A Guide to English Grammar: Clauses and Adverbials
Ing-clauses Controlling Verbs
Progress in Activity
In conversation: keep (or repeated shows a continuous action, a more informal synonym is go on), start and stop (show the beginning or ending of an activity), or aspect of manner verbs.
Academic prose: be used for.
Fiction: Manner or aspect of verbs, verbs start and stop and the more formal-sounding begin, go, eat, sit, stand and described manner. Verbs used to see and hear (describe the perception of an activity).
News and academic prose: describes processes that have verbs and states (be used for, involve) and effort (be achieved by/with).
News: Important for using ing-clauses with verbs having to do with criminal offenses and punishments (accused of, charged with). Some verbs show facilitation or effort (help, try).
Ellipsis and Substitution in Complement Clauses
Ellipsis in Post-Predicate To- and Wh-Clauses
Various forms of ellipsis and substitution can be used with post-predicate complement clauses when the subject is clear from the preceding discourse. Ellipsis can happen to-clause with wh-clause and, when the complement clause is omitted but the complementizer (to or a wh-word) is retained, e.g. The jar broke. How did it? (How did the jar break?)
Ellipsis with complement clauses is more common with verbs in conversation and although most verbs allow ellipsis to occur, not many of them do so frequently. The most common: want + to: take on if you want to. Know + wh-why: The boys fought yesterday – I do not know why… Try + to (normally the modal verb would follows): Will you try to ride? I would like and remember occur to. Wonder wh-clause with ellipsis: What frightened… I remember/She wonders why… That clauses: Involves the omission of the whole complement clause, including the complementizer that, this ellipsis is found very common with such verbs as know, think and guess (AME): Mum is going shopping this afternoon, I’ll have to take. Yes, I know.
Substitution in Post-Predicate That-Clauses
Substitution can also happen with post-predicate that-clauses, so or the substitute form not (less common than so, frequently occurs with hope and guess: I hope not) takes the place of the whole clause, e.g. Do you know if…? I do not think so… There are only a few verbs that allow substitution for a that-clause, it occurs normally with think + so, and it is most common in conversation. The subject is normally a first-person pronoun, and the speaker does not have preceding certainty about the idea. Hope, suppose, and guess are also used with substitution to express an attitude, e.g. You are not allowed to enter there with food. I suppose so. Say is used for indirect speech, especially in fiction: …I said so, undoubtedly.
Choice of Complement Clause Type
The four types of complement clauses: that, to-, ing- and wh-clauses can occur in many ways and are interchangeable. They can complement verbs and adjectives and they occur in different positions. There are some factors to take into account for choosing one rather than the other:
Lexical factors: Almost any transitive verb can take a wh-clause, the others are more restrictive, e.g. remember, control and believe allow all four clause types, whereas guess and conclude only allow that clauses. Finish can control only ing-clauses and to-clauses.
Semantic factors: To-ing-clauses and wh-clauses combine with a large number of verbs expressing many different types of meaning, in contrast with that-clauses that combine with relatively few verbs.
Register factors: Complementary finite clauses (that-clauses and wh-clauses) are most common in conversation and rare in academic prose. Complementary non-finite clauses (to-clauses and ing-clauses) are most common in fiction and extremely rare in conversation.
Structural factors: The majority of finite complement clauses occur in post-predicate position after verbs, a much higher proportion of to-clauses and ing-clauses follow adjectives. Extraposed subject predicative constructions and constructions are more common with that clauses than with to-clauses. Extraposed to-clauses are more common with verbs than with adjectives.
Positions of Adverbial Clauses
Can happen normally in initial and final positions (the most frequent), e.g. Didn’t she go to the pub after work / After work she went to the pub. Short clauses also occur in medial position, e.g. Can you eat an ice-cream after dinner if you behave.
Common Functions of Initial Adverbial Clauses
Cohesion and information structure: In this position adverbial clauses can be important for the flow of information in a text since they contain information that has been previously mentioned in the preceding discourse, e.g. The book you’re looking for is on the shelf, leave it after reading where it was.
Framing subsequent discourse: Is another role of initial adverbial clauses, their role is to set the scene for one or more following clauses, e.g. When the kids finish school, they like going to the park. The adverbial clauses in final position add important new circumstantial information to the end of the main clause: We’ll go to the park when you finish school.
Positions of Circumstance Adverbials
Why Choose Final Position?
Completing the meaning of verbs: Many circumstance adverbials complete the meaning of the verbs, some of them are obligatory and must be placed in final position, e.g. Ann was in the room. Many optional adverbials have scope over the verb rather than the whole clause: We firmly shut the windows.
Ordering adverbials in final position: It is usual that more than one adverbial occurs in final position, the place of these adverbials partly depends on the semantic category of the adverbial. The three common categories of place, time, and manner follow the so-called MPT rule: I have worked hard on the farm every day. When the examples go against the MPT rule it is normally for information flow (the new information goes at the end) or for end-weight (the short adverbial is placed before the longer one).
Why Choose Initial Position?
Information flow: Following the expected information structure of English, the new information is placed after the given one, e.g. The wind was blowing strongly, at that moment.
Scope over the entire clause: Adverbials in initial position normally have scope over the whole clause, e.g. Immediately, we phoned the police.
Setting the scene (in place or time): Initial place and time adverbials often have scope over subsequent clauses, since they introduce a new scenario, e.g. Last week…
Why Choose Medial Position?
Both, addition/restriction and degree adverbials occur more often in this position. They have scope only over a particular part of the clause; they are normally adverbials of one or two words. Also some time adverbials are common in medial position.
Addition/restriction: They are related to a particular part of the clause and medial positions can show the scope of the adverbial, e.g. I was only asking. The addition/restriction adverbials do not always immediately precede the element they focus on: Tom and Sam do not know each other well. They have met only eleven times.
Degree: With many degree adverbials medial placement is equally important: I was quite a long way from London. Other degree adverbials such as very much are more common in final position: I did not like that food very much.
One-word adverbials of time: (Time: yesterday, now…) Frequency (always, often, never, rarely) occurs more commonly in medial position and they are normally placed before a single main verb, e.g. Rarely she wears her clothes twice.
Additional Circumstance Semantic Categories of Adverbial Clauses
There are some additional distinctions of circumstance adverbials meaning that are clauses:
Clauses of condition: They can be divided into three subtypes:
- Open condition: The clause does not say if the condition expressed in the if clause is fulfilled or not, e.g. If it rains on Sunday we will not be able to go for a walk.
- Hypothetical: (also called unreal) condition: The condition implies that is not fulfilled: If I had had an umbrella I would not have got wet / If I could mend this…
- Rhetorical condition: It takes the form of a condition, but combined with the main clause, they actually make a strong (unconditional) assertion, e.g. I know it does not work, but if you don’t believe me, try it.
Clauses of Preference, Proportion, and Supplement
Other semantic categories that can fulfill clauses are:
- Preference: Clauses can be used to show preference: I prefer using the bikes rather than the car.
- Proportion: These clauses often begin with the + comparative + and and require the comparative in the main clause, e.g. The sooner you do it the better.
- Supplement: These clauses complement the information in the main clause, although the exact semantic relationship (e.g. of time, reason, or condition) varies. They are normally non-finite, especially ing- and ed-clauses. E.g. Overcome by fear, I panicked.
Subordinators with Circumstance Adverbial Clauses
Finite adverbial clauses normally need a subordinator, the most common subordinators with finite adverbial clauses are: time (when, as, after, before, while, until, since). Manner (as, as if, as though). Reason (because (cos), since). Concession (though/even though, although, while). Condition (if, unless). Others: till, where, in order that, so, for, whilst, except that, in case, on condition that, … nevertheless, whenever…
There are exceptions, for example an unreal condition can be made by using subject-operator inversion rather than the subordinator if: Had I known you were here… / If I had known… Non-finite adverbial clauses normally occur without a subordinator, although in some cases they can carry one, especially in news and academic writing: I’m cleaning the garage so as to get some room / They have come to inspect the work.
The subordinator because is used predominately for reason, and if for condition. Time meanings vary through the different choices of a subordinator, for example in simultaneous events: When we were finishing the game they telephoned him; one event after another: I had to go before…; one event during another: They telephoned him whilst…
Subordinators Expressing Multiple Meanings
Subordinators can have more than one semantic role, e.g. as (manner, reason, time), since (reason, time), while (concession/contrast, time). The different subordinators are used with different semantic roles in some registers more than others, e.g. Since is normally used to indicate time in conversation, whereas in academic prose it overwhelmingly marks reason: We’ve known each other since we were children / A special group will take care of the research, since mercury is highly poisonous.