A Grammar of Turkish Sign Language (TİD)

 

Subordination refers to the realization of a clause as a dependent constituent within a larger, superordinate clause. A subordinate clause can function as a subject, an object, or an adjunct. For example, in the sentence John thinks Bill is a university lecturer, the finite clause Bill is a university lecturer is a dependent of John thinks, specifically, an object complement of thinks. In the noun phrase, Bill, who is a university lecturer, the clause who is a university lecturer is a dependent of Bill, specifically, an adjunct that modifies Bill. Such dependent clauses are called subordinate clauses and they are embedded within other phrases or clauses. These can have one of the following functions: (i) subject or object clauses (clauses that occur as arguments of main verbs and that are embedded inside a main clause where the main verb is think, know, want, and other similar verbs; these embedded clauses can be declarative or interrogative constructions), (ii) relative clauses (adjectival clauses that modify nouns [Syntax - 3.4.]), and (iii) adverbial clauses (clauses that modify a verb or a whole sentence [Syntax - 3.5.]. Subordination is a strategy that is widely used in role shift (embedded clauses that are used in reported speech [Syntax - 3.3.3.]).  Some examples of subordinate clauses are the following:

 

Object clause (embedded declarative):

 

 

 

                                                                                                      sbp

 

hasan know [elıf horse_rıde work succeed work++ succeed]

‘Hasan knows that Elif is working on and succeeding at horseback riding’

(Göksel & Kelepir 2016: 17, ex. 23)

 

 

Object clause (embedded interrogative):

 

 

                                                         br

                                                                     hb

                                            hn          hs                  hn

        hale_a ıx_a bılge_b aask_b [ıx₁ where work] _aask_b

        ‘Hale asks Bilge where I work.’

 

 

 

Relative clause:

 

__________hn   ___________hs

__________re    ___________sq  ____re

house arrive   [mother same]      house     go

‘(She) arrived home. She went to the house that belongs to her mother too.’          

                                                                                       (Kubus 2016: 179; ex. 2)

 

Adverbial clause:

 

 

[ıx_{2 2}ınvıte₁ for] ıx₁ come

‘I came here to invite you.’