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| Types of Subordinate Clauses 278
of speech resemble each other only in so far as both of them can perform certain functions in the sentence, viz. that of subject, object, or attribute. This kind of similarity can hardly be said to be a sufficient ground for classifying clauses according to parts of speech. The term "noun clause", for example, can only mean "a clause which performs in a complex sentence one of the functions which a noun can perform in a simple sentence". In a similar way, the term "adjective clause" would mean "a clause which performs in a complex sentence one of the functions that an adjective can perform in a simple sentence". This treatment of clauses does not appear to have any serious foundation, and the only consideration in favour of it, that of clauses sometimes being introduced by prepositions (as if they were nouns), is not strong enough to prove the case. We will therefore not adopt the classification of subordinate clauses based on comparing them with parts of speech. Now let us consider the principle according to which declarative and interrogative clauses (or subordinate statements and subordinate questions) are given as types. This principle has certainly something to say for itself. The difference between the subordinate clauses in the following two sentences viewed from this angle is clear enough: However, she felt that something was wrong. (M. MITCHELL) Thereafter, when they talked it over, they always wondered why they had failed to notice Scarlett's charms before. (Idem) It may accordingly be adopted as a criterion for the classification of subordinate clauses. It has a weak point, however, and this is that not every clause will fit into either of these categories. For instance, the subordinate clause in the following sentence cannot naturally be termed either a declarative or an interrogative clause: If he had been destitute and she had had money she would have given him all he wanted. (R. WEST) The clause if ... money expresses condition, it neither asserts anything nor does it ask any question. There are, of course, a number of clauses of a similar kind. It would appear, therefore, that the distinction between declarative and interrogative clauses (subordinate statements and subordinate questions) applies to certain types of clauses only and cannot be made a general principle of classification. The term "relative clause" may very well be applied to any clause introduced by a relative pronoun or relative adverb. O. Jespersen devotes several chapters of his book "A Modern English Grammar" to relative clauses. In accordance with his general view that elements of language may be divided into primaries, adjuncts, and subjuncts, he treats the syntactical functions of subordinate clauses as falling under these heads: "relative clauses as primaries" and "relative clause adjuncts". 1 1 See O. Jespersen, A Modern English Grammar, Part III, p. 52 ff., 77 if. 274 Complex Sentences F rom the viewpoint of function the subordinate clauses of these types are of course quite different, yet they may be all termed "relative clauses". This makes it evident that the notion "relative clause" is not a notion of syntactic function, since it cuts right across syntactical divisions. It is also evident that the term "relative clause" cannot be an element of any system: the clauses which are not relative do not make any kind of syntactical type which might be put on the same level as relative clauses: what unites them all is merely the fact that they are non-relative. Thus the notion of "relative clauses", which is doubtless useful in its limited sphere, as a description of a certain type of subordinate clauses characterised by a peculiarity they all share, is useless as an element of a general classification of clauses. In that respect it is no better than "declarative" or "interrogative" clauses. There remains now the classification of subordinate clauses based on the similarity of their functions with those of parts of the sentence, namely the classification of clauses into subject, predicative, object, attributive, adverbial, appositional, and parenthetical clauses. In this way the general parallelism between parts of a simple sentence and subordinate clauses within a complex sentence will be kept up; however, there is no sufficient ground for believing that there will be complete parallelism in all respects and all details: on the contrary, it is most likely that differences between the two will emerge (especially in the sphere of adverbial modifiers and adverbial clauses). Subordinate clauses may well be expected to have some peculiarities distinguishing them from parts of a simple sentence. 1 In studying the several types of subordinate clauses, we will compare them with the corresponding parts of a simple sentence, and point out their peculiarities, and the meanings which are better rendered by a subordinate clause than by a part of a simple sentence. With this proviso we proceed to examine the various types of clauses. 1 Compare Academician V. Vinogradov's remark: „Традиционная аналогия между так называемыми „придаточными" предложениями, проводимая в школьных учебниках с неуклонной и односторонней прямолинейностью, на самом деле может иметь очень ограниченное и условное значение", (В. В. Виноградов, Русский язык, стр. 706.) |