Other Constructions

This section of the syntax overview contains detailed discussion of particular linguistic constructions that fall outside (or cut across) the main categories of simple clauses, complex clauses, and nominal phrases.

• Paratactic constructions
• Punctuation

#TODO: revise for speech

Paratactic Constructions

The parataxis relation is used to analyze a number of constructions where clauses are combined by relations that are looser than standard coordination.

Side-by-side sentences (“run-on sentences”)

The parataxis relation is used for a pair of what could have been standalone sentences, but which are being treated together as a single sentence. This may happen because sentence segmentation of the sentence was done primarily following the presence of sentence-final punctuation, and these clauses are joined by punctuation such as a colon or comma, or not delimited by punctuation at all. In a spoken corpus, it may happen because what is labeled as a sentence is more commonly an utterance turn. Even if the treebanker is doing the sentence division, it may happen because there seems to be a clear discourse relation linking two clauses. Sometimes there are more than two sentences joined in this way. In this case we make all the later sentences dependents of the first one, to maximize similarity to the analysis used for conjunction.

Bearded dragons are sight hunters , they need to see the food to move .
parataxis(hunters, need)

This relation may happen with units that are smaller than sentences:

Divided world the CIA
amod(world, Divided)
parataxis(world, CIA)
det(CIA, the)

Paired clauses with non-conjunction connective (“X so Y” etc.)

The relation is also used for clauses connected by a word like so, then, therefore, or however if neither clause is interpreted as modifying the other, and there is no coordinating conjunction:

He claimed to be a wizard ; however/ADV , he turned out to be a humbug .
parataxis(claimed, turned)
advmod(turned, however)

I 'm hungry , so/ADV I 'm getting a bagel .
parataxis(hungry, getting)
advmod(getting, so)

The following, by contrast, are advcl modifiers:

Eat now so/ADV you wo n't be hungry later .
advcl(Eat, hungry)
advmod(hungry, so)

If/SCONJ you build it , then/ADV they will come .
advcl(come, build)
mark(build, If)
advmod(come, then)

Note that if-clauses should almost always be analyzed as subordinate, even when then is present.

Reported speech

When a speech verb interrupts reported speech content, the interruption is treated as a parenthetical parataxis:

The guy , John said , left early in the morning
parataxis(left, said)
punct(said, ,-3)
punct(said, ,-6)

See further discussion of reported speech at ccomp.

News article bylines

We have used the parataxis relation to connect the parts of a news article byline. There does not seem to be a better relation to use.

Washington ( CNN ) :
parataxis(Washington, CNN)
punct(CNN, ()
punct(CNN, ))
punct(CNN, :)

Interjected Clauses

Single word or phrase interjections are analyzed as discourse, but when a whole clause is interjected, we use the relation parataxis.

Calafia has great fries ( they are to die for ! )
parataxis(has, are)
punct(are, ()
punct(are, ))

Just to let you all know Matt has confirmed the booking for 3rd Dec is OK .
parataxis(confirmed, let)

In the second example, we treat the second half as the head of the dependency because the first half feels like a whole clause interjection, not like the main clause of the utterance.

Tag questions

We also use the parataxis relation for tag questions such as isn’t it? or haven’t you?.

It 's not me , is it ?
parataxis(me, is)
punct(is, ,)

Feedback words

In a sentence starting with a feedback word such as yes or no and continuing with a main clause, we take the predicate of the main clause to be the root of the sentence and attach the feedback word to this predicate with a discourse relation:

yes , we should apply for membership .
discourse(apply, yes)

However, when the feedback is expressed by a full clause instead of a feedback word, the predicate of this clause is taken as the root and the predicate of the following clause is attached with a parataxis relation:

I agree , we should apply for membership .
parataxis(agree, apply)

Punctuation

Tokens with the relation u-dep/punct always attach to content words (except in cases of ellipsis) and can never have dependents. Since punct is not a normal dependency relation, the usual criteria for determining the head word do not apply. Instead, we use the following principles:

1. A punctuation mark separating coordinated units is attached to the immediately following conjunct.
2. A punctuation mark preceding or following a dependent unit is attached to that unit.
3. Within the relevant unit, a punctuation mark is attached at the highest possible node that preserves projectivity.
4. Paired punctuation marks (quotes and brackets) should be attached to the same word unless that would create non-projectivity. This word is usually the head of the phrase enclosed in the paired punctuation.

See also examples at parataxis.

Discourse relations

@andidyer

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