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Clauses, Object, Adverbial element, Non-finite clauses, Main and…
Clauses
A clause is a unit of syntactic construction. As phrases are formed from words, clauses are formed from phrases.A clause is a larger unit than a phrase. The unit of construction is larger than the clause is the sentence, which will consist of one or more clauses.
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The most important element in a clause is its verb element. Typically, a clause contains a verb phrase which is finite and which is active rather than passive.
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Clauses are made up of a combination of clause elements, each one having a different function within the clause:
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Object
It typically occurs after the verb element. Whereas all verbs can be preceded by a subject, only some verbs need to be followed by an object element.
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Like the subject element, it usually is a noun phrase.
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Adverbial element
It is so called because it works like an adverb: its position is less fixed than that of the other clause elements.
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It can occur in various positions. They are not obligatory: they could be removed without any loss of meaning.
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Non-finite clauses
They normally occur as part of a higher level clause which does contain a finite verb, since when a clause is non-finite, it doesn't sound grammatically complete.
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They may or may not have a subject element whereas finite clauses typically have a subject preceding the verb.
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Subject
It typically occurs before the verb element (in subject position). It is very likely to be noun phrase. A clause can also occur in subject position.
When it or there are used in this way, they are called dummy subject.
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Verb
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The lexical verb present in the verb phrase will dictate what obligatory elements will follow the verb. So, there is a close relationship between the lexical verb and the rest of the clause.
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Nominal relative clauses share features of both nominal and relative clauses. All nominal relative clauses begin with a wh-word.
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Negative clauses
They are usually done using the negative particle not, which is added to the verb phrase.
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- If the lexical verb is be and the verb phrase contains only the lexical verb, than the negative particle will occur after the verb.
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- If the verb phrase contains auxiliaries, the negative particle is added after the first auxiliary.
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Clauses and sentences can also include negative items other than the negative particle, such as never, no, nothing, nobody.
Clauses within phrases
Head nouns and head adjectives can be postmodified by a range of clause types and how prepositional phrases can take clauses as their complements.
Both nouns and adjectives can be postmodified by that-clauses and the verb in the clause will be finite.
Relative clauses only postmodify nouns and pronouns. The relative pronoun has the function of referring back to a preceding noun (the antecedent)
The comparative clause can occur in both adjective and noun phrases. There are two types of comparative clauses:
1) the first type expresses comparison and uses than as a subordinator. In noun phrases and in adverb phrases, the head noun will be premodified by more or less.
Victoria did less homework than she intended. Louise is more talented than her friends. Bill drove more carefully than his wife.
2) the second type expresses equivalence, thanks to the subordinators as...as