Remarks on the syntax and semantics of so-called comitative coordination

Remarks on the syntax and semantics of so-called comitative coordination

Al Khalaf, Eman. 2018. Remarks on the syntax and semantics of so-called comitative coordination. Linguistic Research 35(2), 253-273. Natural languages exhibit two conjunction strategies: the coordinate strategy and the comitative strategy (Stassen 2000). Recent work claims that there exists a hybrid construction that appears to employ both strategies, namely comitative coordinate construction. This paper argues against this claim and shows that what the literature assumes to be a hybrid construction is in fact a pure comitative, which is different from a coordinate semantically and syntactically. The paper also offers an alternative structural analysis of this construction, which captures the various differences between comitatives and coordinates. The analysis proposed has consequences on the status of the conjunct constraint, the constraint that bans extracting a whole conjunct. (The University of Jordan)