A Student's Introduction to English Grammar

180 Chapter 10 Subordination and content clauses

Variants of the exhaustive conditional construction

There are two variants of the exhaustive conditional construction, one where the

interrogative clause itself realises the adjunct function, as in [12], and one where the

adjunct has the fonn of a larger phrase headed by independently, irrespective,

regardless, or no matter, as in [13].

[1 3 ] He 'll complain, [regardless of whether we meet during the week or at the week-end!.

ii He 'll complain, [no matter what you ask him to do].

Here the interrogative clauses are complements, as they are in [11] (in the case of
independently, irrespective, and regardless, complements of the preposition of).
In [12], where the interrogative clause is the adjunct, the internal fonn differs
slightly from that of interrogatives in complement function. With open interroga­
tives, the interrogative word is compounded with 'ever, as in [l2ii] - or He 'll com­
plain, whenever the meeting is held. With closed interrogatives the special feature is
less obvious: an or-coordination is obligatory. Compare these:

[14] i He 'll complain, whether we record the proceedings or not.

ii He 'll complain, regardless of whether we record the proceedings (or not!.

Or not is omissible from [ii], where the interrogative is complement, but not from

[i], where it is adjunct.

5 Exclamative content clauses

Exclamative clauses, main or subordinate, are marked by an initial

exclamative phrase containing how or what. In main but not subordinate clauses,

subject-auxiliary inversion is PERMITTED if the exclamative phrase is in non­

subject function, but it is rare. For the most part, therefore, there is no internal dif­

ference between subordinate and main exclamatives. Compare:

[15] MAIN

a. How very kind you are!

ii a. What a shambles it was!

Exclamatives as complement

SUBORDINATE

b. I told them how very kind you are.

b. I remember what a shambles it was.

Exclamative content clauses function exclusively as complements. They occur with

much the same range of complement functions as other content clauses, though they

are licensed by a far smaller set of lexemes. Examples are given in [16]:

[16] SUBJECT

ii EXTRA POSED SUBJECT

iii INTERNAL COMP OF VERB

iv COMP OF PREPOSITION

V COMP OF ADJECTIVE

What a bargain it was hadn't yet struck me.

It 's incredible how much he wanted to charge.

I'dforgotten what a fine speaker she is.

She was surprised at how ill he looked.

She was surprised how ill he looked.