co-ordination (n.)

A term in GRAMMATICAL analysis to refer to the process or result of linking LINGUISTIC UNITS which are usually of equivalent SYNTACTIC status, e.g. a series of CLAUSES, or PHRASES, or WORDS. (In this respect, it is usually distinguished from SUBORDINATE linkage, where the units are not equivalent.) Co-ordinate clauses are illustrated in the sentence John walked and Mary ran: the marker of linkage is and, a co-ordinating conjunction (or co-ordinator). Constructions may also be analyzed as co-ordinate without any explicit marker (a phenomenon sometimes referred to as ‘asyndetic co-ordination’), as in There was an awkward, depressing silence, where the co-ordinative role of the two adjectives can be tested by the insertion of and between them. The co-ordinate structure constraint in GENERATIVE GRAMMAR asserts that no RULE may affect a CONJUNCT in a co-ordinate structure, nor may any element in a conjunct be affected by a rule; for example, a WH-phrase moves illicitly in *What did you eat biscuits and?