Conjoining Main Clauses and Embedded Clauses: The Link Approach

This study discussed the progressive being and nonprogressive being and classified the former as an aspect that signifies the aspectual state of a sentence and the latter as a link that conjoins the main clause and the embedded clause. The nonprogressive being is optional when the embedded clause has a complementizer that conjoins the main clause and the embedded clause. The nonprogressive being is also optional when the sentence has an appositive comma that conjoins the main clause and the embedded clause in an equal way. The appositive comma conjoins the main clause and the embedded clause only when they both have verbal elements and have equal structural status. Syntactic identification of the nonprogressive being as a link makes a clear distinction between the obligatory progressive being and the nonprogressive being, which is optional when the sentence has a complementizer or an appositive comma that performs the same function.