The Clause as CPVerbs such as wish, prey, plead, demand, indicate, signal, etc. all seem to behave in
this way. Obviously, for these verbs there is no question that they take CP
complements.
Others take non-finite clause complements that never have a complementiser:
(15) a I tried [ - to spread the butter]
b *I tried [for - to spread the butter]
Verbs such as attempt, have (= be obliged), promise, wish, prey, plead, demand, etc.
all behave like this.
Note that some of these verbs are in the other category as well. However there is a
difference, verbs in the try category take non-finite complements with missing subjects
and those in the hope category take non-finite complements with overt subjects. Thus
there seems to be a correlation between when the complement clause has an overt
subject and when it has an overt complementiser. We will go into this in more detail in
the next chapter, but it can be argued that clauses with covert subjects must be CPs
with a covert complementiser position:
(16) I attempted [CP ∆ - to cut the tomatoes]
One class of verb takes a non-finite clause complement that has an overt subject:(17) he believes [Troy to be trouble]
In the next chapter we will argue that these are exceptional verbs and do not behave
like the others in that they take IP non-finite complements. Exceptions aside however,
the conclusion is that the majority of non-finite complement clauses seem to be, like
the finite ones, CPs. Hence a general conclusion seems to be that complement clauses
are always CPs.
This leaves main clauses. As pointed out in (11b), these never have overt
complementisers. However, given that covert complementisers seem to be a possibility
it is reasonable to ask whether main clauses are CPs which have an obligatory covert
complementiser, or whether they are just IPs with no space for a complementiser. The
issue is complicated unfortunately. On the one hand, there are some main clauses that
have to be argued to be CPs, as we shall see a little later. Thus, on general grounds it
seems reasonable to assume that all clauses are CPs. Moreover, if the role of the
complementiser is to indicate the force of a sentence, and main clauses without
complementisers have a force interpretation, then it might be argued that there must be
a complementiser to provide this aspect of clausal semantics. On the other hand, most
linguists accept that ‘exceptional clauses’ lack complementisers and these also have a
force interpretation and so it seems that there is a way for this to be introduced in the
absence of a complementiser, which undermines the argument that main clauses must
have complementisers because they have a force interpretation.
If we assume that main clauses are CPs we need an explanation as to why their
complementisers are obligatorily covert. But if we assume that main clauses are
merely IPs, we must account for why the CP is obligatorily banned. All in all then, it is
hard to decide on the issue. In this book, we will take the fairly standard view that all
clauses are CP (except for the exceptions) and hence we assume that main clauses
have obligatorily covert complementisers by a general principle.