ClausesThe building blocks of sentences:

units of syntactic construction made of more than one phrase

Complement (C) there is a small group of verbs (copular verbs) which

are followed by a complement instead of an object

copular verbs: be, feel, seem, appear, and become

S V C Sue was feeling very sleepy

the complement provides completeness to a copular verb

This clause cannot be rearranged to give the passive clause *very sleepy was being felt by Sue

Subject complement (Cs) and object complement (Co) (p. 125)

subject complement (Cs): gives us more information about the subject S V Cs

Armstrong became the first man on the moon object complement (Co): gives us more

information about the object S V O Co

Chris made Sarah really angry

Complex-transitive verbs• complex-transitive verbs: verbs which take both a

direct object and an object complement (e.g. make)• Chris made Sara really angry

Sara is really angry• The relationship between O and Co can be

expressed using be• It is different from the relationship btw an indirect

and direct object (ditransitive verbs)

Adverbial (A) the adverbial (A) functions like an adverb and may have a

wide range of meanings generally adverbials are represented by AdvPs and PPs sometimes adverbials are represented by an entire clause adverbials are not obligatory elements of a clause only a small number of verbs require an adverbial for their

complementation (e.g. last, live, put, etc.)e.g. S V A

The game lasted almost two hours

S V O A Terry put the trash in the bin

Adverbial element orobject or subject complement? Sometimes it is hard to decide

Terry put the rubbish in the dustbin (A) Terry put the boat in danger (Co)

In danger = object complement, it describes a feature of the object (the boat)

Basic clause structures SV SVO SVOiOd

SVCs

SVOCo

SVA SVOA(see p. 128) Any clause can be analyzed in terms of

these basic structures. They all contain SV.

Active and passive clauses clauses are active or passive according to the verb

phrase included in the clause only transitive verbs can be made passive by adding

the primary auxiliary be and putting the lexical verb in the past participle

(remember that a passive verb phrase always includes one extra element if compared to the corresponding active verb phrase)

Active and passive clauses since the active voice is far more typical in English, the

passive is seen as a transformation of the active voiceS V O

Everyone admired her gardenS V A

Her garden was admired by everyone● the agent can be omitted in the passive clause● to express the agent a by-phrase is used● a by-phrase acts as an adverbial (A) at clause level

Passive clauses (see p. 130) the agent is unknown

e.g. Mr Constable has been murdered

to avoid indicating the agent (maybe you don’t wish to ascribe responsibility)

e.g. The window was broken

to focus on the affectede.g. The theory is supported by several scholars

Finite and non-finite clauses

finite clauses: V is marked for tense non-finite clauses: V is not marked for tense non-finite clauses normally occur as part of a

higher-level clause which contains a finite V non-finite clauses may or may not have a

subject, i.e. if the subject is absent it must be inferred

Non-finite clauses (p.131) to-infinitive

e.g. The aim was to explore the area bare infinitive

e.g. She made Julian wash up -ing participle

e.g. Loving wine, he moved to Tuscany -ed participle

e.g. Treated kindly, the labrador will be good

Main and subordinate clauses

within a sentence, a clause is either main (independent) or subordinate (dependent)

Any clause which has the potential to stand alone is a main clause.

A subordinate clause does not have the capacity to stand alone and is dependent on the main clause

more about main clauses a main clause always contains a finite verb

(either active or passive) and typically contains an overt subject

any clause which is non-finite is subordinate if a sentence consists of only one clause, this

must be a main clause

Clauses within clauses 6.3 - 6.7 > the five clause elements and their

functions The verb element has to be a verb phrase Other elements are less prescribed > p.125

How can clauses fulfill the function of the subject, object, complement and adverbial elements?

Any of these clauses will be a subordinate clause

Clauses within clauses

both finite and non-finite clauses may function as clause elements

the process of including non-finite clauses within finite clauses is defined as embedding

nominal clauses for S, O and C adverbial clauses for A (p. 134)

Clauses within phrases Head nouns and head adjectives can be

post-modified by a range of clause types Prepositional phrases can take clauses as

their complements

Nouns and adjectives can be post-modified by that-clauses (p. 137)

Relative clauses They only postmodify nouns and pronouns A Relative clause is normally introduced by a

relative pronoun (p. 138) Sometimes the pronoun can be omitted

(“zero relative pronoun”) Sometimes we find > preposition + pronoun

Relative clauses

the noun to which the relative pronoun refers is labeled antecedent The man who/whom/that/Ø I saw bought his shirt

there the pronoun whom is used, as an alternative to

who, when the antecedent is the object of the relative clause

every relative pronoun may be replaced by that -ing and -ed clauses may be viewed as reduced

relative clauses The man standing there seems happy

Comparative clauses post-modifiers of NPs, AdjPs and AdvPs1st type: than clause (comparison) than is used as a subordinator the head word is followed by a than-clause than clauses contain a finite verb

e.g. Louise is [more talented than her friends (are) AdjP]

2nd type: as…as clause (equivalence) as…as are used as subordinators the first as precedes the head word and the second as

introduces the post-modifying clausee.g. Bill’s reactions were not [as quick as Vanessa’s (were) AdjP]

Clauses as prepositional complements to post-modify PPs wh-clauses or -ing clauses may

be used

e.g. This is an event [for whoever is interested PP] [In trying to help PP], she made a mistake

Nominal relative clauses all nominal relative clauses begin with a wh-

word nominal relative clauses occur where NPs

occure.g. [Where to go NP] was quite a problem

She did not know [what to say NP]

Negative clauses

if the truth of a statement (affirmative clause) is to be denied, a negative clause is needed

when do + not (negative particle) is used to make a negative clause do is labeled operator Emma does not (doesn’t) like me

very often negative clauses are contracted if negative items other than not are used to form

negative clauses (e.g. nothing, no, never, nobody, etc.) the verb is always positive She said nothing about the trip

Verbless clauses verbless clauses do not contain a verb

element (V) Although unhappy with the decision,

Barbara decided to come.

“You need to decide for yourself which approach to take” (p. 145)

Homework

Read Ballard’s book, pages 124 -145 (6.6 – 6.16)

Find examples of complex clauses and post them on the blog. You can also try to analyse their structure.