The Position and the Punctuation of English Adverbial <i>When</i> ‐Clauses: From the Perspective of Dependency Distance

ABSTRACT The study examines how the length difference between adverbial when ‐clauses and postverb components (PVC) of main clauses—referred to as relative length—influences the position of adverbial when ‐clauses, using dependency distance as an indicator of processing difficulty. It further examines how dependency distance affects the use of punctuation before postposed adverbial when ‐clauses or after preposed ones. Logistic regression analyses indicate that relative length significantly predicts the when ‐clause position: the shorter a when ‐clause is relative to the PVC, the more likely it is to be preposed and vice versa. Moreover, the length of preposed when ‐clauses is a significant predictor of the punctuation following them, while the length of PVC significantly predicts punctuation preceding postposed when ‐clauses. These findings suggest a tendency to minimize dependency distance in clause ordering, with punctuation serving to alleviate comprehension difficulty associated with long dependencies.