Conlangery Podcast Subordinate Clauses with William!
Jun 23, 2025
William Annis, a linguist and blogger at Lingweenie.org, dives into the fascinating world of subordinate clauses. He explores their definitions and functions across different languages, highlighting the unique nominalization systems in Hishkaryana compared to English. The conversation examines distinct types of subordinate clauses, including temporal and fact clauses, revealing how they shape meaning. Annis also discusses the concept of insubordination and its role in communication, offering insights valuable for conlangers looking to craft nuanced language structures.
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Nature of Subordinate Clauses
- A subordinate clause is a sentence embedded inside another, acting as an argument or modifier and can't usually stand alone.
- The boundary between subordination and other clause combining types isn't always clear, and overlap exists in many languages.
Balanced vs Deranked Verbs
- Balancing verbs can stand alone, while deranked verbs cannot and undergo mood or conjugation changes.
- Deranking includes mood shifts, nominalization, and specific particles to fit the subordinate clause grammatically.
Nominalization in Hishkaryana
- Hishkaryana has many nominalization types used structurally to fit subordinate clauses, not to create new words.
- English uses relative clauses similarly, for example, "the way in which he talks".