A typology of split conjunction

Abstract

In this paper, I study instances of noun phrase conjunction where the conjoined noun phrase is subject and the referents of the conjuncts are human, of the type ‘John and Mary are having lunch’. More specifically, I study different, possible splits that occur in such structures, which involve the disruption of the phrasal continuity of the conjuncts, resulting in structures roughly equivalent to ‘they are having lunch with Mary’ and ‘John are having lunch with Mary’. I claim that such splits are allowed by the inherent asymmetries of conjunctional structures, and I see them as functionally motivated by a play of prominence of the conjuncts involved. In the paper, I advance a typology of such splits in three subtypes: (i) splits by elision, where the conjuncts form a constituent but their phrasal contiguity is disrupted because the more salient conjunct is elided due to its topicality; (ii) splits by extraction, where the salient conjunct is given even more prominence by being extracted to a topical position thus breaking the continuity of the conjuncts; and (iii) splits by integration, where the role of the less salient conjunct is upgraded by means of dual or plural agreement on the verb. The constructions equally involve standard coordinative structures of the type ‘Mary and I’ as well as other non-coordinative types such as inclusory conjunction among others.