Beyond the Clause

1. Simple, compound and complex sentences

2. Content clauses, relative clauses and adverbial clauses

2.1 Content clauses

Type of clause	Example	Subordi-nators	Clause as direct object	NP as direct object	Clause as subject	NP as subject
Declarative	I've seen it before.	that ø	I didn't know (that) you'd seen it before.	I didn't know that.	That you've seen it is no secret.	My plans are no secret.
Interrogative	Is it true?	whether if	I asked him whether/ if it was true.	I asked him a question.	Whether/ *If it is true remains uncertain.	It remains uncertain.
	Where did they park the car ?	wh-	I asked where they'd parked the car.	I asked a question.	Where they parked the car is no secret.	This fact is no secret.
Jussive (imperative, expressive a command or order)	Take a day off!	that	I suggest that you (should) take a day off.	I suggested a solution.	—
Exclamative	What an interesting book !	what	I didn't know what an interesting book it was.	I didn't know it.	It surprised everyone what an interesting book it was. (extraposed)	Her attitude surprised everyone.
	How boring it is !	how	You cannot imagine how boring it was !	You cannot imagine that!	It shocked me how boring it was. (extraposed)	Their impoliteness shocked me.

2.2 Relative clauses

Restrictive			Non-restrictive
My brother who lives in Spain got married.			My brother, who lives in Spain, got married.
Not preceded by comma			Preceded by comma
When the relative pronoun does not occur in the subject position it can be omitted.			The relative pronoun cannot be omitted.
Relative pronouns: who whom whose which	that that that	ø ø ø	Relative pronouns: who whom whose which

3. Finite vs. non-finite clauses

Type	Subtype	Verb form	Clause as object	Clause as subject
Infinitival	Bare-infinitival	do	She helped me solve the problem.
	To-infinitival	to do	I want to solve the problem.	To solve this problem is essential.
Participial	Present participial	doing	I like solving problems.	Solving problems is my job.
	Past participial	done	I had the problem solved.

4. Nominal clauses, adjectival clauses and adverbial clauses

5. Clauses as constituents in verb complementation

6. Degrees of clause integration

(minimal integration, juxtaposition, coordination, subordination, complementation, maximal integration)

Verbal Categories

1. Verbal categories — general

Table to be filled in gradually:

Category		Exists in English?	Semantic contrasts	Formal contrasts	Other means of expressing
Agreement categories	Person
		Number
		Gender
Tense
Aspect
Mood
Voice
Valency/ valence

2. Tense

2.1 Tense vs. time. Temporal contrasts vs. tense contrasts. Markedness.

2.2 Epistemic status of futurity

2.3 Present tense and past tense

Present tense	Past tense
The occurrence of a full instantiation of the profiled process (=the process designated by the verb) coincides with the time of speaking.	The occurrence of a full instantiation of the profiled process (=the process designated by the verb) is prior to the time of speaking.

2.4 Tense as a deictic category. Deixis.

2.5 Meanings associated with the English present tense and past tense

• The English Present Tense — some examples

In each of the sentences below consider the clause `he buries it.' Is it

1. habitual

2. generic

3. a stage direction

4. an event scheduled for some time in the future

5. the “historical present”

6. part of a play-by-play account

7. a hypothetical occurrence

For each of the uses above suggest a motivation.

1. The king is sad because his favourite dog has just died. He buries it tomorrow at a state funeral.

2. If he buries it, he will never find it again.

3. Yorick walks to centre stage. He picks up a skull. He examines it. He buries it.

4. Whenever I give Fido a bone, he buries it.

5. McHale passes to Bird. Bird moves out to 3-point range. He shoots. He buries it.

6. What does a paranoid miser do with his money? He buries it.

7. I'm sitting on the porch yesterday and this suspicious-looking guy comes into my yard carrying a sack. He buries it. Then he looks up and sees I'm watching.

Based on Langacker (1991: 262-3)

2.6 Problems with the English present tense

3. Aspect

3.1 Semantic distinctions

• Perfectivity and imperfectivity as verb semantics/ as verb use

Perfective verbs can be seen as analogous to count nouns and imperfective verbs to mass nouns, but in both cases these are not strict classifications but rather contextual interpretations:

Noun/ Verb	Count/ Perfective	Mass/ Imperfective
carpet	I bought a carpet.	We need four meters of carpet to cover the floor.
chocolate	A box of chocolates.	A bar of chocolate.
surround	The soldiers surrounded the house.	A dozen old trees surrounded the house.
see	I see her every Tuesday.	I see it clearly now.
have	She has lunch at 1 p.m.	She has a dog.
smell	I smelt a rose.	The rose smelt beautiful.
Semantic characteri-sation	Bounded Replicable non-homogeneous non-contractible	Unbounded non-replicable homogeneous contractible
Processes	A perfective process profiles some kind of change through time, prototypically a physical action involving the transmission of energy.	An imperfective process describes the extension through time of a stable situation.

3.2 The English Progressive Construction

The progressive aspect converts a temporally

compact bounded event, terminated	into	a diffuse unbounded process, ongoing
one that has sharp temporal boundaries		which thus resembles a state.

3.2.1 The progressive aspect represents a stative semantic perspective on an otherwise non-stative event. Its use does not imply that the event per se was unbounded or diffuse, but rather that from the perspective of the speaker, the event is described in the middle of happening, with its boundaries disregarded and it temporal span accentuated.

3.2.2 Progressive aspect offers thus an internal perspective on an event: to watch it unfold rather than view it holistically as a unitary entity.

3.2.3 When the event is super-compact (=of very short duration), then the progressive aspect assumes an iterative interpretation (=a progression of repeated acts).

3.2.4 Using progressive aspect with typically imperfective verbs is possible when the situation is conceived as changing in some way or the period of stability is regarded as a bounded episode rather than something expected to continue indefinitely.

3.2.5 Conversely, any perfective verb may be construed as generic or habitual and thus rendered imperfective.

3.3 The English Perfect Construction

The English tenses (present and past) directly situate the profiled process with respect to the time of the speech event. By contrast, the perfect construction invokes a temporal reference point and indicates that the process designated by the content verb is prior to that reference point.

References:

Huddleston, Rodney. 1988. English Grammar: An Outline. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Langacker, Ronald W. 1991. Foundations of Cognitive Grammar Vol. 1. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.

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