1 An Introduction to Word classes
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| Subordinate Clause Type Example Temporal Ill ring you again [before I leave] David joined the army [after he graduated] [When you leave], please close the door I read the newspaper [while I was waiting] Conditional Ill be thereat nine [if I can catch the early train] [Provided he works hard], he'll do very well at school Don't call me [unless its an emergency] Concessive He bought me a lovely gift, [although he can't really afford it] [Even though he worked hard], he failed the final exam [While I don't agree with her], I can understand her viewpoint Reason Paul was an hour late [because he missed the train] I borrowed your lawnmower, [since you weren't using it] 74 [As I don't know the way], I'll take a taxi Result The kitchen was flooded, [so we had to go to a restaurant] I've forgotten my password, [so I can't read my email] Comparative This is a lot more difficult [than I expected] She earns as much money [as I do] I think London is less crowded [than it used to be] The table does not coverall the possible types, but it does illustrate many of the various meanings which can be expressed by subordinate clauses. Notice that the same word can introduce different semantic types. For instance, the word while can introduce a temporal clause I read the newspaper [while I was waiting or a concessive clause [While I don't agree with her, I can understand her viewpoint. Similarly, the word since can express time I've known him [since he was a child as well as reason I borrowed your lawnmower, [since you weren't using it In the following exercise, be aware of words like these, which can introduce more than one type of subordinate clause. 11.5 Sentences Most people recognise a sentence as a unit which begins with a capital letter and ends with a full stop (period, a question mark, or an exclamation mark. Of course, this applies only to written sentences. Sentences have also been defined notionally as units which express a "complete thought, though it is not at all clear what a "complete thought" is. It is more useful to define a sentence syntactically, as a unit which consists of one or more clauses. According to this definition, the following examples are all sentences [1] Paul likes football [2] You can borrow my pen if you need one [3] Paul likes football and David likes chess Sentence [1] is a SIMPLE SENTENCE -- it contains only one clause. Sentence [2] consists of a matrix clause You can borrow my pen if you need one, and a subordinate clause if you need one. This is called a COMPLEX SENTENCE. A complex sentence is defined as a sentence which contains at least one subordinate clause. Finally, sentence [3] consists of two clauses which are coordinated with each other. This is a COMPOUND sentence. By using subordination and coordination, sentences can potentially be infinitely long, but in all cases we can analyse them as one or more clauses. 11.6 The Discourse Functions of Sentences Sentences maybe classified according to their use in discourse. We recognise four main sentence types • declarative • interrogative • imperative • exclamative Download 0.88 Mb. Share with your friends:
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