DET: determiner
SCONJ: subordinating conjunction
Definition
A subordinating conjunction is a conjunction that links constructions by making one of them a constituent of the other. The subordinating conjunction typically marks the incorporated constituent which has the status of a (subordinate) clause.
που and να are used in several ways:
- που is assigned the tag
PRONif it refers to a noun, e.g. Έχουμε πολλές πληροφορίες, που.PRON δεν οδηγούν όμως πουθενά “we have much information that, however, leads to nowhere”.- it is assigned the tag
SCONJwhen: - it introduces a complement of saying or sense verbs (criterion: in this case, it can be replaced with the word ότι with somewhat different implications), e.g., Σε είδα που τον κοίταζες. “I saw that you watched him.”, Δεν άκουσες που είπε: «Ευχαριστώ, ωραία μου κυρία»; “Haven’t you heard him saying “Thanks my fair lady”?”
- it introduces a temporal clause together with the ADP μετά (criterion: in this case, the multiword conjunction μετά που can be replaced with the ADP αφο΄ύ resulting into different style probably), e.g., Τον είδα μετά που χώρισε. “I met him after he got divorced.” μετά depends on που with the dependency relation fixed.
- it is assigned the tag
- να is assigned the tag
SCONJwhen it introduces subordinate clauses that function as:- verb arguments, e.g., Του είπα να έρθει.ccomp εδώ΄ “I told him to come.ccomp here”, Το Λιμενικό είναι και το μόνο ικανό να ξεδιαλύνει.xcomp την υπόθεση “Only Maritime Police is able to shed.xcomp light on this case”, Έτυχε να τον συναντήσετε.csubj ποτέ μόνο του; Lit. happened to him meet ever on his own.
- clausal nominal modifiers e.g. Η μόνη δυνατότητα να πλευρίσει.acl σκάφος στην περιοχή είναι η Σκάλα Ωρωπού. “The only possibility that a boat docks.acl in this area is the port of Skala Oropou”
- goal denoting clauses where να or για να introduce the clause; για is tagged
ADPand depends on να with the fixed dependency, e.g., Σηκώνεται για.ADPνα με υποδεχτεί. advcl “He rises to welcome.advcl me”. - all other cases where clauses introduced by να function as adverbial modifiers and να co-occurs with other uniflected words, e.g., αντί να, δίχως να, που να, πριν να, σαν να, χωρίς να, ώσπου να, ώστε να. The uniflected words are assigned their original tags and depend on να with the fixed dependency, e.g., Αντί.ADP.fixed να της δώσει.advcl τα παπούτσια στο χέρι, έκανε και παιδί μαζί της. “Rather than sending.advcl her packing, he had a child with her”, Με ακούει δίχως.ADP.fixed να με διακόψει.advcl με ερωτήσεις “He listens to me without interrupting.advcl me with questions”, τη ρωτάω, χωρίς.
ADP.fixed να μπω.advcl σε συζήτηση για την ανεπάρκεια του σιναφιού μας* “I ask her without opening.advcl a discussion about our trade’s insufficiency”
- να is tagged AUX when:
- It introduces the verb of a main clause, e.g., Να.AUX έρθεις.root γρήγορα “Come early.”, Ούτε να.AUX τ’ ακούσει.root “He would not even hear it.”
- When it occurs in relative clauses after the relativisers που, o οποίος, e.g., Δεν υπάρχει τίποτα παραπάνω που.PRON να.AUX έχει ανακαλύψει η άλλη δυάδα “there is nothing more that.PRON the other couple would have discovered”, Στη συνέχεια γράψτε μια συνάρτηση η οποία. PRON να.AUX τυπώνει αυτά τα δεδομένα “Next, write a function that.PRON will print the data.”
- elsewhere PART, e.g., Λόλα, να ένα μήλο “Lola, here is an apple.”
For coordinating conjunctions, see CCONJ.
Examples
- complementizers, like αν / an “if”, άρα, αφού / ara, afou “since/therefore”, γιατί / giati “why/because”, ενώ / eno “while”, καθώς / kathos “as/while”, μήπως, ότι, πως / mipos, oti, pos “that”, ώστε / oste “so as”, ώσπου / ospou “until”
- adverbial clause introducers, like όταν / otan “when”, αφότου / afotou “since”, πριν / prin “before”, μόλις / molis “just, as soon as” (when introducing a clause, not a nominal)
- interrogative pronouns ποιος / pios “who”, πόσος / posos “how many/much”, τι / ti “what kind of” that introduce an indirect question that serves as an argument of a verb, e.g., ρώτησα ποιο/πόσο/τι θέλεις; / rotisa pio/poso/ti theleis “I asked which/how much/what do you want?”
References
Mackridge, Peter. 1985. The Modern Greek Language. A Descriptive Analysis of Standard Modern Greek. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1985.
https://www.greek-language.gr/greekLang/modern_greek/tools/lexica/triantafyllides/
DET in other languages: [bej] [bg] [bm] [cs] [cy] [da] [el] [en] [ess] [et] [fi] [fro] [fr] [ga] [grc] [hu] [hy] [it] [ja] [kk] [kpv] [myv] [no] [pcm] [pt] [qpm] [ru] [sla] [sl] [sv] [tr] [tt] [uk] [u] [urj] [yue] [zh]