Comp in matrix sentences

[Martin Haspelmath]

Hi Annarita,

How do you define a "complementizer"? Most people would probably define 
it as an element that occurs in subordinate (especially complement) 
clauses and marks the subordinate status of such sentences. Given this 
definition, it's not easy to see how a matrix complementizer could exist.

What could of course exist is an element that most prominently functions 
as a complementizer, but under some limited circumstances may also occur 
in independent clauses (e.g. German dass, in directives such as "Dass du 
mir ja nicht zu spät kommst!" 'Don't dare to come too late.') But here 
most people would either say that this is a different element (with only 
diachronic connections to the other dass), or that its main-clause use 
is a secondary extension from the subordinate clause.

Of course, a few languages have declarative markers that are absent in 
other sentence moods (and perhaps in subordinate clauses), e.g. Korean. 
But these would not normally be called "complementizers".

Regards,
Martin

Annarita Puglielli wrote:
> Dear Lingtyp friends,
>
> I wonder if you can give me information about any language that has an 
> explicit complementizer that introduces the matrix in a declarative 
> sentence. What happens then in imperative and interrogative sentences, 
> or when in a declarative sentence there is an explicit performative verb?
> Eventually please send me also references.
> Thank you in advance.
>
> Prof. Annarita Puglielli
> Dipartimento di Linguistuica
> Università degli Studi Roma Tre
> Roma- Italy
>


-- 
Martin Haspelmath (haspelmath at eva.mpg.de)
Max-Planck-Institut fuer evolutionaere Anthropologie, Deutscher Platz 6	
D-04103 Leipzig      
Tel. (MPI) +49-341-3550 307, (priv.) +49-341-980 1616