Clauses

This chapter discusses clauses. A clause contains a finite verb that acts as the head of a verb phrase (which functions as a predicate) and a nominal functioning as the subject of the verb, such that, in White Mainstream English, the subject nominal and the verb agree in number and person. The predicate must include all complements required by the verb. Clauses may be independent (i.e. a sentence) or dependent. The three kinds of dependent clauses are each marked by a special class of word: adjective (“relative”) clauses usually begin with a relative pronoun or other relative pro-word; noun clauses begin with expletives ( that , whether , if ) or wh—words; and adverb (“subordinate”) clauses begin with subordinating conjunctions. In English, the default clause order is Subject-Verb-Complement (SVC), but we routinely rearrange that order: in independent clauses to create questions or inversions, and in dependent clauses to move a relative pro-word or other wh-word from its functional slot in the SVC order to the front of the clause to mark the beginning of the clause and connect it to its container.