10 Subordination and content clauses
That is inadmissible in a clause that is complement to a preposition like befo re in
[ii]. Most prepositions exclude that; there are only a very few (such as notwith
standing, in order, and provided), which allow it.
Elsewhere, that is in general optional, as we see in [iii]. It is more likely to be
omitted in informal than in formal style, and it is more likely to be omitted after
short and common verbs than after longer and less frequent ones. For example,
in This will demonstrate that it is genuine the subordinator would probably not
be omitted.3.2 Declaratives as complement
Declarative content clauses mostly function as complement of a verb,
noun, adjective, or preposition. The range of complement functions is illustrated
in [5]:
[5] SUBJECT That they refused didn 't surprise us.
u EXTRA POSED SUBJECT It didn 't surprise us that they refused.
III { I ",a/i" that you fuel in,ulled.
IV INTERNAL COMP OF VERB She informed me that she had been insulted.
v The problem is that we iust can 't atlord it.
VI COMPOF NOUN Yo u can 't ignore the fa ct that he was drunk.
vu COMP OF ADJECTIVE I'm glad that you could come.
Vlll CO MP OF PREPOSITION Yo u can go provided that you are careful.
In [i] the content clause is subject. It is licensed by surprise.
In [ii] we see a much more frequent kind of case than [i], but synonymous with
it: the subordinate clause is extraposed (see Ch. 15, §3.1).
In the next three examples, the content clause is internal complement to the
verb of a clause: in [iii], the sole complement of realise; in [iv], the second com
plement of inform; and in [v], the complement of be in its specifying sense.
In the next two the content clause is complement to the nounfact ([vi]) and the
adjective glad ([vii]).
Finally in [viii] the content clause is complement of a preposition. As noted
above, most prepositions disallow that, but provided (historically derived from
the past participle of a verb) is one of the few that allow it.l3.3 The mandative construction
One special construction with a declarative content clause as complement
is the mandative. This term is based on the element mand that is found in demand and
mandatory, two lexemes that license mandative complements. The meaning of
I The tenn 'content clause' is not used in traditional grammar. The clauses that function as comple
ments are traditionally called 'noun clauses', but this is a highly misleading tenn. Content clauses
aren't nouns, and it should be clear from the examples in [5] that they don't behave like nouns or NPs.
Most importantly, nouns and NPs don't nonnally function as extraposed subject, or as complement to
a noun or an adjective.