The Korean Association for the Study of English Language and Linguistics

Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics - Vol. 18 , No. 3
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Korea Journal of English Language and Linguistics - Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 260-281
Abbreviation: KASELL
ISSN: 1598-1398 (Print) 2586-7474 (Online)
Print publication date 30 Sep 2018
Received 05 Aug 2018 Revised 14 Sep 2018 Accepted 18 Sep 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15738/kjell.18.3.201809.260

Taxonomic Disputes over the Categorical Nature of BECAUSE and Subordinators
Sungshim Hong ; Joo Hyun Chun*
Professor, Chungnam National University Department of English Language and Literature 99, Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu Daejeon, Korea 34134 (vshong@cnu.ac.kr)
Professor, Hanbat National University Department of English Language and Literature 125, Dongseodae-ro, Yuseong-gu Daejeon, Korea 34158 (joochun@hanbat.ac.kr)

Correspondence to : Chun, Joo Hyun Professor, Hanbat National University Department of English Language and Literature 125, Dongseodae-ro, Yuseong-gu Daejeon, Korea 34158 Email: joochun@hanbat.ac.kr

Abstract

Hong, Sungshim, and Joo Hyun Chun. 2018. Taxonomic disputes over the categorical nature of BECAUSE and subordinators. Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics 18-3, 260-281. This paper aims to clarify the taxonomic confusion regarding a word like because and other subordinators, including or excluding complementizers, and to present additional empirical and structural evidence for Pullum (2009a, 2009b, 2014), Huddleston & Pullum (hereafter H & P, 2005, 2018) in that because is a Preposition, contra all the dictionaries, on-or-off line, and usage books such as Garner (2016), and Fowler’s (2015), and reference and prescriptive grammar books. Gelderen (2013, 2017), on the other hand, has maintained that because, along with all other subordinators, is a complementizer. Furthermore, Haumann (2011) has proposed another functional projection (SubconP), differently from both P and C. If because plus other subordinators belong to a category P as Pullum (2009a: 255-273), and H & P (2005: 129-130, 2018) have argued for, and if subordinators including because are complementizers, as Gelderen (ibid) has argued for, which party is right in this dispute and what are the consequences? This paper, while defending Pullum, and H & P, on the basis of the recapitulation over the grammatical category distinction, clarifies this controversy by (i) providing additional empirical evidences and (ii) presenting the structural details of the subordinate clauses as PP, which Pullum, and H & P have missed out.

Keywords: taxonomy, conjunction, subordinator, word-class, subconP, TopP
Acknowledgments

S. Hong is the 1st author, J. Chun is the corresponding author, and we like to thank three anonymous reviewers for their thorough comments, through which this paper has greatly improved.

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