Строй современного английского языка
Download 1.77 Mb.
|
| Predicative Clauses 277
a nd that a clear blue sky was no longer a proof of a fine day. (J. AUSTEN) The conjunction and, which joins the two subordinate clauses, must be taken as a sign of their being syntactically parallel, though they are introduced by different means (as if and that respectively). Their parallelism is further shown by the use of the modifier no longer in each of them. Apparently, both clauses are predicative ones (coming as they do after the link verb seemed), and the difference in the use of conjunctions may be due to the fact that the conjunctional phrase as if, which has a more definite meaning, implying unreality, is not repeated at the opening of the second subordinate clause because the more neutral and colourless conjunction that may well be taken as a kind of substitute for it. The reason for calling these clauses predicative is that if they are dropped the sentence will be unfinished: there will be the link verb, but the predicative, which should come after the link verb, will be missing. This seems sufficient reason for terming the clause a predicative clause. We must also consider under the heading of predicative clauses the following type: "It's because he's weak that he needs me," she added. (E. JAMES) Here the subordinate clause in question is included within the construction it is . .. that and thus singled out as the rheme of the complex sentence (compare what has been said on this construction in our chapter on functional sentence perspective, p. 193). This clause would occupy a different position in the sentence if it were not singled out; for instance, the sentence just mentioned would run like this: He needs me because he's weak and the clause would be a clause of cause. As the sentence stands, however, the clause is treated as a predicative one. Sometimes we can even find two or three subordinate clauses singled out by being included into the frame it is ... that. Here is an example which may be called extreme: It was whether one loved at all, and how much that love cost, and what was its reception then, that mattered. (BUECHNER) It may be interesting to note that it would probably have been impossible to have these three clauses as subject clauses, with the predicate mattered, and without the it is ... that construction. That the three clauses are subordinate, is shown by several facts: (1) the conjunction whether, which is a sure sign of a subordinate clause, (2) the form of the predicate verb in the second subordinate clause: cost, not did cost, as it would have been in an independent clause (how much did this love cost?); as to the third subordinate clause, its subordinate status is shown by its being co-ordinated with the other two subordinate clauses by means of the conjunction and. Not infrequently there is both a subject clause and a predicative clause in a complex sentence. The only element outside these clauses is then the link verb. In such cases there is nothing in the 278 Subject and Predicative Clauses s entence that might be termed a main clause. What I am positive about is that he never expected a wife who would please the family. (SNOW) As is the rule with that-clauses of this kind, the predicative clause gives a precise definition of the idea vaguely hinted at in the subject clause. Another example of this type of sentence is taken from another modern novel: What she did not know was that in addition to liking things nice she infallibly, by her presence alone, tended to make them so. (BUECHNER) The following example is of a somewhat different kind. What I think is, you're supposed to leave somebody alone if he's at least being interesting and he's getting all excited about something. (SALINGER) The subject clause here is exactly the same type as in the preceding examples, but the predicative clause is not introduced by that, or by any subordinating conjunction, for that matter, and that may give rise to doubts about its syntactical status. It will probably be right to say that this absence of a conjunction does not basically alter the character of the clause, and it may even be taken as a stylistic variant of a syndetic predicative clause: What I think is that you are supposed. .. The semantic ties are quite obviously the same as with thai-clauses, and the difference lies in the stylistic colouring of the text. Similar questions may also arise with other kinds of asyndetic clauses. Let us, for instance, consider the following example. "I'm so hungry I could eat anything," said Prue. "Even the sternal gulf fish." (A. WILSON) If the text ran, I'm so hungry that I could eat anything, there would quite evidently be a clause of result, namely one of the type described on p. 395, introduced by the conjunction that, with the correlative adverb so in the main clause. As it is, there are no grammatical reasons to term the clause a subordinate one. Indeed, if there were a comma after hungry it would be an argument against subordination, and the clauses would look quite independent of each other. With no comma, the definition of the clause and of the sentence as a whole must necessarily remain either vague or arbitrary: the usual distinctions are neutralised here. |