Clauses

The Clausal Category S

A clause (S) can occur in the following environments:

S can occur as an independent declarative clause: [_S Pat is ill.]
S follows a complementizer: [Sandy thinks that [_S Pat is ill.]]
S follows a subordinate conjunction: [Pat arrived before [_S we were fully prepared.]]

Obligatory elements:

S must contain a verb
S must contain a subject. Usually this is an NP (in nominative case), but it can also be an S ([_S That Kim is always late] bothered Pat enormously.) or a VP[inf] ([_VP[inf]To have missed the soccer game] bothered Pat enormously.)

Optional elements:

There may be adverbials at the beginning of S (Last night Pat didn't sleep well., Wisely, Pat locked the door before going to bed., According to recent studies, Germans drink more coffee than beer.)

English has 3 words whose function it is to mark that a clause is subordinate: that, whether, if.

The complementizer that introduces declarative subordinate clauses: Pat thinks [_S that [_S Sandy smokes]].
The complementizers whether and if introduce interrogative subordinate clauses: Pat asked [_S whether [_S Sandy smokes]].
The complementizer if also introduces conditional subordinate clauses: [_S If [_S Pat is ill]], we won't hold the picnic.

In constituent questions, the first constituent of a sentence typically is either
- a question word: Pat knows [_S what [_S Kim is reading at the moment]]. or
- a phrase containing a question word: Pat knows [_S which book [_S Kim is reading at the moment]].
In relative clauses, the first constituent of a sentence typically is either:
- a relative pronoun: Pat knows the author [_S who [_S Kim talks about all the time]]. or
- a phrase containing a relative pronoun: Pat knows the author [_S whose most recent book [_S Kim is reading at the moment]].

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