Grammar & Syntax
BS ENGLISH 6th SEMESTER (Afternoon)
Topic: Clauses
Week 7:
Book Author: Jim Miller (Chapter 6)
Teacher: Mansoor Qayyum
6.1 Clauses & Sentences
So far we have discussed:
• Lexical categories
• constituent structure (the arrangements of words into phrases and
phrases like NP, VP etc.)
• Now we are going to discuss “Clause” in more detail.
What we have not discusses yet:
• Heads and modifiers have not been discussed.
• Example: In the large dog, the word dog is the head, and “the” and
“large” are its modifiers.
• In barked loudly, the word barked is the head and “loudly” the
modifier. (all this will be discussed in future)
Clauses & Sentences
We can usefully begin by reviewing the major properties of clauses,
taking the examples in (1) as our starting point.
(1) a. Wickham eloped with Lydia.
b. Miss Bates chattered on for hours.
Examples (1a, b) are sentences. It is hard to supply an instant
definition of a sentence apart from the initial capital letter and the
final full stop.
Examples (1a, b) are also instances of main clauses. Let’s see what
are the major properties of these main clauses?
Clauses & Sentences
i. Each clause contains a finite verb; that is, a verb marked for tense.
Finite verbs are traditionally said to be marked for tense, person
and number. But we must have a verb in a clause.
ii. iii Each clause is marked for aspect (see Chapter 13), and the
aspect can be changed: compare Wickham was eloping with Lydia
as opposed to Wickham eloped with Lydia.
iii. Each clause has mood. First there are distinctions that an event is
possible or real (fact): (He may have eloped with Lydia) or as
necessary (He must have eloped with Lydia) or as a fact (He did
elope with Lydia.)
Clauses & Sentences
iv. Clauses describe situations, the participants in them (for example,
Agents carrying out actions on Patients, as in Frank [Agent]
persuaded Jane [Patient/theme: the role of being acted upon] to
keep the secret, and the circumstances in which they take place, as
in Frank Churchill was in Hartfield [place] in June [time]). (The term
‘circumstances’)
v. Both can be the first contribution to a discourse, whether spoken or
written. Phrases such as with Lydia, handed his hat to the servant
and chattered on cannot be the first contribution to a normal
English text, nor can clauses such as which she bought last week or
although it is cold.
Clauses & Sentences
It will be useful to have different labels:
• Clauses in real texts we will call ‘text clauses’;
• Clauses in our analysis we will call ‘system clauses’,
capturing the fact that in our analysis we try to establish a system of
grammar, and clauses are part of the system.
6.2 Main & Subordinate Clauses
1. Compound Clauses
Compound sentences consist of two or more clauses joined by
conjunctions. Examples are:
a. Captain Benwick married Louisa Hayter and Captain
Wentworth married Anne Elliott.
b. Henry Crawford loved Fanny but Fanny loved Edmund.
c. Mr Bingley became tired of Jane or Mr D’Arcy persuaded Mr.
Bingley to go to London.
Main & Subordinate Clauses
In (2a), the clauses are conjoined by and
In (2b) the clauses are conjoined by but
In (2c) the clauses are conjoined by or.
In (2a–c), the conjoined clauses are all main clauses.
but subordinate clauses can also be conjoined, as we will see after
the following discussion of subordinate clauses.
6.3 Subordinate Clauses
Complex sentences consist of a main clause and one or more other
clauses subordinate to it. We begin by giving examples of the major
types of subordinate clause, complement clause, relative clause and
adverbial clause.
6.3.1 Complement clauses
Examples of complement clauses are given in (3a, b).
(3) a. Elizabeth regretted that she had met Wickham.
b. Catherine feared that the Abbey was haunted.
Main & Subordinate Clauses
These clauses were traditionally called ‘noun clauses’, because they occur in
slots in the main clause that can be occupied by ordinary noun phrases (NP)
For example:
Elizabeth regretted her actions
Catherine feared the General’s temper.
The label ‘complement clause’ reflects the relationship between the
clauses and the verb of the main clause
Elizabeth regretted and Catherine feared are incomplete pieces of syntax
which require a modifier, either a noun phrase or a complement clause,
as in (3).
Main & Subordinate Clauses
The complement clauses in (3) occur to the right of the verbs in the
main clauses, but complement clauses also occur to the left of verbs,
as in (4).
(4) That Anne was in conversation with Mr Elliott dismayed
Captain Wentworth.
The skeleton of the sentence in (4) is [ ] dismayed Captain Wentworth,
the square brackets marking the slot waiting for some constituent.
The slot could be filled by a noun phrase such as Her words but in (4)
it is filled by the complement clause That Anne was in conversation
with Mr. Elliott.
Main & Subordinate Clauses
There is one more property of complement clauses to be mentioned
here; they can modify a noun, as in (5).
(5) Fanny was delighted by the idea that she could subscribe to a
library.
The sequence Fanny was delighted by the idea is a complete clause.
The additional that she could subscribe to a library conveys the
content of the idea. It is not required to complete the syntax, but as
we will see later it is not a relative clause and has been given the label
‘complement clause’ because it fills out the meaning of the word idea.
Main & Subordinate Clauses
Other examples of noun complement clauses are given in (6), that the
committee be abolished and that we would visit Glasgow today.
(6) a. Who thought up the proposal that the committee be
abolished?
b. There was a plan that we would visit Glasgow today but the
weather is terrible.
Main & Subordinate Clauses
Clauses & Sentences
Clauses & Sentences
