A Student's Introduction to English Grammar

§8 Word structure 27

construction is virtually restricted to cases where the basic subject is a subordinate
clause. It's the [a] version that matches the canonical structure of clauses with NPs as
subject, e.g., The delay was unfortunate. And [b] is (slightly) more complex in struc­
ture: it contains the extra word it.

7.6 Combinations of non-canonical features

Non-canonical clause categories can combine, so that a clause may dif­
fer from a canonical one in a number of different ways at once:

[28] CANONICAL NON-CANONICAL

a. Sue can swim. b. He says that Sue can 't swim.

ii a. Kim took the car. b. J wonder whether the car was taken bv Kim.

The underlined clause in [ib] is both subordinate and negative. The one in [iib] is
interrogative and passive as well as subordinate. (In subordinate clauses, an inter­
rogative clause of this type is marked by the subordinator whether, not by putting
the subject after the verb.)

8 Word structure

We have space for very little material on word structure here, but we
need to point out that words are made up of elements of two kinds: bases and
affixes. For the most part, bases can stand alone as whole words whereas affixes
can't. Here are some examples, with the units separated by a decimal point, bases
double-underlined, and affixes single-underlined:

[29] en·danger slow·lJ. un·lliJ1. work·il1g blackbird·s. un·gentle·man·lJ.

The bases danger, slow, and just, for example, can form whole words. But the
affixes can't: there are no words en, ly, *un. Every word contains at least one or
more bases; and a word may or may not contain affixes in addition.
Affixes are subdivided into prefixes, which precede the base to which they attach,
and suffixes, which follow. When citing them individually, we indicate their status
by putting· after prefixes (en·, un·) and before suffixes (·ly, ·ing).

Exercises

I. Divide the main clauses of the following

examples into subject and predicate.

Underline the subject and double-underline

the predicate. (For example: Th is is the

house that Jack built.)

i I think it's a disgrace.

ii The guy in that house over there works

fo r the city.

iii Most of the mistakes he made were very

minor.

iv The thing that puzzles me is why no one

called the police.