Subjunctions as Discourse Markers? About Appropriate Arguments on the Topic ‘Insubordinate Subordination’

Abstract The present paper is about types of seeming subordination (i.e. subordination by form), which in fact bears all distributional assets of insubordination. Yet, such insubordinate subordination is characterized by sentential autonomy in terms of illocutive force (i.e., it is not only presupposed as subordinates usually are). It will be shown that a reliable diagnostic is provided by the selection of modal particles in the narrow sense, which German and Dutch excel in. It will be illustrated that even the property of matrix V2 as opposed to subordinate Vfinal, otherwise a reliable diagnostic in German and Dutch, are not sufficient conditions for subordination vs. matrix status, sentential presupposition vs. assertive status, and independent (autonomous) illocutive force vs. dependent (inherited) illocutive force. Modal particles play a major diagnostic role in this categorial dichotomy. It will be argued that since formal subordination is an insufficient condition for the separation of formal and notional independence of sentential autonomy the theory of sentence types will have fundamentally to be modified with the main asset of a thorough notional rather than formal definition of sentential autonomy.