SYNTAX:

SUBORDINATE CLAUSES
Yana Qomariana
Based on Kroeger, Analyzing Grammar, 2005: 218-224
  In a coordi- nate structure, two constituents belonging to the
Coordination same category are con- joined to form another constituent of
that category. Such a structure is usu- ally considered to be
doubly headed, since both of the conjoined elements function
as heads of the larger unit. Some simple examples of
coordinate NPs are shown in (2):
 a [ [Snow White]np and [the seven dwarfs]NP ]NP
 b  [ [two turtle doves]np and [a partridge in a pear
tree ]NP ]NP
 c  [ [the lady]np or [the tiger]NP ]NP
Coordination

[ [the lady]NP or [the tiger]NP ]NP

 Coordination

In a coordinate sentence, two (or more) S constituents occur

as daughters and co-heads of a higher S. Each of the
daughter clauses has the internal structure of an independent
sentence, and neither is embedded in the other. Coordinate
sentences in English are normally linked by conjunctions
such as and, but, and or, as in the examples in (3).
a [ [The Archduke was murdered by a Serb nationalist]s and
[the whole world was plunged into a terrible war]s ]s
b  [ [Give me liberty]s or [give me death]s ]s
c  [ [The spirit is willing]s but [the flesh is weak]s ]s
SUBORDINATION

 A subordinate clause is one which functions as a

dependent, rather than a co-head. We will discuss
three basic types of subordinate clause:
a. Complement clauses

b. Adjunct (or Adverbial) clauses

c. Relative clauses
Subordination

Complement clauses are clauses that occur as complements of a verb; in

other words, they are required or licensed by the subcategorization
features of the verb. They typically function as the subject or object of
another clause, which is referred to as the matrix clause.

Adjunct c l a u s e s , as their name suggests, are clauses which function

as an adjunct or adverbial element of another clause.

Relative clauses are clauses which function as modifiers within an NP.

  Many verbs also allow or require a clausal complement.
 Examples (4–7) show that, for some verbs, either an NP or a
comple- ment clause may occur in the same position. The
complement clause may be either finite (i.e. tense-bearing), as in
(4b) and (5b), or non-finite as in (6b) and (7b).
(4)  a John believes [Mary’s story].
b John believes [that the airplane was invented by an
Irishman].
Complement (5)  a John told the girls [a story].
Clauses b John told the girls [that their father had won the election].
(6)  a Mary planned [her trip] carefully.
b Mary planned [for John to arrive in Dallas on New Year’s
Day].
(7)  a John promised his wife [a diamond ring].
b John promised his wife [to stop smoking].
That, for = complementizer. No (7) no complementizer
Complement Clauses: Extraposition

In normal spoken style it is usually more natural to rephrase such sentences

using a dummy subject, as in (11–13); this construction is called extraposition.
9 a [That John believes Mary’s story] surprises me. The fact that the
b [That the airplane was invented by an Irishman] is not widely complementizer and
known. the clause which it
10 a [For John to believe Mary’s story] would surprise me. introduces always
b [For the President to be re-elected] would cause panic on Wall stay together in the
Street. c ??[ For you to read this book] is necessary. extraposition
examples (11-13)
11 a It surprises me [that John believes Mary’s story].
suggests that these
b It is not widely known [that the airplane was invented by an
two elements form a
Irishman].
constituent in the
12 a It would surprise me [for John to believe Mary’s story]. Phrase Structure.
b It is necessary [for you to read this book].
13 a It disappointed the General’s supporters [that he refused to run].
b It is obvious [that Mrs. Thatcher still controls the party].
Complement Clauses:
Extraposition

 This constituent is normally labeled

S or S (pronounced “S-bar”).
 It contains two daughters: COMP
(for “complementizer”) and S (the
complement clause itself). This
structure is illustrated in the tree
diagram in (15), which represents a
sentence containing a finite clausal
complement.
 Some of the structural features that need to be considered in analyzing and comparing different
types of subordinate clause include:

Verb Form : Main clause statements and questions Word Order: A subordinate clause may be subject to
normally different word order constraints from a main clause. As
contain a finite verb. But the verb in some kinds of we mentioned in chapter 11, there is often less freedom
subordinate or variability in the word order of a subordinate clause
clause may be non-finite (e.g. an infinitive or than in a main clause.
participle), or appear in a different mood (e.g.
subjunctive); or the subordinate verb may have to be Matrix verb : Since complement clauses are selected
nominalized. (subcat- egorized for) by a specific matrix verb, it is
Subject: Certain types of subordinate clause lack a important to identify which verbs select which type of
subject NP, either obligatorily or optionally. In other clausal complement.
cases, the only permis- sible subject of the subordinate
clause is a pronoun which is co- referential with some Complementizer: Different types of complement
element of the matrix clause. Other types of subordinate clause may require different complementizers.
clause may contain an independent subject NP, just like
a main clause.
Some examples of various classes of English predicates follow.
Adjunct (or Adverbial) clauses

Adjuncts are elements which are not subcategorized by the verb,

which are added to the sentence to provide various kinds of
information.

The most common types are adverbs (27a), prepositional phrases

(27b), and adjunct clauses (27c):

• a Mary seldom makes her bed.

b Mary makes her bed on Tuesdays.
c Mary makes her bed when her mother comes to visit her.
  Many of the prepositions used in English to introduce PP
adjuncts can also be used to introduce adjunct clauses, both
finite and non-finite (participial), as the examples below:
a Mary opened her presents [before dinner].
b Mary opened her presents [before finishing her dinner].
Adjunct (or 
c Mary opened her presents [before John finished his dinner].
These prepositions are sometimes referred to as “subordinating
Adverbial) conjunctions” when they are used to introduce adverbial
clauses.
clauses  We will treat them as prepositions and assign the adverbial
clause to the category PP, as illustrated in (30). This analysis
requires us to modify our PS rules for English slightly, to allow
prepositions to take objects which belong to one of two
categories, NP or S.
 Adjunct (or Adverbial) clauses
 This analysis requires us to modify our PS rules for English slightly, to allow prepositions
to take objects which belong to one of two categories, NP or S.

There are other “subordinating

conjunctions” in English, including because,
while, if, unless, although, etc., which only
introduce adjunct clauses; they do not take
NP objects like normal prepositions.
 We are analyzing because, while, if, etc., as prepositions which
take only clausal 7 objects, similar to verbs like realize.
 A sample tree structure with an if clause is given below:
Complement and the adjunct clauses as S′
constituents

 It makes sense to treat these markers as complementizers in both

uses, analyzing both the complement and the adjunct clauses as S
′ constituents, as indicated in diagrams
Bung Karno ingin supaya [kami menolong dia].
Bung Karno want COMP 1pl.Ex help 3sg
‘Bung Karno wants us to help him.’
 Complement and the adjunct clauses as S′
constituents

Dia jual sayur supaya [anak=nya dapat bersekolah].

3sg sell vegetable c o m p child=3sg get attend.school
‘She sells vegetables so that her son can go to school.’
 Relative Clauses

 Relative clause is a clause which modifies the head noun within a noun phrase.
 E.g [The woman [that I love]S′ ]NP is moving to Argentina.
 This example illustrates the three basic parts of a relative clause construction: the head
noun (woman), the modifying clause (I love), and the relativizer (that) which links the
modifying clause to the head.
 Notice that the modifying clause is incomplete: it lacks a direct object, even though its
verb (love) requires one. Of course, the reason this example is acceptable is that the
head noun is “understood” to be the object of love.
 Thus the head noun actually has two different roles in this example: it func- tions as
the subject of the main clause, but at the same time it is interpreted as being the object
of the modifying clause.
 Restrictive Relative Clauses
 In the previous slide, the head of the relative clause (woman) is a common noun
which could refer to any one of a few billion individuals. The function of the
modifying clause is to identify (uniquely, one would hope) which particular
woman the speaker is referring to. This is a typical example of a
restrictive relative clause.
 In this construction, the reference of the NP as a whole is determined in two
stages: the head noun designates a class which the referent must belong to; and
the modifying clause restricts (or narrows) the identity of the referent to a specific
member of that class.
 Not all relative clauses work this way. A non-restrictive relative clause is one in
which the referent of the head noun can be identified inde- pendently, and the
clausal modifier simply presents additional information about that referent.
 a. Restrictive:
The police are looking for [the man who escaped from
prison yesterday].
b. Non-restrictive:
The police are looking for [Al Capone, who escaped from
prison yesterday].
Differences Thus in restrictive relative clauses, like (36a), the modifying
between clause contains old or presupposed information while the
restrictive and identity of the referent is new information. But in non-restrictive
non-restrictive relative clauses, like (36b), the identity of the referent is old
information while the modifying clause contains new
relative clauses information.
  An English Wh- word used in this way is called a relative
pronoun.
 We can define a relative pronoun cross-linguistically by
saying that it is an anaphoric element which introduces the
modifying clause and takes the head noun as its antecedent.
English relative  The crucial difference between a relative pronoun and a
clauses do not always relativizer: is that a relative pronoun is a special type of pro-
contain that. Another noun, i.e. an anaphoric NP, while a relativizer is not.
option, is to use a
Wh-word to introduce  The clearest evidence for the anaphoric nature of the relative
the modifying clause. pronoun is agreement, i.e. a change in the form of the
relative pronoun depending on some features of the head
noun (gender, number, animacy, etc.)
 NP which contains the relative clause functions as the subject of the main
clause. We might refer to this as the “external” Grammatical Relation of
the NP. At the same time, the head noun (woman) is interpreted as being
the object of the modifying clause. We will refer to this “internal”
Grammatical Relation as
 The relativized function: the Grammatical Relation that is assigned to the
head noun within the modifying clause.
 Thus the relativized function in the clause below is the direct object.
[The woman [that I love]S′ ]NP is moving to Argentina.
 But how can the hearer determine this, since the relativizer that
provides no clues? The answer is related to our earlier
observation that the modifying clause is incomplete: even
though the verb love is transitive, the modifying clause lacks a
direct object. This “missing” argument of the modifying clause
must be the relativized function. Since the modifying clause
needs an object in order to be grammatical, this relation must be
assigned to the head noun.
 This method of signaling the identity of the relativized function
is often referred to as the gap strategy, since the only clue is the
“gap” or missing argument in the modifying clause.
 The head noun is interpreted as filling this gap. What is
significant here is not merely the presence of a gap: an English
relative clause contains a gap whether or not a relative pronoun
is used, as illustrated in the following tree structure:
When there is no relative pronoun, the gap itself is the hearer’s only clue. This is the
situation we refer to as the gap strategy.
 The third commonly used strategy is pronoun retention. In this pattern, the relativized
function is represented by a pronominal “copy” of the head noun – a regular personal
pronoun which occurs inside the modifying clause and agrees with the head noun in gender
and number.
 This pronominal copy is often called a resumptive pronoun. The examples in (51) are from
Keenan (1985:146).
 For discussion on headless relative clauses & free relative clauses, pls refer to handbook
Analyzing Grammar (Kroeger, 2005: 238-240).