In defense of cyclic coordination structures: The view from German
Luise Schwarzer, Philipp Weisser
July 2024 

In this paper, we aim to demonstrate that the case for flat coordinate structures is not as straightforward as discussions in the recent literature makes it seem. Subword deletion and adversative coordination in German show that the three-conjunct-and-one-coordinator configuration can be binary and cyclic, i.e., that languages can exhibit patterns of subgrouping that are unexpected in the flat structure approach in Neeleman et al. 2023. We sketch two possible conclusions to this finding and explore the stronger one, according to which a universally binary branching, cyclic structure can be made to accommodate the flatness properties.

Format:	[ pdf ]
Reference:	lingbuzz/008618 (please use that when you cite this article)
Published in:	Shaunak Phadnis, Carla Spellerberg, & Brynne Wilkinson (eds.): Proceedings of NELS 54
keywords:	coordination, coordinate structures, cyclicity, germanic, syntax
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