14414178 coordination and subordination translation

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King Saud UniversityCollege of languages and TranslationText-linguistics for students of translationHand-out No. 4

The textual component: Coordination & Subordination

To be described as such, a text should exhibit two kinds of cohesion: semantic and

structural relations. The first type of textual relation is what Halliday calls ‘semantic

cohesion’; the second one is called ‘structural cohesion’, a term used in the current study to

refer to cohesive relations between clauses.

According to The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar (1994: 63), a clause is:

a grammatical unit operating at a level lower than a sentence but higher than aphrase [….] Some modern grammar uses the clause, rather than the sentence,as the basis of structural analysis, so that in some instances clause andsentence are coterminous. More importantly, a clause based analysis allows amore straightforward functional analysis into five possible elements ofEnglish [and Arabic] clause structure….

For Halliday (1985), the notion ‘clause’ is a term used in linguistic studies to refer to

any number of word groups combining to express a ‘process’, relating either explicitly or

implicitly, an ‘agent’, and an ‘affected’.”

Following the method adopted by some linguists (e.g. Cantarino: 1979, Young: 1980,

etc.), for example, the analysis of English and Arabic clauses is based on a grammatical

model in which an attempt is made to incorporate the relevant syntactic features of the two

languages.

According to this model, English clauses and Arabic verbal clauses consist of the

following functional elements:

1. Subject 2. Predicator3. In/Direct objects (optional) 4. Object Complement (optional)5. Adjunct (optional)

These functional elements are usually realised by phrasal elements (e.g. noun phrase,verb phrase, and prepositional phrase) but the subject, object, and complement may also berealised by embedded subordinate clauses. The following translationally equivalent examplesexhibit this:



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[1]:Arabic: ’a‘Ta: l-mu‘allim l-tilmi:dh kita:b-an

P S IO DO

English: The teacher gave the pupil a book.

S P IO DO

[2]:Arabic: ’intakhaba l-’amri:ki:yu:n ki:lintu:n ra’i:s-an fi: nu:fammbar

P S DO OC A

English: The Americans elected Clinton president in November.S P DO OC A

English clauses may also contain subject complements realised either by a noun

phrase and adjective phrase, or an embedded subordinate clause (as in examples 3, 4, and 5,

respectively) or adjective complements, commonly realised by an embedded ‘that clause’ (as

in example 6 below).

[3]:John is a doctor. (Equative)

S P SC

[4] John is very clever. (Attributive)S P SC

[5]:This is [what I don’t like]. (Equative)

S P SC

[6]:I am confident [that he will succeed].S P SC (Adj. C)

In addition to verbal clauses, Arabic also has nominal clauses (clauses that begin with

a nominal). Arabic nominal clauses consist of an ‘argument’- referred to by Arab

grammarians as [al-mubtada] and a predicate-referred to as [al-khabar]. The argument is

realised by a noun phrase (having a noun or pronoun as head) or an embedded noun clause.

The predicate may be realised by a noun phrase, an adjectival phrase, a prepositional phrase,

or a verbal clause. Arabic nominal clauses resemble in many ways English clauses having the

verb ‘to be’ as predicator. The main difference between the two types of clauses is that



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Arabic nominal clauses are verbless except when the predicate is a verbal clause. The

examples below illustrate some of the most basic structures of Arabic nominal clauses:

[7]:

Arabic: al-rajul-u Sadi:qi:Argument + Predicator (NP)

English: The man is my friend.S P SC (NP)

[8]:Arabic: al-rajul-u fi: l- H adi:qa

Argument + Predicator (PP)

English: The man is in the garden.S P A (PP)

[9]:Arabic: al-rajul-u Tawi:l-un

Argument + Predicate (Adj. P)

English: The man is tall.S P SC (Adj. P)

The pair of clauses in example 5:8 has an equative structure (NP1/NP2); those in

example 8 have a locative structure (NP/PP of place), while those in example 9 have an

attributive structure (NP/Adj. P).

In English there are two types of clauses: coordinate/main/independent clause

(equivalent to [jumla kubra:/ jumla mustaqilla] in Arabic) and subordinate/dependent clause

(equivalent to [jumla sughra:/ ghayr mustaqilla] in Arabic).

1. Coordination

Coordination is a syntactic relation holding between grammatical elements that have

equal syntactic and semantic status. Thus, for instance, coordination at the clause level may

hold between main clauses (clauses capable of forming separate simple sentences) or

between subordinate clauses (clauses which cannot stand independently as separate

sentences). The following examples illustrate both coordination between main and

subordinate clauses:



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[10]:Zalat ‘ayna:ya fi: ‘aynayh-i laHDat-an wa ibtasamt-u[My eyes stared into his for a time, and I smiled.]

M + M

[11]: kullama: ghalabani: l-futu:r-u ’aw ista‘Sa: ‘alayya l-’ilha:m-u lakamani:muda:‘ib-an fi: Sadri:[Whenever I was overcome by weariness or my inspiration failed me hewould punch me playfully on my chest.]

S + S …

According to Quirk and Geenbaum (1972), coordination can be divided into sub-

components based on two criteria: type and rank.

In terms of type, coordination is either ‘syndetic’ (equivalent to [ al-faSl ] in Arabic)

when coordinating conjunctions between clauses or elements within the same clause are

present or ‘asyndetic’ (equivalent to [ al-waSl ] in Arabic) when coordinating conjunctions are

not present as in the following examples:

[12]:Arabic: ’udkhul ’ayyuha: l-walad, tana:wal al-faTu:r

[Come in O child, have some breakfast]

English: I rose to my feet, shook hands and left the room.

In the above examples, it can be seen that, in both, the second clauses are

asyndetically coordinated to the first ones.

In terms of rank, coordination is sentential (between sentences as in examples 13

below), clausal (between clauses as in examples 10-12 above), or phrasal (between phrases,

as in examples 14 below):

[13]:

Arabic: lam yakun li: dali:l-un wa hal li-lHubb-i dali:l?[I didn’t have any proof. And does love have any proof?]

English: “You are seventeen years old and the gun you are carrying isheavy. And the way is long and fierce.”

[14]:Arabic: ishtar-a l-tilmi:dh-u qalam-an wa muSTarat-an wa kita:b

[The pupil bought a pen and a ruler and a book]

English: The pupil bought a pen, a ruler, and a book.



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English and Arabic have several coordinators. In English, there are three principal

coordinators (‘and’, ‘or’, and ‘but’). In contrast, Arabic has at least six main coordinators. In

addition to [wa] ‘and’, [’aw] and [’am] ‘or’, and [la:kin] ‘but’, Arabic also has [fa] ‘and then’

and [thumma], which is similar in meaning to [fa] except that a greater time gap separate the

occurrence of two actions when [thumma] is used . The difference in meaning between [wa],

[fa], and [thumma] can best be explained with reference to the following examples of phrasal

coordination:

[15] ja:’a muHammad-un wa ‘ali:y[Mohammed and Ali came]

[16] ja:’a muHammad-un fa ‘ali:y[Mohammed came and then Ali]

[17] ja:’a muHammad-un thumma ‘ali:y

[Mohammed came + (greater time interval than in 16) and then Ali.]

The coordinator [wa] is not marked for any specific temporal sequence. Thus, in 15,

[muHammad] could have come before or after [‘ali:y] or they could have come at the same

time. In contrast, [fa] in 16 explicitly signals that [‘ali:y] came after [muHammad]. The same

holds true for [thumma] in example 17, except that the time interval between [muHammad]

and [‘ali:y]’s coming is greater than that in example 16.

2. Subordination

The second type of syntactic cohesion is subordination. Unlike coordination, which is

a syntactic relation between grammatical elements that have equal syntactic and semantic

status, subordination is a syntactic relation between clauses that have unequal status (i.e. a

subordinate and a main clause). Inequality of status is interpreted here in both propositional

and syntactic terms. From a propositional point of view, the function of the proposition

expressed by the subordinate clause is that it either amplifies, modifies, or forms part of the

dominant proposition expressed by the main clause. From a syntactic point of view, on the

other hand, a subordinate clause usually contains a subordinating particle (also referred to as

a binding particle) which renders it incapable of standing as a separate sentence in its ownright.



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English and Arabic subordinate clauses can be divided into subcomponents based on

the two criteria: type and rank.

In terms of type, English and Arabic subordinate clauses can be divided into several

types according to the semantic and/or the syntactic features of subordinating particles.

Subordinate clauses in the two languages include the following main types (in each case

Arabic subordinating particles and their English counterparts are provided. Each clause type

is illustrated with examples from the two languages):

1. Time

The typical subordinating particles signalling this function include:

a. [Hatta:]: ‘until’ b. [mundhu]: ‘since’c. [qabla]: ‘before’ d. [baynama:], [fi:yma:], [‘ala: Hi:yni]: ‘while’e. [ba‘da:]: ‘after’ f. [Halama]: ‘as soon as’g. [Hi:yna], [Hi:ynama], [lamma:], [‘indama:]: ‘when’

Some of the above mentioned particles are illustrated in the following examples:

[18]:Arabic: ’intaZirni: Hatta: ’antahi: min kita:bat i-r-risa:la

[Wait for me until I finish writing the letter]

English: He worked all night until he finished the essay.

[19]:Arabic: ‘indama: waqafa l-qiTa:r harwaltu fi: ittija:h i-l-manaSSa

[When the train stopped, I ran toward the platform.]

English: When the results were announced, he emerged the winner.

[20]:Arabic: ba‘da ’an najaHa fi: l-’imtiHa:n sa:fara ila: faransa: fi: ’ija:za

[After he passed his examination, he travelled to France on aholiday.]

English: After her husband died, she rarely went out of her house.

2. Place

The only subordinating particle that signals this function is:

[Haythu]: ‘where’



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[21]:Arabic: dhahabna: ’ila: l-maT‘am-i S-Si:ni: Haythu akalna: wajba

shahi:ya[We went to the Chinese restaurant where we ate a deliciousmeal]

English: He went to visit Egypt where he was born more than 50 yearsago.

3. Conditional

The subordinating particles in this type are:

a. [’idha:], [’in], [law]: ‘if’ b. [’inlam], [lawla:]: ‘ if not’, ‘unless’

[22]:Arabic: ’idha: lam taHDur fi: l-maw‘id fa-sawfa lan tajidani:

[ If you do not come on time, you will not find me]

English: If you are not busy, please come and help me with the house.

4. Concession


a. [bi-l-raghmi min]: ‘although’ b. [ma‘a ’anna]: ‘even though’

[23]:Arabic: ma‘a ’annahu Sadi:yqy fa ’innani:y arfuDu ’an ’usallifahu

nu:qu:wd[ Even though he is my friend, I refuse to lend him some money.]

English: Even though it is raining, the children are unwilling to comeinside.

5. Reason

The subordinating particles in this category are:

a. [li:]: ‘because’ b. [’idh]: ‘since’

[24]:Arabic: lam yaHDur i-l-ijtima:‘a li: -’annahu ka:na kha:rij al-bila:d

[He did not attend the meeting because he was outside thecountry]

English: I cannot buy this car because I have no money.



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6. Purpose


[kay], [li-kay], [li-]: ‘so that’, ‘in order that’

[25]:Arabic: dhahabtu ’ila: s-su:q kay ’ashtariy-a qami:S

[I went to the market in order to buy a shirt.]

English: He sent the children to their grandparents so that he couldfinish writing the book.

7. Manner


[kama:], [mithlama:]: ‘as’

[26]:Arabic: darasa l-qa:nu:n kama: fa‘ala ’abu:hu

[He studied the law, as did his father]

English: She cooks a turkey exactly as her mother used to do.

8. Relative clauses

English relative clauses are marked by relative pronouns such as ‘who’, ‘whose’,

‘whom’, ‘which’, and ‘that’. Arabic, in contrast, has three conjunctive names: [al-ladhi:], and

its variants, [man], and [ma:]. The difference between the three is presented as follows:

i. [al-ladhi:] and its variants are definite with a definite antecedent. [man] and [ma:].

are indeterminately definite or indefinite depending on context, and they do not have anantecedent. Abdulaziz Al-Aqil (1990) suggests that these two relative pronouns serve

simultaneously as antecedent and relative pronoun.

ii. Both [man] and [ma:] have single forms. In contrast, [al-ladhi:] has eight forms,

depending on whether the antecedent is feminine or masculine, and whether it is singular,

dual, or plural. The dual forms vary as to whether the case is nominative or whether it is

accusative/genitive.



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Examples 27 and 28 below illustrate English relative clauses while Arabic relative

clauses are exemplified in 29, 30, and 31:

[27]:

Nuclear weapons, which can destroy the earth several times over, shouldbe banned.

[28]:The woman who lives next door is an old friend of mine.

[29]:’inna naji:b maHfu:Z, al-ladhi: Ha:za ‘ala: ja:’izat nu:bal lil-’adab-i,ka:tib-un miSri:-un ma‘ru:f-un[(Truly) Nagib Mahfouz, who won the Nobel Prize for literature is awell-known Egyptian writer.]

[30]:’inna l-kita:b al-ladhi: ’a‘Taytani: ’iyya:hu mufi:d-un jidd-an[(Verily) the book that you gave me was very useful]

[31]:man jadd-a wajad-a[ He who works hard succeeds.]

English relative clauses and Arabic clauses marked by the name [al-ladhi:] or one of

its variants can be divided into two types: restrictive (as in examples 28 and 30 above) and

non-restrictive (as in examples 27 and 29). The two types of clauses differ from each other

syntactically, semantically, phonologically, and in punctuation. Syntactically, restrictive

clauses typically function as elements within a phrase. Semantically, restrictive clauses

provide a necessary definition of their antecedents, while non-restrictive clauses provide

extra incidental information (which can be omitted) about their antecedents. Finally, non-

restrictive clauses, unlike restrictive ones, are separated by a comma from their antecedents

or placed between two commas when interrupting the main clause. (For further description,

see Abdulaziz Al-Aqil, 1990: 75-83)

9. Wh-ever marked clauses

English wh-ever words and their Arabic equivalents that mark a clause as subordinate

include:

a. [kullama:]: ‘whenever’ b. [mahma:]: ‘whatever’

c. [’aynama:]: ‘wherever’



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[32]:Arabic: ’aynama dhahabtu ’istaqbalani: l-na:s bi-Hafa:wat-in ba:lighat-

in[Wherever I went people welcomed me very warmly]

English: The bodyguards follow the president wherever he goes.

[33]:Arabic: mahma: fa‘alta fa-sawfa lan tanjaH

[Whatever you do, you will not succeed]

English: Whatever you do, I will remain true.

10. [’inna] and [’anna] ‘that’ marked clauses

[’inna] and [’anna], both translated into English as complementizer ‘that’, commonly

mark clauses as subordinate in Arabic, especially after verbs expressing verbal acts (just as in

English). The following examples illustrate this type of subordinate clause:

[34]:Arabic: qa:la ( ’inna -hu sawfa yaHDuru ghadan)

[He said ( that he would come tomorrow)]

English: They told me [ that I should have come earlier].

In addition to these various clause types, English also has non-finite subordinate

clauses marked by non-finite verbs: the ‘-ing’ form, the past participle, and the infinitive, as

in:

[35]:a. Leaving by a side door , the president came face to face with hostile

demonstrators.

b. Saddened by what he saw on TV last night , the president vowed tosend more relief supplies to Somalia.

c. To stimulate growth , the Chancellor must come out with an alternativepolicy.

Arabic also has three more types of subordinate clauses that seem to differ not only

from English subordinate clauses but also from the other Arabic subordinate clauses. These

types of Arabic subordinate clauses are described as follows:



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i. Circumstantial clauses [jumlat-u- l-Ha:l]

Semantically, circumstantial clauses in the Arabic language- referred to by Arab

grammarians as [jumla Ha:li:ya], describe the ‘condition’ or ‘status’ of any entity in a

preceding main clause. Syntactically, a circumstantial clause typically contains [wa] ‘and’referred to by Arab grammarians as [wa:w-u- l-Ha:l]’, a coreferential independent pronoun

(referring back to the entity mentioned in the main clause), and an imperfect verb together

with a variety of other optional clause elements. Another important feature of the

circumstantial clause is that it can stand alone as an independent simple sentence, as in:

[36]kharajat ’ila: sh-sha:ri‘ wa hiya tarfa‘u wajhaha: li-nismat al-fajr al-

ba:rid l-raTibba [She went to the street ( and she raising her face) to the cold moist dawnbreeze .]

Another version of the circumstantial clause becoming more common nowadays is to

omit the [wa] and the coreferential pronoun as in the following example:

[37]kharajat ’ila: sh-sha:ri‘ tarfa‘u wajhaha: li-nismat al-fajr al-ba:rid l-raTibba

[She went to the street raising her face to the cold moist dawn breeze.]

It is worth noting here that even though the independent pronoun is omitted in

example 5:38, the clause still contains the ‘masked’ subject feminine pronoun [hiya] ‘she’

signalled by the feminine particle [ ta ] at the beginning of the verb [tarfa‘-u]. Thus, even

when the explicit pronoun is omitted, the clause still contains a subject pronoun in addition to

the verb. In this way, the clause would still be able to function as an independent sentence.

ii. Explanatory clause [al-jumla l-tafsi:ri:ya]

In semantic terms, a proposition expressed in Arabic by an explanatory clause-

referred to by Arab grammarians as [jumla tafsi:ri:ya]- provides more explanation or

exemplification of the proposition expressed by the main clause. Syntactically, however, the

explanatory clause, just like the circumstantial clause, contains all the clause elements

enabling it to stand as an independent sentence in its own right, as in:



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[38]Arabic: ha:dha: l-kha:lu l-ghari:bu l-ladhi: yuTliq-u ’asma:’ ’ukhra:

‘ala: l-’ashya:’, yaqu:lu lahu waladd badal ’an yuna:diyahu bi-ismih-i wa yussammi: l-bunduqi:ya l-qadi:ma midfa‘

[This strange uncle who gives different names to things, he callshim a child instead of calling him by his name, and he calls theold rifle a cannon ]

English: What a strange uncle this is who gives things all differentnames, who says ‘child’ to him instead of calling him by his ownname, and who refers to the old rifle as a ‘cannon’ .

It is interesting to observe that in the above example, the English version renders the

Arabic explanatory clauses as relative clauses (marked by who), thus, explicitly marking

them as syntactically subordinate.

iii. Relative clauses (with no relative pronouns)

In addition to relative clauses marked by the relative pronouns [al-ladhi:], [man], or

[ma:], Arabic has also another type of relative clause characterised by the absence of a

relative pronoun. The antecedent of such clauses is always indefinite. Further, such relative

clauses are also typically capable syntactically of acting as separate sentences, as in:

[39]‘ash-sha:bbi: sha:‘ir ‘arabi: ta’aththara kathi:r-an bi-l shu‘ara:’ l-ru:mansiyi:n l-’inqili:z.

[Al-Shabi is an Arab poet he was very much influenced by the Englishromantic poets.]

Again, an English translation of the above Arabic clause would render it as

syntactically subordinate by the use of a relative pronoun (i.e. ‘who was very much

influenced by the English romantic poets’).

In terms of rank, English and Arabic subordinate clauses, within the rank system of

the grammatical categories in systemic grammar, normally function as elements of sentences

(immediate constituent of sentences). In this case, subordinate clauses are said to be non-

embedded as in the following examples:



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[40]Arabic: sawfa ’azu:ruka ‘indama: ’aHDur-u ila: landan

[I will visit you when I come to London]

English: If it rains , we will not be able to play tennis.

In both languages, sentences which have more than one clause often constitute both

coordination and subordination. The clearest cases of such combinations are listed below

(subordination is indicated by an arrow pointing towards the main clause/s):

i. (S + S) M

In this pattern, two or more coordinated subordinate clauses are jointly subordinated

to a main clause:

[41](1)\’idha: ’ata: mubakkir-an/(2)\wa ’idha: ’aHDar-a kulla l-mablagh/(3)\fa-sa’abi:‘ lahu s-sai:ya:ra./

[(1)\If he comes early/(2)\and if he brings all the money,/(3)\I will sellhim the car./]

ii. (M + M) S

In this pattern, two or more coordinated main clauses jointly dominate a subordinated

clause:

[42](1)\ghaDiba l-’usta:dh\(2)\wa kharaja min al-faSl/(3)\li-’anna t-tala:midhka:nu: yuSdiru:n ’aSwa:t muz‘ija

[(1)\The teacher became angry/(2)\and left the classroom/ (3)\becausethe pupils were making a lot of noise./]

iii. (S M) + (S M)

This pattern contains two subordinations and one coordination:



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[43](1)\‘indama: ’adhhabu ila: ba:ri:s/(2)\’aqDi: mu‘Zam ’awqa:ti: fi: t-tasawuq/(3)\wa-la:kin ‘indama: ’adhhabu ila: landan/(4)\’aqDi:mu‘Zam-a ’awqa:ti: fi: l-masraH./

[(1)\When I go to Paris,/(2)\I spend most of my time shopping,/(3)\butwhen I go to London,/(4)\I spend most of my time in the theatre./]

iv. M + (M S)

The first and second main clauses are coordinated and the subordinate clause is

subordinated only to the second main clause:

[44](1)\HaDara ’aHmad/(2)\wa la:kin ‘ali:y lam yaHDur/(3)\li-annahu mari:D./

[(1)\Ahmad came/(2)\but Ali couldn’t/(3)\because he was sick./]

Finally, it is possible for a subordinate clause to be subordinated to another subordinate

clause, as in the following example:

[45]tadhakkartu [’anna ’abi: qa:l-a (’innahu lam yashtari sayya:arat-an {lamtu‘jibh-u})].

[I remembered [that my father had said (that he had not bought a car {hehadn’t liked})].

In the above example, it can be seen that the last relative clause is subordinated to the

preceding ‘that’ clause (qualifier of head noun ‘car’) and this ‘that’ clause (second clause) is

subordinated to the first ‘that’ clause (object of ‘said’), which is in turn subordinated to the

initial main clause (object of ‘remembered’). Thus, the sentence contains three instances of

subordination.

14414178 coordination and subordination translation

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