The Highest Force Hypothesis

This study discusses subordination in Swedish from the perspective of three
construction types that involve clauses that have traditionally been notoriously
difficult to classify as unambiguous main or subordinate clauses: “embedded
V2”-constructions, direct speech constructions, and exclamatives.
A general hypothesis regarding subordination and ”superordination” is proposed:
The Highest Force Hypothesis. The formulation of this hypothesis draws on
seminal work by den Besten (1983) and it is argued that the status of a Swedish
clause as main or subordinate is directly linked to the position of the finite verb;
verb movement takes place in main clauses, but not in subordinate clauses. Such
a proposal naturally raises a number of questions that are discussed in this work.
It is shown that the hierarchical status of the clauses involved in the three
constructions, “embedded V2”-clauses, direct speech, and exclamatives, can be
given a unified account within the framework of The Highest Force Hypothesis.
An important point in the proposed analysis is that certain alleged hypotactic
relations are better viewed as textual relations holding between syntactically
independent main clauses.
The overarching aim of the study is to obtain a deeper understanding of superand
subordination on a general level and the The Highest Force Hypothesis is
applied not only to clauses, but also to nonclausal structures.