Dependent clause

In linguistics, a dependent clause (sometimes called a subordinate clause) is a clause that augments an
independent clause with additional information, but which cannot stand alone as a sentence.
Dependent clauses modify the independent clause of a sentence or serve as a component of it. Some
grammarians use the term subordinate clause as a synonym for dependent clause, but in some
grammars subordinate clause refers only to adverbial dependent clauses.There are also different types
of dependent clauses like noun clauses, relative (adjectival) clauses, and adverbial clauses.

Dependent words

In Indo-European languages, a dependent clause usually begins with a dependent word. One kind
of dependent word is a subordinating conjunction. Subordinating conjunctions are used to begin
dependent clauses known as adverbial clauses, which act like adverbs. In the following
examples, the adverbial clauses are bold and the subordinating conjunctions are italicized:

 Wherever she goes, she leaves a piece of luggage behind.

(The adverbial clause wherever she goes modifies the verb leaves.)

 Rodge enjoyed the movie more than I did.

(The adverbial clause than I did modifies the adverb more.)

A subordinating conjunction can also introduce a noun clause:

 I know that he likes me.

(The noun clause that he likes me serves as the object of the main-clause verb know.)

Another type of dependent word is the relative pronoun. Relative pronouns begin dependent
clauses known as relative clauses; these are adjective clauses, because they modify nouns. In the
following example, the relative clause is bold and the relative pronoun is italicized:

 The only one of the seven dwarfs who does not have a beard is Dopey.

(The adjective clause who does not have a beard describes the pronoun one.)

A relative adverb plays the role of an adverb in a relative clause, as in

 That is the reason why I came.

(The relative clause why I came describes the noun reason, and within the relative clause
the adverb why modifies the verb came.)
  That is the place where he lives.

(The relative clause where he lives describes the noun place, and within the relative
clause the adverb where modifies the verb lives.)

An interrogative word can serve as an adverb in a noun clause, as in

 No one understands why you need experience.

(The noun clause why you need experience functions as the direct object of the main-
clause verb "understands", and within the noun clause why serves as an adverb modifying
need.)

Noun clause

A noun clause can be used like a noun. It can be a subject, predicate nominative, direct object,
appositive, indirect object, or object of the preposition. Some of the English words that introduce
noun clauses are that, whether, who, why, whom, what, how, when, whoever, where, and
whomever. Notice that some of these words also introduce adjective and adverbial clauses. A
clause is a noun clause if a pronoun (he, she, it, or they) could be substituted for it.

Examples:

 I know who said that. (I know it.) (The dependent clause serves as the object of the main-
clause verb "know".)
 Whoever made that assertion is wrong. (He/she is wrong.) (The dependent clause serves
as the subject of the main clause.)

Sometimes in English a noun clause is used without the introductory word.

Example:

 I know that he is here.

 I know he is here. (without "that")

In some cases, use of the introductory word, though grammatically correct, may sound
cumbersome in English, and the introductory word may be omitted.

Example:

 I think that it is pretty. (less common)

 I think it is pretty. (more common)
Relative (adjectival) clause

In Indo-European languages, a relative clause—also called an adjective clause or an adjectival

clause—will meet three requirements.

First, like all dependent clauses, it will contain a verb (and it will also contain a subject unless it
is a non-finite dependent clause). However, in a pro-drop language the subject may be a zero
pronoun—that is, the pronoun may not be explicitly included because its identity is conveyed by
a verbal inflection.

Next, it will begin with a relative adverb [when, where, or why in English] or a relative pronoun
[who, whom, whose, that, or which in English]. However, the English relative pronoun may be
omitted and only implied if it plays the role of the object of the verb or object of a preposition in
a restrictive clause; for example, He is the boy I saw is equivalent to He is the boy whom I saw,
and I saw the boy you are talking about is equivalent to the more formal I saw the boy about
whom you are talking.

Finally, the relative clause will function as an adjective, answering questions such as "what
kind?", "how many?" or "which one?".

The adjective clause in English will follow one of these patterns:

 Relative Pronoun [Functioning as Object of Verb] + Subject + Verb

This is the ball that I was bouncing.

 Relative Adverb + Subject + Verb (possibly + Object of Verb)

That is the house where I grew up.

That is the house where I met her.

 Relative Pronoun [Functioning as Subject] + Verb (possibly + Object of Verb)

That is the person who hiccuped.

That is the person who saw me.

 Relative Pronoun [Functioning as Object of Preposition] + Subject + Verb (possibly +

Object of Verb) + Preposition

That is the person who(m) I was talking about.

That is the person who(m) I was telling you about.

 Preposition + Relative Pronoun [Functioning as Object of Preposition] + Subject + Verb

(possibly + Object of Verb)

That is the person about whom I was talking.

 That is the person about whom I was telling you.

 Possessive Relative Pronoun + Noun [Functioning as Subject] + Verb (possibly + Object

of Verb)

That is the dog whose big brown eyes pleaded for another cookie.
That is the dog whose big brown eyes begged me for another cookie.

 Possessive Relative Pronoun + Noun [Functioning as Object of Verb] + Subject + Verb

That is the person whose car I saw.

Punctuation

English punctuation

The punctuation of an adjective clause depends on whether it is essential or nonessential and use
commas accordingly. Essential clauses are not set off with commas, while non-essential clauses
are. An adjective clause is essential if the information it contains is necessary to the meaning of
the sentence. For example:

 The vegetables that people often leave uneaten are usually the most nutritious.

Here "vegetables" is nonspecific, so in order to know which ones is being referred to, one must
have the information provided in the adjective clause (in italics). Because it restricts the meaning
of "vegetable", this adjective clause is called a restrictive clause; it is essential to the meaning of
the main clause and uses no commas (and correspondingly, does not experience a pause when
spoken).

However, if the additional information does not help to identify more narrowly the identity of the
noun antecedent but rather simply provides further information about it, then the adjective clause
is non-restrictive and does require commas (or a spoken pause) to separate it from the rest of the
sentence. For example:

 Broccoli, which people often leave uneaten, is very nutritious.

Depending on context, a particular noun could be modified by either a restrictive or non-

restrictive adjective clause. For example, while "broccoli" is modified non-restrictively in the
preceding sentence, it is modified restrictively in the following.

 The broccoli which (or that) people leave uneaten is often nutritious.

Adverbial clause
Main article: Adverbial clause
"He saw Mary when he was in New York" and "They studied hard because they had a test" both
contain adverbial clauses (in italics). Adverbial clauses express when, why, where, opposition,
and conditions, As with all dependent clauses, they cannot stand alone. For example, When he
was in New York is not a complete sentence; it needs to be completed by an independent clause.
For example:

 He went to the Guggenheim Museum when he was in New York.

or equivalently

 When he was in New York, he went to the Guggenheim Museum.

Dependent clauses and sentence structure

A sentence with an independent clause and one or more dependent clauses is referred to as a
complex sentence. One with two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses
is referred to as a compound-complex sentence. Here are some English examples:

My sister cried because she scraped her knee. (complex sentence)

 Subjects: My sister, she

 Predicates: cried, scraped her knee
 Subordinating conjunction: because

When they told me (that) I won the contest, I cried, but I didn't faint. **(compound-complex
sentence)

 Subjects: they, I, I, I
 Predicates: told me, won the contest, cried, didn't faint
 Subordinating conjunctions: when, that (explicit or understood)
 Coordinating conjunction: but

The above sentence contains two dependent clauses. "When they told me" is one; the other is
"(that) I won the contest", which serves as the object of the verb "told." The connecting word
"that," if not explicitly included, is understood to implicitly precede "I won" and in either case
functions as a subordinating conjunction. This sentence also includes two independent clauses, "I
cried" and "I didn't faint," connected by the coordinating conjunction "but." The first dependent
clause, together with its object (the second dependent clause), adverbially modifies the verbs of
both main clauses.

Non-finite dependent clauses

Main articles: Non-finite clause and Balancing and deranking

Dependent clauses may be headed by an infinitive or other non-finite verb form, which in
linguistics is called deranked. In these cases, the subject of the dependent clause may take a
non-nominative form. An example is:
  I want him to vanish.

Independent clause
An independent clause (or main clause) is a clause that can stand by itself, also known as a
simple sentence. An independent clause contains a subject and a predicate; it makes sense by
itself.

Multiple independent clauses can be joined by using a semicolon or a comma plus a coordinating
conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so).

Examples

 I drive a bus. (simple sentence)

 I am a doctor, and my wife is a lawyer. (compound sentence made up of two independent
clauses: I am a nurse and my husband is a lawyer)
 I want to be a nurse, but I need to receive my science degree. (compound sentence made up of
two independent clauses: I want to be a nurse and I need to receive my science degree)

For an easy way to remember coordinating conjunctions remember FANBOYS For, And, Nor,
But, Or, Yet, and So

Definition:

A group of words made up of a subject and a predicate. An independent clause (unlike a

dependent clause) can stand alone as a sentence.

By itself, an independent clause (also known as a main clause) is a simple sentence.

Examples and Observations:

 A clause is a group of words that [contains] a subject and a verb. There are two major types:
independent clauses and dependent clauses. An independent clause can stand alone as a
sentence, beginning with a capital letter and ending with terminal punctuation such as a period.
A dependent clause cannot stand alone as a sentence; instead it must be attached to an
independent clause."
(G. Lutz and D. Stevenson, The Writer's Digest Grammar Desk Reference, 2005)
 "When liberty is taken away by force, it can be restored by force. When it is relinquished
voluntarily by default, it can never be recovered."
(Dorothy Thompson)

 "The average man does not want to be free. He simply wants to be safe.
(H.L. Mencken)

 "When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.

(Ernest Hemingway)

 "I was born when you kissed me. I died when you left me. I lived a few weeks while you loved
me."
(Humphrey Bogart in the movie In a Lonely Place)

 "Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket."

(George Orwell)

 "Age is strictly a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.
(Jack Benny)

 "Her hat is a creation that will never go out of style; it will just look ridiculous year after year."
(Fred Allen)

 "Comedy has to be based on truth. You take the truth and you put a little curlicue at the end. (Sid
Caesar)

 "If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door."

(Milton Berle)
  "What's another word for 'thesaurus'?"
(Steven Wright)

 "You have a responsibility to the public discourse, and you fail miserably."
(Jon Stewart to Tucker Carlson on CNN's Crossfire, Oct. 2004)

 "A schedule defends from chaos and whim."

(Annie Dillard)

Pronunciation: IN-dee-PEN-dent claws

Definite clause grammar

A definite clause grammar (DCG) is a way of expressing grammar, either for natural or formal
languages, in a logic programming language such as Prolog. It is closely related to the concept of
attribute grammars / affix grammars from which Prolog was originally developed. DCGs are
usually associated with Prolog, but similar languages such as Mercury also include DCGs. They
are called definite clause grammars because they represent a grammar as a set of definite clauses
in first-order logic.

The term DCG refers to the specific type of expression in Prolog and other similar languages; not
all ways of expressing grammars using definite clauses are considered DCGs. However, all of
the capabilities or properties of DCGs will be the same for any grammar that is represented with
definite clauses in essentially the same way as in Prolog.

The definite clauses of a DCG can be considered a set of axioms where the validity of a
sentence, and the fact that it has a certain parse tree can be considered theorems that follow from
these axioms.[1] This has the advantage of making it so that recognition and parsing of
expressions in a language becomes a general matter of proving statements, such as statements in
a logic programming language.

History

The history of DCGs is closely tied to the history of Prolog, and the history of Prolog revolves
around several researchers in both Marseilles, France, and Edinburgh, Scotland. According to
Robert Kowalski, an early developer of Prolog, the first Prolog system was developed in 1972 by
Alain Colmerauer and Phillipe Roussel.[2] The first program written in the language was a large
natural-language processing system. Fernando Pereira and David Warren at the University of
Edinburgh were also involved in the early development of Prolog.

Colmerauer had previously worked on a language processing system called Q-systems that was
used to translate between English and French.[3] In 1978, Colmerauer wrote a paper about a way
of representing grammars called metamorphosis grammars which were part of the early version
of Prolog called Marseille Prolog. In this paper, he gave a formal description of metamorphosis
grammars and some examples of programs that use them.

Fernando Pereira and David Warren, two other early architects of Prolog, coined the term
"definite clause grammar" and created the notation for DCGs that is used in Prolog today. They
gave credit for the idea to Colmeraur and Kowalski, and they note that DCGs are a special case
of Colmeraur's metamorphosis grammars. They introduced the idea in an article called "Definite
Clause Grammars for Language Analysis", where they describe DCGs as a "formalism ... in
which grammars are expressed clauses of first-order predicate logic" that "constitute effective
programs of the programming language Prolog".[4]

Pereira, Warren, and other pioneers of Prolog later wrote about several other aspects of DCGs.
Pereira and Warren wrote an article called "Parsing as Deduction", describing things such as how
the Earley Deduction proof procedure is used for parsing.[5] Pereira also collaborated with Stuart
Sheiber on a book called "Prolog and Natural Language Analysis", that was intended as a general
introduction to computational linguistics using logic programming.[6]

Extensions

Since DCGs were introduced by Pereira and Warren, several extensions have been proposed.
Pereira himself proposed an extension called extraposition grammars (XGs).[7] This formalism
was intended, in part to make it easier to express certain grammatical phenomena, such as left-
extraposition. Pereira states, "The difference between XG rules and DCG rules is then that the
left-hand side of an XG rule may contain several symbols." This makes it easier to express rules
for context-sensitive grammars.

Another, more recent, extension was made by researchers at NEC Corporation called Multi-
Modal Definite Clause Grammars (MM-DCGs) in 1995. Their extensions were intended to allow
the recognizing and parsing expressions that include non-textual parts such as pictures.[8]

Another extension, called definite clause translation grammars (DCTGs) was described by in
1984.[9] DCTG notation looks very similar to DCG notation; the major difference is that one uses
::= instead of --> in the rules. It was devised to handle grammatical attributes conveniently.[10]
The translation of DCTGs into normal Prolog clauses is like that of DCGs, but 3 arguments are
added instead of 2.

Example

A basic example of DCGs helps to illustrate what they are and what they look like.
sentence --> noun_phrase, verb_phrase.
noun_phrase --> det, noun.
verb_phrase --> verb, noun_phrase.
det --> [the].
det --> [a].
noun --> [cat].
noun --> [bat].
verb --> [eats].

This generates sentences such as "the cat eats the bat", "a bat eats the cat". One can generate all
of the valid expressions in the language generated by this grammar at a Prolog interpreter by
typing sentence(X,[]). Similarly, one can test whether a sentence is valid in the language by
typing something like sentence([the,bat,eats,the,bat],[]).