The variability of syntactic means forming complex sentences

Abstract

Complex sentences play a very important role, allowing authors to weave intricate information structures, enrich details, and orient reader emphasis through syntactic variation. But despite extensive studies, crucial questions remain unanswered regarding the hierarchical relationship between main and subordinate clauses, the criteria for distinguishing subordinate units, and principled classifications of clause types. We find that the choice and integration of subordination markers—ranging from explicit conjunctions and relative pronouns to non-finite constructions and instances of asyndeton—are based on typological, functional, and cognitive factors. Predicative subordinate clauses exhibit particularly strong integration with main clauses, often blurring syntactic boundaries and fulfilling multifunctional functions as complements or modifiers. Cross-linguistic comparisons demonstrate that languages draw on different primary resources (case morphology in agglutinative systems versus conjunction-based strategies in analytic languages) and that register and modality further modulate marker preferences. These results have important theoretical and pedagogical implications as they suggest that language teaching should emphasize a wide repertoire of subordinate resources (including non-finite forms and unpunctuated structures) to foster learners' syntactic flexibility and discourse coherence.