Clauses

The technical term ‘clause’ has slipped into the discussion without being explained. Suppose we want to describe different paperweights. To distinguish them, we talk of their shape, height, weight and color and the material from which they are made. Shape, height and so on are the basic units we use to describe the paperweights, but we might need other units that enable us to talk about height (inches, centimeters), weight (ounces and grams) and color (blue, green). In order to talk about syntax coherently, we need units for our analysis. One unit is the phrase, which enables us to describe the relationship between other units, namely heads and modifiers, as in the accountant, very unhappy and in behind the sofa.

Another unit is the clause, which enables us to talk coherently about the relationships between verbs and different types of phrase. An ideal clause contains a phrase referring to an action or state, a phrase or phrases referring to the people and things involved in the action or state, and possibly phrases referring to place and time. My mother bought a present is a clause. The phrase my mother refers to the buyer, bought refers to the action and a present refers to what was bought. We can add the phrase for Jeanie, which refers to the person benefiting from the action. Finally, we can tack on, or leave out, the place phrase in Jenners and the time phrase last Tuesday.

The clause is a unit which as a minimum consists of a verb and its complements but which may consist of a verb, its complements and its adjuncts. The clause is a useful unit because it gives us a framework for discussing the relationship between, for example, bought and the other phrases. We will see later that it also gives a framework for talking coherently about constituent structure, syntactic linkage and statements, questions and commands.

Note that in the last paragraph but one, one of the phrases that turned out to be adjuncts contains a preposition, in, while the other one consists of an adjective, last, and a noun, Tuesday. The example of the excursion to Jenners conveniently illustrates the lack of a reliable correlation between the type of a given phrase (does it have a preposition, noun or adjective as its head?) and the phrase’s function as complement or adjunct. Consider (7).

As in the Jenners example, the time expression on Sunday morning signals the time when the event happened. Like the phrase carrying a dead mouse, it is optional. Consider now the phrase into the kitchen and its relationship to shot. This phrase is obligatory with this particular verb. *The cat shot is not acceptable, whereas The cat shot off or The cat shot into the kitchen are correct. That is, the phrase into the kitchen is obligatory and therefore a complement of shot. It expresses direction, where the cat moved to, and directional phrases in general are complements. We must note, however, that directional phrases are not always obligatory. Consider (8)

If the phrases into the kitchen and carrying a dead mouse are excised, what is left is still an acceptable sentence, The cat pranced. Nonetheless, the directional phrase into the kitchen is treated as a complement. The reason is that the occurrence of directional phrases is closely bound up with the meaning of verbs; verbs expressing movement allow or require them. Verbs that do not express movement exclude them, as in *The cat lies onto the rug in front of the fire vs The cat lies on the rug in front of the fire. In contrast, phrases expressing the place where something happened occur with all sorts of verbs, whether or not they express movement.

At this point, we anticipate, ‘The lexicon’, and describe the state of affairs in terms of what goes into the dictionary entries of verbs; if it has to be stated in the dictionary whether a given verb or subset of verbs excludes (or requires) a particular type of phrase, that phrase is a complement. The dictionary entry for lie must state that it excludes directional phrases, whereas the entry for shoot (at least in the meaning it has in (7)) must state that shoot requires a directional phrase. The dictionary entry for prance will state that the verb allows a directional phrase but does not require one.