From subordination to coordination: Pragmatic, prosodie and syntactic evidence

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate the change undergone by constructions with enquanto (que) in Portuguese. The performed analysis provides evidence that, along with changes in meaning, in which the temporal relationship expressed by enquanto is reinterpreted in terms of contrast, the construction as a whole is rearranged, transmuting from a more subordinative way of composition, based on clause dependency, to a more coordinative one, based on independence. We argue that pragmatic and prosodie factors act in assessing clause (in)dependence and we show how contrastive constructions with enquanto (que) display pragmatic and prosodie discontinuity, which can be analyzed based especially on the illocutionary forces and prosodie boundaries characteristic for these clauses.