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 introduces a clausal modifier of a deictic adverb, e.g., εκεί, που δεν κινδυνεύει ο ίδιος “there, where himself is not under some risk_”, σήμερα, που πήραμε αύξηση “today that we got a wage rise”.
- που 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 αφού 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 introduces an etiological or a result clause (criterion: in this case, it can be replaced with the word γιατί resulting into different style probably), e.g., Δεν σε χωνεύει που έρχεσαι τακτικά στο Μοναστήρι. “He does not like you because you are regular to the Monastery.”, Ήταν τόσο σκελετωμένο που δεν είχε τη δύναμη να ψάξει για φαγητό. “It was so skinny that it had no strength to look for food”.
- που is assigned the tag
CCONJif:- it introduces a clause that is not syntactically subordinate to another, e.g., Μη μου τηνε κάμεις , απού.CCONJ να ‘χεις την ευκή του Θεού. “Don’t do it to me, just have God’s blessing.”
Μη μου τηνε κάμεις , απού να 'χεις την ευκή του Θεού. cc(έχεις, απού) fixed(απού, να) - 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”. - when it occurs in relative clauses after the relativisers που, o οποίος, e.g., Δεν υπάρχει τίποτα παραπάνω που.PRON να.SCONJ 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.SCONJ τυπώνει αυτά τα δεδομένα “Next, write a function that.PRON will print the data.” - 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, παρά να, πριν να, σαν να, χωρίς να, ώσπου να, ώστε να, και…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”, Και τα λεφτά να του πάρεις τα παιδιά δεν θα γυρίσουν πίσω “even if you take his money, the children will not come back.” - we have a case where να introduces a subordinate clause, which is semantically equivalent to a conditional clause, where the event expressed by the condition is considered an extreme possibility, e.g., Και κομμάθια να.SCONJ με κάμεις.advcl, δε γίνεται. “Even if you tear me to pieces, it’s not possible.” - sometimes, the relative clause is introduced by να.SCONJ only Και δεν βρέθηκε κανείς βαφτισμένος να ‘χει φάει το αντίτερο “And no baptized was found who had eaten the holy bread.”
Και δεν βρέθηκε κανείς βαφτισμένος να 'χει φάει το αντίτερο
mark(φάει, να)
acl:relcl(βαφτισμένος, φάει)
-
να is tagged AUX when it introduces the verb (or the auxiliary “to be”) 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.” Ούτε βουλευτής.root να.AUX ήσουν.AUX! “Imagine what would happen if you were an MP!”
-
να is tagged PART: - elsewhere, e.g., Λόλα, να ένα μήλο “Lola, here is an apple.”,
- when it is used in an elliptical structure of “είναι” (to be), serving to point out or draw attention to something. This structure allows for two possibilities: expression with either the nominative or the accusative case. In both cases, the particle “να” is morphologically classified as PART and syntactically as discourse, e.g., Να τον φίλο στο παλάτι “There’s the friend in the palace.”
~~~ sdparse ~~~ Να τον φίλο στο παλάτι root(ROOT, παλάτι) discourse(παλάτι, να) nsubj(παλάτι, φίλο) ~~~
There are fixed subordinating conjuctions such as μπας και and MWE ones such as the ones that are formed by ADPs and ADVs followed by να such as χωρίς να, ώσπου να.
For coordinating conjunctions, see CCONJ.
Examples
- complementizers, like αν / an “if”, 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), μια και / mia.SCONJ ke.CCONJ (with the dependency fixed between them) “since”
- 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 or as a clausal modifier of a deverbal noun, e.g., VERB: ρώτησα ποιο/πόσο/τι θέλεις; / rotisa pio/poso/ti theleis “I asked which/how much/what do you want?”, NOUN: έχω μείνει με την απορία τί στο καλό της είπες “I am left with the question what on earth you told her”. In particular, τι may introduce direct questions, e.g., Τι τα κάνατε τα κινητά σας; “what have you done with your mobile phones?”, Τι κάνεις έτσι; “Why are you reacting like that?”. In this case it is considered an interrogative adverb (see ADV) assinged the PronType feature with value Int.
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] [de] [el] [en] [es] [ess] [et] [fi] [fro] [fr] [ga] [grc] [hbo] [hu] [hy] [it] [ja] [kk] [kpv] [ky] [myv] [naq] [nmf] [no] [pcm] [pt] [qpm] [ru] [sla] [sl] [sv] [tr] [tt] [uk] [u] [urj] [xcl] [yue] [zh]