturally in the second group, together with @#FS-clauses.
Having accepted the notion of averbal clause, one then finds that every AS has
two functional obligatory parts, (a) the complementiser, that bears tags for both internal
function (usually, that of adverbial or subordinator), and external function, and (b) the
predication. Due to the implicit notation, in CG, for complex constituents,
complementiser and predication have to be linked by a dependency relation in order to
“assemble” the clause. Though the predication/subject unit is doubtless the semantic
kernel of the whole (and can even sometimes replace it, as seen in the @OC example
2a), I have chosen the same technique as in PPs, where the linking element (the PRP) is
regarded as dependency-head. For AS-predications, this link can then be expressed as
@AS 'when'
jovem [jovem] ADJ M/F S @AS< 'young'
, Inocêncio integrou a corrente política Ação Popular.
(4b) Quando [quando] ADV @ADVL @#AS-ADVL> 'when'
garoto [garoto] N M S @AS< 'a boy'
, não gostava de brigar.
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