Delahunty and Garvey
until, once, whenever. Create or find at least one sentence that con-
tains a subordinate adverbial clause introduced by each of these con-
junctions.
- Provide example sentences to demonstrate that adverbial clauses
can, like AdvPs, appear in initial, medial, and final positions. Is one or
more of these positions more common or natural? Does the status of
the clause as finite or non-finite affect its potential to occupy various
positions? - For each sentence you created or found for Exercise (1), identify the
subordinate adverbial clause from the remainder and express it as a
separate clause. - Using ten different SACs, create ten pairs of clauses that can be com-
bined so that one member of the pair becomes a subordinate adverbial
clause (e.g., When Pavlov rang his bell; Pavlov’s dogs salivated can be
combined as When Pavlov rang his bell, his dogs salivated or Pavlov’s
dogs salivated when he rang his bell. - In an authentic text (i.e., a magazine, book, journal, etc.), find
ten adverbial clauses. For each clause say whether it is a time, place,
cause, result, or conditional clause. For any conditional clauses you
find, say whether they are hypothetical or real.
finite vs. non-finite clauses
Consider now the formal differences between the italicized clauses in the
following sentences:
(51) a. We think the ghost appears at midnight.
b. We want the ghost to appear at midnight.
We can see that both are clauses since each has a subject NP (the ghost) and
a VP (appear/s at midnight). However, the italicized clause in (51a) is a finite
clause: it is in the present tense, and its subject agrees with its verb. We could
even include a modal in it:
(52) We think the ghost will appear at midnight.