| At the onset of §9-2 we gave a formal statement of a conjunction transformation that was meant to relate independent clauses in a single sentence. What we do here is enlarge on that transformation to express the reduction of the redundant elements involved in two different ways. There are new conventions in these transformations. The letters in italics are variables for categories, features, or strings of either as appropriate for their context. Notice that in Conj(Z) Y can be either features or a category depending on whether Z is originally a terminal or non-terminal symbol. |
| One of the effects of Conj(Z) is to produce a second category Z (non-terminal) that subsumes the characteristics of both Y, which by definition have some features that are distinct. Some GT grammarians have suggested accounting for this phenomenon using a generalized PS-rule. As we discuss possibilities, we may have to have a number of grammatical features that are distinct on the Y1 and the Y2 in the lower Z, but harmonized on the new upper Z. The second reduction transformation deletes a repeated element in the second of two clauses, when they are the same. One of the sentences listed above (5) seemed to require this kind of reduction, others might have used either one, e.g., (3). |
| (C3) | There he fell into evil paths, and on a fatal day sinned a great sin. Hillis. | |||
| a. | There he fell into evil paths. | |||
| b. | (Moreover) on a fatal day he sinned a great sin. | qConj (ARG) | ||
| (C5) | The Eskimos dog-whip is six yards long, and the handle but sixteen inches. Kimball. | |||
| a. | The Eskimos dog-whip is six yards long. | |||
| b. | The handle (of the Eskimos dog-whip) is but sixteen inches long. | qConj (COP) | ||
| (D2) | Give thy thoughts no tongue nor any unproportioned thought his act. Shakespeare. | |||
| a. | Give thy thoughts no tongue. | |||
| b. | Give no unproportioned thought his act. | iDisj (V) | ||
Diagraming conjunctive reduction. |
| (6) | You come hot and tired from the days battle and this sweet minstrel sings to you. Thackeray. | |||
| aa. | You come hot from the days battle. | |||
| ab. | (Moreover) you come tired from the days battle. | qConj (ADJ) | ||
| b. | This sweet minstrel sings to you (for this reason). | rConj (CL) | ||
| In the example (6) above the author conjoins two adjectives (as phrases) complementing the verb come and referring to the subject you. He then conjoins the independent clauses with the resultive-sequentive implication. It is convenient to diagram the reductions of the clause paraphrases as in figure 1. We label the extra node introduced by Conj(Z) as a dashed box and relate it all to the adverbial adjunct in this state. by encircling it with a dashed line. The student should also notice two additional conflations in this example. First, there is the catenative or linking use of come, which is not analyzed in the paraphrase above. Secondly, there is the causal-sequentive conjoining discussed in the previous chapter. |

Conjoining antonymous elements.The author may conjoin antonymous elements (those designating opposites) with and or asyndeton where the second one is negative in form. |
| (1) | The student is to read history actively and not passively, to esteem his own life the text, and books the commentary. Emerson. | |||
| aa. | The student is to read history actively. | |||
| ab. | He is not to read history passively. | qConj (ADV) | ||
| ba. | He is to esteem his own life the text. | |||
| bb. | He is to esteem books the commentary. | qConj (ARG) | ||
| (2) | Terror, not love, was the spring of education with the Aztecs. Prescott. | |||
| a. | Terror was the spring of education with the Aztecs. | |||
| b. | Love was not the spring of education with the Aztecs. | qConj (ARG) | ||
| Only but would be appropriate where the first element is negative. |
| (2') | Not love, but terror, was the spring of education with the Aztecs. Prescott (altered). | |||
| a. | Love was not the spring of education with the Aztecs. | |||
| b. | Terror was the spring of education with the Aztecs. | Advers (ARG) | ||