structure.deep-subordination

What it flags

Cascading subordinate clauses: multiple relative pronouns or subordinating conjunctions chained without a strong-punctuation break. Each open referent has to sit in working memory until it closes — Gibson’s Dependency Locality Theory (1998) ties processing cost directly to that distance.

At a glance

Detection

Walk the sentence between strong-punctuation breaks; count consecutive subordinators. Flag when the count exceeds max_consecutive_subordinators. Pronoun enumerations (qui, que, dont, où) are skipped — the detector recognises the list form and does not treat it as cascading.

Parameters

Language lists

• 🇫🇷 Relative pronouns: qui, que, dont, où, lequel, laquelle, lesquels, lesquelles
• 🇫🇷 Subordinators: parce que, afin que, bien que, quoique, puisque, pour que, tandis que
• 🇬🇧 Relative pronouns: which, that, who, whom, whose
• 🇬🇧 Subordinators: because, although, while, since, whereas, unless, until

Examples

Each highlighted token is one subordinator counted by the rule. Four in a row triggers the dev-doc threshold (3); two in a row triggers public and falc.

Flagged (FR):

Le document qui a été rédigé par l’équipe que nous avons constituée et qui couvre les points que nous avions discutés…

Flagged (EN):

The report that was drafted by the team which we formed last month and which covers the topics that we had discussed…

Not flagged (enumeration form, recognised by the detector):

Les pronoms relatifs en français sont : qui, que, dont, où.

And the matching English form:

The English relative pronouns are: which, that, who, whom, whose.

Suppression

See Suppressing diagnostics.

References

• Gibson (1998)

See References for the full bibliography.