3
Sentences and Clauses
Sentences
Sentences are the only groups of words that can stand alone to express complete thoughts. The key idea here is standing alone. Sentences are not dependent on some previous context or question to fill in grammatically significant missing pieces. For example, the following is a sentence because it can stand alone as a grammatically complete unit:
I would like a pizza with anchovies and pineapple.
We must be careful to distinguish sentences from fragments, which are only pieces of sentences. The problem is that, in context, fragments can be perfectly meaningful and grammatical. However, their meaningfulness and grammaticality is not their own. It is borrowed from other sentences. Here is an example of such a fragment in a dialogue:
What the customer said is a fragment. The fragment makes sense only in the context of the dialogue. The fragment is a piece of telegraphic shorthand that borrows the rest of its meaning and grammar from the waiter’s question. What the customer is really saying is this:
[I would like] a pizza with anchovies and pineapple.
Sentences never need to borrow from surrounding sentences to be grammatically complete.
Sentences also have a distinctive structure: they contain both a subject noun phrase and a verb phrase (or predicate, in traditional terms). In the example sentence just given, there is a subject noun phrase (NP) and a verb phrase:
The fragment a pizza with anchovies and pineapple lacks both a subject and a complete verb phrase.
Sentences Classified by Purpose
Sentences are used in four different ways. Up to this point, we have only looked at sentences used to make statements. But there are other ways to use sentences, for example, to ask questions, to issue commands, or to make exclamations. We will now examine in turn each of the four possible uses.
Declarative Sentences. Declarative sentences are used for making statements. Declarative sentences are always punctuated with periods. Here are some examples:
This is a declarative sentence.
Declarative sentences can be positive or negative.
Even if they contain dependent clauses, declarative sentences are always punctuated with a period.
Interrogative Sentences. Interrogative sentences are used for asking questions. Interrogative sentences must be punctuated with question marks. Here are some examples:
Do you know what an interrogative sentence is?
No, what are they?
Why did you ask?
Imperative Sentences. Imperative sentences are used to issue commands. Imperative sentences are not defined by their punctuation but by their grammar. Imperative sentences must have an understood you as the subject. They may be punctuated with either periods or exclamation points. Here are some examples:
Go away.
Cut it out!
Stop it.
Each of these examples has an implied you as the subject:
You go away.
You cut it out!
You stop it.
Exclamatory Sentences. Exclamatory sentences are actually declarative sentences that are punctuated with exclamation points for emphasis. Here are some examples:
I can’t believe I ate the whole thing!
This is really an exclamatory sentence!
Sally has no cavities!
Declarative and interrogative sentences are easy to recognize, but imperative and exclamatory sentences can be confusing because both can be punctuated with exclamation points. A mnemonic trick is to remember that exclamatory sentences can only be punctuated with exclamation points. The other thing to remember is that imperatives must have an understood you as the subject.
Clauses
A clause can be either of two types of structures:
1. Independent clause (or main clause), which can stand alone
2. Dependent clause (or subordinate clause), which is a clause that cannot stand alone and must be attached to or included within an independent clause
To cut down on terminological clutter, we will not use the redundant terms main and subordinate from now on. Instead, we will use only independent and dependent.
A sentence must contain at least one independent clause, but, in addition, a sentence may also contain one or more dependent clauses. We can think of a sentence as having this formula:
sentence = independent clause + (dependent clauses)
The parentheses around dependent clauses indicate that dependent clauses are optional.
Here is an example of a sentence containing a dependent clause (in italics) modifying the independent clause:
Louise takes her lunch whenever she has to attend a noon presentation.
The clause whenever she has to attend a noon presentation is an adverb clause that modifies the verb takes.
The independent clause can stand alone as a complete sentence, but the dependent clause cannot:
Despite differences in their ability to stand alone, clauses (both independent and dependent) are set apart from all other grammatical structures by one key characteristic: clauses must have subject-verb agreement. Here are the subjects (in bold) and the verbs (in italics) from the preceding example:
In the independent clause, the verb takes agrees with its subject Louise, and in the dependent clause, the verb has agrees with its subject she.
Most of the remainder of this chapter will focus on dependent clauses.
There are three different types of dependent clauses: adverb clauses, adjective clauses, and noun clauses. As you can probably deduce from their names, each of the three types of dependent clauses acts as a single part of speech. Adverb clauses do what adverbs always do: they modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. Adjective clauses modify nouns (and, once in a great while, pronouns). Noun clauses play the basic roles that noun phrases play: they act as subjects, objects, and predicate nominatives.
All dependent clauses have the same basic structure. They all begin with special introductory “flag” words that signal the fact that the following clauses are dependent clauses, not freestanding independent clauses. These special flag words have different names according to the type of dependent clause they introduce. (Noun clauses are unique in that they have not just one but two types of flag words.) Here are examples of each type (introductory flag words underlined, dependent clauses in italics):
The following chart elaborates on these types of clauses, followed by a more complete explanation of each.
Adverb Clauses
Adverb clauses must begin with a subordinating conjunction. As an overview, here are examples of adverb clauses in the three roles that they can play: modifying verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. The adverb clauses are in italics, and the subordinating conjunctions are in bold:
Adverb Clauses That Modify Verbs. Adverb clauses that modify verbs are by far the most common type of adverb clause. This type of adverb clause also has the largest number of subordinating conjunctions. While each individual subordinating conjunction has its own specific meaning, it is possible to group them by broad categories. Here is a list of the more common subordinating conjunctions classified by meaning (note that many subordinating conjunctions are compounded of more than one word):
Time
after
as
as soon as
before
even after
even before
since (meaning “from when”)
until
when
whenever
while
Place
everyplace
everywhere
where
wherever
Manner
as
as if
as though
Cause
as
because
inasmuch as
since
so that
Condition
if
on condition that
provided that
unless
Concession
although
even though
though
Following are some examples of adverb clauses illustrating the different categories of subordinating conjunctions (adverb clauses in italics, subordinating conjunctions in bold):
For the most part, we do not use a comma before adverb clauses. The three subordinating conjunctions of concession—although, even though, and though—are exceptions to this rule. Adverb clauses beginning with these words are always set off with commas. (The use of the comma probably reflects the fact that the clauses following these subordinating conjunctions are contrary to what we might expect to follow from the meaning of the independent clause.)
Adverb clauses that modify verbs behave very much like single-word adverbs. As you recall, one of the easiest tests for single-word adverbs that modify verbs is the adverb movement test, here slightly modified to apply to adverb clauses—adverb clause movement test:
Here is the adverb clause movement test applied to the preceding examples of adverb clauses. Note that with the exception of adverb clauses that employ subordinating conjunctions of manner—as, as if, and as though—the adverb clause movement test is highly reliable:
Also note that when adverb clauses are moved to the first position of the sentence, they are always followed by commas. This use of the comma is obligatory. According to a large study of college writing, leaving off the comma after an introductory adverb clause is the single most common punctuation error among college students.
Adverb Clauses That Modify Adjectives. Adverb clauses can only modify predicate adjectives, not adjectives used to modify following nouns. As you may recall, predicate adjectives follow linking verbs. For example, in the sentence Sally was sad, sad is a predicate adjective following the linking verb was. Adjectives used to modify following nouns cannot themselves be modified by adverb clauses. In the sentence Sally sang a sad song, sad is not a predicate adjective. Sad modifies the following noun song. There are two slightly different patterns depending on the form of the predicate adjective being modified. If the predicate adjective is not in its comparative form (that is, if it is in what is technically called its base form), then the conjunctive adverb is that. If the predicate adjective is in its comparative form, then the conjunctive adverb is than. Here are some examples of both patterns (adverb clauses in italics, predicate adjectives in bold):
Base-form predicate adjective + (that) + independent clause
We were glad (that) you could come.
I am afraid (that) it might rain this afternoon.
Harvard was certain (that) it could beat Oklahoma in football.
As the parentheses around that indicate, we can drop the conjunctive adverb that from the adverb clause. In most situations, dropping the flag word from any dependent clause is rather unusual. Dropping the that makes it somewhat harder to recognize the adverb clause for what it is since the normal subordinating conjunction flag word is missing. Nevertheless, dropping the that is both grammatical and common. Here are the same example sentences again, this time without the that. Notice how normal the sentences seem:
We were glad you could come.
I am afraid it might rain this afternoon.
Harvard was certain it could beat Oklahoma in football.
Comparative-form predicate adjective + than + independent clause
It is later than you think it is.
The dinner was more formal than I had expected it to be.
The movie was more frightening than the book was.
Recall from Chapter 1 that comparative adjectives are formed in two ways: with -er endings (soon, sooner; hard, harder) or with more (beautiful, more beautiful; upset, more upset). Adverb clauses modify both forms of comparative adjectives equally well.
Adverb Clauses That Modify Other Adverbs. Adverb clauses that modify other adverbs follow exactly the same pattern as adverb clauses that modify comparative adjectives: the adverb being modified must be in its comparative form, and the subordinating conjunction is than and cannot be deleted. Here are some examples:
Comparative-form adverbs + than + independent clause
I answered more sharply than I had meant to.
“Star Trek” ships went faster than any had gone before.
The forest fire spread more rapidly than the crews had anticipated.
Adjective Clauses
Adjective clauses (also called relative clauses) have only a single function: to modify nouns. As with adverb clauses, adjective clauses begin with a distinctive flag word that signals the beginning of the clause. In the case of adjective clauses, the flag words are a special group of pronouns called relative pronouns. The list of relative pronouns is mercifully short:
who
whom
whose
that
which
Here are examples of all five relative pronouns (adjective clauses in italics, relative pronouns in bold):
The sportscaster who is on Channel 7 has never picked a winner yet.
She married a man whom she had met at work.
I contacted the person whose car I bumped into.
I finally read the book that you told me about.
We will use my car, which has a full tank of gas.
Adjective clauses are relatively (pardon the pun) easy to identify for several reasons. First, there are only five relative pronouns to remember. Second, adjective clauses are locked into place immediately following the nouns they modify, so they can hide, but they can’t run. Third, as you might expect, the third-person pronoun test provides a powerful tool for identifying adjective clauses.
Here is the third-person pronoun test slightly modified for adjective clauses:
Following is the third-person pronoun test applied to the five examples from above:
The sportscaster who is on Channel 7 has never picked a winner yet.
He/She has never picked a winner yet.
She married a man whom she had met at work.
She married him.
I contacted the person whose car I bumped into.
I contacted him/her.
I finally read the book that you told me about.
I finally read it.
I finally read the book which you told me about.
I finally read it.
Adjective clauses are not built the same way that adverb clauses are. In adverb clauses the flag words that introduce adverb clauses are subordinating conjunctions. The subordinating conjunctions are followed by “bound” independent clauses. The subordinating conjunctions are in front of (and outside) the “bound” independent clauses. In adjective clauses, however, the relative pronouns are inside (and part of) the “bound” independent clauses. In the first example,
The sportscaster who is on Channel 7 has never picked a winner yet.
the relative pronoun who is the subject of the verb is inside the adjective clause. In the second example,
She married a man whom she had met at work.
the relative pronoun whom is the object of the verb met inside the adjective clause.
Adjective clauses have one feature that can make them a little more difficult to recognize: under certain circumstances (described a little later) the relative pronoun that begins an adjective clause can be deleted. The role that the relative pronoun plays inside the adjective clause governs when a relative pronoun may or may not be deleted.
We can see the differences in roles most easily in the who-whom-whose family of relative pronouns:
who = the subject of the adjective clause
whom = an object of the verb or of a preposition in the adjective clause
whose = a possessive pronoun modifying the noun that follows it in the adjective clause
Here are some further examples of the uses of who-whom-whose with commentary on the roles of the relative pronouns (relative clauses in italics, relative pronouns in bold):
The basic rule of relative pronoun deletion is this: only relative pronouns playing the roles of objects can be deleted; relative pronouns playing the other roles of subjects or possessives cannot be deleted.
Here are examples of valid deletion involving whom:
The deletion of whom seems perfectly routine. In conversation, we may actually prefer to delete the whom because whom may sound a little stuffy or overly formal.
Now let’s see what happens when we try to delete who and whose:
As you can see, the deletion of who and whose creates completely ungrammatical sentences.
That and which, the two remaining relative pronouns, are a little harder to work with because, unlike who and whom, they do not have endings that tell us whether they are being used as subjects or objects. Nevertheless, they follow the same basic rules about deletion: if they play the role of object, they may be deleted. However, if they play the role of subject, they cannot be deleted. Here are some examples of that and which playing both roles (adjective clauses in italics, that and which in bold):
When we attempt to delete that and which, the results are predictably ungrammatical because that and which are the subjects of the verb was:
X The car was in the left lane suddenly put on its brakes.
As expected, that and which may be deleted because they are objects of the verb driving:
The car I was driving got a flat tire.
My son’s car I was driving got a flat tire.
Restrictive and Nonrestrictive Adjective (Relative) Clauses. Adjective clauses come in two flavors: restrictive and nonrestrictive. As the name restrictive implies, adjectives have the power to restrict or limit the meaning of the nouns they modify. Here is an example from above of an adjective clause used restrictively:
The car that I was driving got a flat tire.
A major part of the function of the adjective clause that I was driving is to identify which car got a flat tire—it was the car that I was driving, as opposed to the car that somebody else was driving. Adjective clauses that play this defining or restricting role are called, not surprisingly, restrictive clauses.
Nonrestrictive adjective clauses, conversely, do not have this defining function. Nonrestrictive adjective clauses give information that can be interesting or even highly significant, but the information does not serve to define which noun it is that we are talking about. Here is an example of a sentence containing a nonrestrictive adjective clause (in italics):
My Uncle Harry, who is an absolute loony, always overstays his welcome.
Now, my Uncle Harry would still be my Uncle Harry even if he were not an absolute loony. In other words, the information in the adjective clause (interesting as it is) does not serve to tell us which Uncle Harry we are talking about. I only have one Uncle Harry. The fact that he is an absolute loony does not serve to distinguish one Uncle Harry from another. Therefore, the adjective clause is nonrestrictive.
The distinction between restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses affects the choice between that and which. In nonrestrictive clauses, which is nearly always used now instead of that (though this was not always the case). For example, compare the following uses of which and that in a nonrestrictive clause. Notice how strange the use of that sounds:
Our house, which we just repainted, was damaged in the storm.
? Our house, that we just repainted, was damaged in the storm.
In restrictive clauses, the matter is not so clear-cut. Historically, that and which were always used interchangeably, as in the following quote from the Authorized (King James) Version of the Bible (1611):
Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.
However, the increasingly strong preference for which in nonrestrictive clauses led commentators at the end of the nineteenth century to advocate using that in restrictive clauses so that restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses would be consistently marked: that in restrictive clauses and which in nonrestrictive.
Most style sheets and editors (including the editors of this book) strongly recommend using only that in restrictive clauses. In fact, many published writers use which in restrictive clauses. (One study found that fully 25 percent of the uses of which in edited, published writing are used to introduce restrictive clauses.)
Bottom line? Because the folks who use both that and which in restrictive clauses don’t care which you use, you might as well use only that in restrictive clauses to make happy the folks who do care (often deeply).
We distinguish restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses in writing by putting commas around the nonrestrictive ones. The trick, of course, is knowing when adjective clauses are nonrestrictive. The section “Commas with Adjective Clauses” in Chapter 11 deals with this problem in detail.
Noun Clauses
Noun clauses are the most complicated and sophisticated of the three types of clauses. Children learn to use noun clauses substantially later than the other two types of clauses. Abstract and technical writing abounds in noun clauses. Noun clauses give us the ability to take a whole sentence and compact it down into a unit that we can use as a subject or an object in the independent clause. Noun clauses are a bit of a double-edged sword. The ability to use noun clauses is one of the hallmarks of sophisticated writing. However, overuse of noun clauses leads to leaden, deadly dull writing. (Think of textbooks in education.)
A noun clause is a dependent clause used as a noun phrase. Noun clauses can play the basic noun phrase roles of subject, object of verbs, object of prepositions, and predicate nominative, for example (noun clauses in italics):
Because noun clauses always play the role of noun phrases, they can be identified the same way that noun phrases are: by the third-person pronoun test. Noun clauses have another property that we can take advantage of: they are always singular. This means that we can always replace noun clauses with singular third-person pronouns. Furthermore, because noun clauses are always a kind of abstraction, we can replace them with the pronoun it. Here is the third-person pronoun test modified for noun clauses:
Following is the it test applied to the four preceding example sentences:
Noun clauses, like the other two types of clauses, have flag words that signal the beginning of the clause. Noun clauses are a bit different from the other two types of clauses in that there are two different sets of flag words, creating two slightly different kinds of noun clauses. Strangely enough, neither set of flag words has a conventional name in traditional grammar. In many modern grammar books they are called that type and wh- type (for reasons that will soon become apparent). Accordingly, the two different types of noun clauses are called that type noun clauses and wh- type noun clauses.
The two different groups of noun clauses behave the same way, but how the two types of clauses are constructed is different. In that type noun clauses, the flag word is outside the “bound” independent clause (as in adverb clauses). In wh- type noun clauses, the flag word is inside the “bound” independent clause (as in adjective clauses). For this reason, we will discuss the two groups separately.
That Type Noun Clauses. By far the most common flag word in this group is that. The other three are if, whether, and whether or not. Here are examples of that type noun clauses playing all four noun phrase roles (noun clauses in italics, flag words in bold):
That type noun clauses are built like adverb clauses in that the flag word is put in front of a “bound” independent clause, and the flag word plays no grammatical role inside the “bound” independent clause:
that type noun clause = that type flag word + “bound” independent clause
The flag word if poses a special problem. Noun clauses beginning with if are easily confused with adverb clauses, which can also begin with if. Here are a pair of examples of the two different kinds of clauses, both beginning with if (clauses in italics, flag words in bold):
As you can see, these two if clauses are absolutely identical in wording. What is not identical is their relationship to the independent clause. Fortunately, we have reliable tests for both types of clauses that clearly show the differences between the uses of the if clauses in the two sentences.
For noun clauses, we have the third-person pronoun test:
When we apply the third-person pronoun test to the adverb clause, the result is ungrammatical because the it is replacing an adverb clause, not a noun clause:
I will meet you there if I can come.
X I will meet you there it.
Conversely, when we apply the adverb clause movement test to both sentences, the noun clause fails and the adverb clause passes:
As we would expect, the adverb clause moves quite naturally:
Wh- Type Noun Clauses. Wh- type noun clauses got their peculiar name from the fact that nearly all the flag words happen to begin with the letters wh. Wh- words are unique among flag words in that they belong to different parts of speech. Here are the most common wh- words classified by their parts of speech. Notice that many of the wh- words can be compounded with -ever:
The last two words on the list, how and however, do not actually begin with wh-. We will treat them as honorary members of the wh- family. The following is a set of wh- type noun clauses in the four main noun roles (noun clauses in italics, wh- words in bold):
Wh- type noun clauses are built like adjective clauses in that wh- words (like relative pronouns in adjective clauses) are inside the “bound” independent clause. Thus, the wh- word must play some grammatical role within the “bound” independent clause. Let us look again at the four example sentences, this time focusing on the grammatical role of the flag word:
Whatever you decide is fine with us. (Whatever is the object of the verb decide.)
I know where we can get a good pizza. (Where is an adverb of place modifying the verb get.)
We were aware of which choices were open to us. (Which is an adjective modifying the noun choices, the subject of the verb were open.)
The situation is what we expected it would be. (What is the predicate nominative complement of the verb be.)
The distinction between the function of the wh- word inside the noun clause and the function of the noun clause as a whole in relation to the rest of the independent clause can be quite confusing. For example, in the following sentences, which is correct, whoever or whomever?
We will sell it to whoever bids the highest.
We will sell it to whomever bids the highest.
At first glance, we might think the answer is whomever because whoever is the object of the preposition to. Wrong! The right answer is whoever. The object of the preposition to is not the wh- word, but the entire noun clause whoever bids the highest. Inside the noun clause, whoever is the subject of the verb bids. We might imagine the sentence this way:
We will sell it to [noun clause].
Think of noun clauses as islands. Their internal grammatical relationships are not affected by anything that takes place off the island.
Using Conjunctive Adverbs to Join Independent Clauses
Conjunctive adverbs are words used to show how the ideas in the second of two closely related sentences relate to the meaning of the ideas in the first sentence. Conjunctive adverbs can be roughly sorted into three groups depending on how the second sentence is related to the first sentence:
1. The ideas in the second sentence expand or elaborate on the ideas in the first sentence (what we have called the “In Addition” group of conjunctive adverbs).
2. The ideas in the second sentence spell out the results or consequences of the first sentence (what we have called the “As a Consequence” group of conjunctive adverbs).
3. The ideas in the second sentence are somewhat contrary to what you might expect to follow from the first sentence (what we have called the “On the Other Hand” group of conjunctive adverbs).
Here are examples of the common conjunctive adverbs arranged by meaning:
Here are some examples of independent clauses joined by one example of each type of conjunctive adverb (in bold):
The first thing to notice in these examples is the punctuation. The first of each of the two independent clauses in the examples is punctuated with either a semicolon (;) or a period. It is not correct to use a comma to join two independent clauses without a coordinating conjunction. The presence of the conjunctive adverb changes nothing. Conjunctive adverbs are not conjunctions. They are adverbs, and adverbs by themselves have no power to join independent clauses with a comma. Just using a comma (with or without a conjunctive adverb) to join independent clauses is a common punctuation error called a comma splice. Also notice that conjunctive adverbs are always followed by commas.
Conjunctive adverbs are easily confused with subordinating conjunctions—flag words used to signal the beginning of adverb clauses. Here are two sentences that illustrate the problem (flag words in bold):
How can we tell which flag word is the conjunctive adverb and which is the subordinating conjunction without memorizing tediously long lists of flag words? The adverb clause movement test is a simple and completely reliable way of telling them apart. When we apply the test to the two sentences, we get completely different results:
As you can see, the independent clause beginning with the conjunctive adverb consequently cannot be moved in front of the first independent clause because it is not an adverb clause. Conversely, the adverb clause beginning with after moves quite easily.
Conjunctive adverbs have another property that helps distinguish them from subordinating conjunctions. Conjunctive adverbs are adverbs, and, as is often the case with adverbs, they can be moved around inside their clauses. They can be moved next to the verb and sometimes to the end of their clause. Here are some new example sentences containing conjunctive adverbs (in bold) with the conjunctive adverb moved:
The accident ruined the experiment; moreover, some equipment was damaged.
The accident ruined the experiment; some equipment, moreover, was damaged.
The accident ruined the experiment; some equipment was damaged, moreover.
The accident ruined the experiment; therefore, I had to start all over again.
The accident ruined the experiment; I had, therefore, to start all over again.
The accident ruined the experiment; I had to start all over again, therefore.
The accident ruined the experiment; nevertheless, I could still see that it would work.
The accident ruined the experiment; I could still see, nevertheless, that it would work.
The accident ruined the experiment; I could still see that it would work, nevertheless.
The punctuation is essentially the same no matter where the conjunctive adverb is. The two sentences must still be separated by either a period or a semicolon, and the conjunctive adverb must be set off from the rest of its sentence by commas.
When we attempt to move a subordinating conjunction around inside its clause, the result is completely ungrammatical:
John was in an accident after he took drivers’ education.
X John was in an accident he took after drivers’ education.
X John was in an accident he took drivers’ education after.
Sentences Classified According to Structure
Traditional grammar has a special terminology for describing the clause structure of sentences. If a sentence consists of a single independent clause with no dependent clauses, it is called a simple sentence. If a sentence contains two or more independent clauses but no dependent clauses, it is called a compound sentence. If a sentence contains a single independent clause and one or more dependent clauses, it is called a complex sentence. If a sentence contains two or more independent clauses and at least one dependent clause, it is called a compound-complex sentence. We may represent these various configurations as follows:
simple sentence = independent clause
compound sentence = independent clause + independent clause
complex sentence = independent clause + dependent clause(s)
compound-complex sentence = independent clause + independent clause + dependent clause
Here are examples of the four possibilities:
