This chapter discusses a small set of words/phrases that have been claimed to exhibit coordinator-like properties. These elements seem to have at least in common that they can be followed by a nominative noun phrase or a finite clause; this is illustrated in (1) for the element danthan found in e.g. adjectival comparative constructions. This property provides negative arguments against the assumption that danthan can function as a conjunction-like element; (i) the dan-phrase in (1a) cannot be a prepositional phrase with a nominal complement, since prepositions normally assign objective (and not nominative) case; (ii) the element dan in (1b) cannot be analyzed as a subordinator, as it can be followed by an embedded clause introduced by the subordinator datthat; cf. Den Besten (1978).

Besides these two negative arguments against the assumption that danthan is a conjunction-like element, there is also a positive argument: example (2b) suggests that dan must be a coordinator because it can be followed by a gapping construction, which has been argued to occur only in coordinate structures. We have added (2a) in order to show that it is also possible to derive example (1a) by gapping.

The precise conclusion drawn from the data in (1) and (2) differs from study to study: Corver (1990:89ff/1993) and Hendriks (1995:§2) state that dan can function as a coordinator; Haeseryn et al. (1997:§27.5.4) states that dan dat is a complex linker (with optional dat) with coordinator-like properties, and Van der Heijden (1999:§1) claims that dan is a “mixed” category in between coordinator and subordinator. We will not review the differences between these proposals but follow Van der Heijden & Klein (1995) in arguing that there are reasons for rejecting the idea that we are dealing with coordination-like structures altogether.