Subordination and linguistic complexity

Abstract

Subordination is frequently used as a measure of language complexity in educational and linguistic research. This article demonstrates, however, that in spoken discourse many clauses introduced by "subordinating conjunctions" are not actually subordinate, whether subordination is considered a structural concept (the embedding of one clause within another) or an informational construct (main vs. subordinate ideas). This analysis suggests that the study of linguistic complexity must be informed by studies of spoken as well as written discourse and take account of the cultural and situational contexts of language use.