Delahunty and Garvey
Clauses that function as subjects
Subordinate clauses can appear as subjects of main clauses:
(3) a. That students enjoy grammar proves my point.
b. That he fled will convince the jury of his guilt.
c. That this arrangement may not work out is very upsetting.
We can apply our usual types of tests to show that these embedded clauses
are subjects. We can replace them with ordinary NPs:
(4) a. This fact proves my point.
b. His flight will convince the jury of his guilt.
c. That possibility is very upsetting.
The pronouns that appear in this position must be in the nominative case:
(5) a. They prove my point.
b. *Them prove my point.
Notice that when the subject of a sentence is an embedded sentence, the
verb of that sentence is singular; that is, sentential subjects such as those above
are regarded as singular.
Exercise
- Create five more sentences in which a clause functions as subject.
- Apply the NP and pronoun tests described just above to demonstrate
that the subordinate clauses really are subjects.
Clauses that function as direct objects
The italicized clauses in (6) are the direct objects of the higher verb:
(6) a. John claims he has earned his first million already.
b. We believe he exaggerates a great deal.
We can demonstrate that the embedded structures in (6) (typically called
complement clauses) are the direct objects of the verbs like claim and be-
lieve by using a number of tests. The first test is that NPs substitute for them: