What is coordination?

We argue that there are no devices in the grammar specific to coordination. The grammar is only capable of providing asymmetric structures, through particular lexical entries relating to semantic conjunction. Such entries produce adjunction structures, rather than head-complement structures. The interpretation of conjunction structures is a joint function of such lexical entries, processing properties, and pragmatics. Coordination phenomena are the result of an unresolved ambivalence between a ‘head initial’ and a ‘head final’ asymmetric conjunction structure, with the effect that there are parallel representations.