A Student's Introduction to English Grammar

'-SUbordination and content clauses

I Subordinate clauses 174
2 Clause type in content clauses 175
3 Declarative content clauses 175
4 Interrogative content clauses 177
5 Exclamative content clauses 180

1 Subordinate clauses

Subordinate clauses characteristically function as dependent within some
larger construction. The next higher clause in the structure is called the matrix clause.
Subordinate clauses often differ in their internal structure from main clauses.
Some typical differences are illustrated in [1]:

[I] MAIN CLAUSE SUBORDINATE CLAUSE
a. Sue is the best candidate. b. I agree that Sue is the best candidate.
II a. He was looking at a book. b. Th is is the book he was lookin� at.
iii a. I gave him my address. b. I made a mistake in �iving him m)!. address.

The underlined clause in [ib], a dependent in clause structure, is marked as sub­

ordinate by its introductory word that, which is a subordinator.

The underlined clause in [iib], a dependent in NP structure, is marked as subor­

dinate by having a missing NP, the understood object of the preposition at.

The underlined clause in [iiib], a dependent in pp structure, is marked as subor­

dinate by having its subject left understood and its verb in gerund-participle

form.

The differences are generally greater in non-finite clauses than in finite ones, so in
this and the next two chapters we focus on finite subordinate clauses (such as those
in [ib/iib)), returning to non-finites (such as [iiib)) in Ch. 13.

Content clause as the default kind of finite subordinate clause

There are three major subclasses of finite subordinate clause, illustrated in [2]:

[2] RELATIVE CLAUSE

174

II COMPARATIVE CLAUSE

III CONTENT CLAUSE

They weren't among the people who had been invited.

More people came than had been invited.

I don 't think that these people had been invited.