ABSTRACT
It is a common practice of languages to repeat some elements in contrasts (1). According to Chomsky (1957) (2), "If S1 and S2 are grammatical sentences, and S1differs from 82 in any given corpus; this would lead to redundancy if coordination were not used to reduce repetition and highlight that X appears in 81 where Y appears in 82, i.e. 81 = .... X ...., and 82 = .... Y ...., and X and Yare constituents of the same type, then S3 can be derived as a result of replacing X by X and Y in S1, (i.e. 83 = .... X + and Y ....)" Chomsky's statement can be interpreted as follows: in conjoined structures repeated elements which appear in deep structure can be deleted or pronominalized either optionally or obligatorily (3). It becomes clear, therefore, that the conjunction process is centred around repeated vs unrepeated elements in the conjoined structure. In this chapter I am going to show how coordination operates both within the phrasal and the transformational hypotheses, some conditions that affect it, and two important Arabic conjunctions: wa and La:kin (and, and but respectively.)
Before broaching the subject of coordination, we have to make one point clear namely, that the conjunction schemata are applicable to full sentences, phrases, and in some cases, to particles. (For reasons of simplicity I will refer to the conjoined elements as CI, C2, ... Cn.) Thus the conjoined elements (the conjuncts), CI and C2 can be both nominal-initial or verbal-initial (4); alternatively, C1 can be nominalinitial and C2 verbal-initial or vice versa. Consider the following examples:
1-a!lulla:bu mujiddu:na wa l?asa:tidatu muxli~u:n the students hardworking and the teachers dutiful (The students are hardworking and the teachers are dutiful)
2-tasqutu l?awra:qu wa tuha:jiru ttuyu:ru fi lxari:f fall the leaves and migrate the birds in the autumn
(Leaves fall and birds migrate in the autumn) 3-a!tulla:bu mujiddu:na wa yusajjicuhum ?usta:duhum da:?ima:
the students hardworking and teacher their encourage them always (The students are hardworking, and their teacher always encourages them)
4-yabdulu ttulla:bu Ijuhda wa l?usta:du muxli~un na~wahum exert the students the effort and the teacher dutiful to them (The students exert their effort, and the teacher is dutiful to them)
In example 1 both Cl and C2 are nominal-initial sentences (5), whereas in 2 the two cODjuncts are verbal-initial. In 3, however, Cl is nominal initial and C2 is verbalinitial, but in 4 the two conjuncts are in reverse order. Note that if the same NP is found in both conjuncts Cl and C2, then it is very likely to be pronominalized since the structural description for T-pronominalization is met (6). In 3, for example, where Cl is a nominal-initial sentence, the bound clitic -hum (them) is found attached to the verbyu~icu (encourage). The clitic in question clearly refers to agulla:b (the students) in Cl. Similarly, in 4, C2 contains the bound clitic -hum attached to the preposition na~lva (to). Again, this clitic refers to af!ulla:b in CI.
