2025-01-28

Clauses
Ivan Bondoc
Week 04
LIN102: Introduction to Linguistics
Sentence Structure and Meaning

Announcements
• Homework 02 due tonight, 28 Jan, before 11:59pm
• Homework 03 (on clauses) due next week, 04 Feb, before 11:59pm
• Quiz 01
• 36-hr window, open from Jan 30 (Th) 12:00pm to Jan 31 (F) 11:59pm
• 40 min time limit to complete online
• Topics cover Week 01 (Introduction; Syntactic Categories) and Week 02
(Words)
• Questions will be displayed one at a time
• Please make sure you have good internet connection when you take the quiz
(and that it’s a good time to take it and you’re in a good place!)
• Extra practice exercises for Weeks 01-02 (under Week 02 module)
• Extra practice exercises for Weeks 03-04 (coming soon!)

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Recap, Week 03
• Constituents: grouping of words into larger units
• Constituency tests

• We have developed Phrase Structure Rules that generate only

grammatical sentences of English.
• Phrase Structure Rules model tacit knowledge of possible structures,
our mental grammar.

Goals for today

• We’ll talk about
structural ambiguity (from last lecture)
subcategories
what clauses are
one more phrase type—the Complementizer Phrase (CP), which
introduces clauses within clauses
• Then we will look at word order and phrase structure cross-
linguistically (beyond English!).

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‘overflow/spillover’ from last week’s lecture

Structural ambiguity
Constituents are useful in proving that sentences that on account of
their syntax have multiple meanings. These sentences are described as
structurally ambiguous.
Note on lexical vs structural ambiguity
Lexical ambiguity: caused by words with more than one meaning
Talia lives by the bank.
Structural ambiguity: caused by ambiguous structures of the tree
Bettina saw the child with binoculars.

What two meanings for the second sentence do we have?

[Bettina] [saw the child]…

subject predicate
verb + object

Where do we attach ‘with the binoculars’?

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Meaning # 1
Bettina used the binoculars to see the child.

Meaning # 2
Bettina saw the child who had binoculars.

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Complements and subcategorization

• Heads are often very picky about their sibling dependent phrases.
• Verbs are very picky about whether they have objects or not.

Objects are an example of a

special type of dependent
known as a complement.

The NP pattern here is the

complement of the head V and it is
said to be selected by the head
("selection" gives us pickiness).

Complements and subcategorization

• Individual lexical items differ in terms of what complements they select for.
This can be thought of as subcategorization.
• We have different subcategories of V because they select different kinds of
complements.

Again, we use parentheses ( ) to indicate optionality

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Complements and subcategorization

• Verbs in English can also subcategorize for other categories.
• They can also subcategorize for more than one complement. Verbs that
subcategorize for two complements are called ditransitive.
• Sometimes verbs have the option of one type of the other, notated by ‘/’
meaning ‘either or’ but not both.

Other heads like P also have subcategories (see Moulton 2021 p. 16-17 for further reading)
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What’s a clause?
• Roughly speaking, a clause is comprised of a SUBJECT (what the
sentence is about) and a PREDICATE (what is being said about the
subject)
Ziv got the first clue.
• Clauses come in many shapes and sizes, but one thing every clause in
English has is a main verb.
• Count the main verbs, and you’ve counted the clauses!
a. Lin left. (1 clause)
b. Lin might have left and Sam won. (2 clauses)
c. After the ball fell, the pitcher asked the coach to send them to the
locker room. (3 clauses)

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Independent and dependent clauses

• Independent clauses can stand alone. Dependent clauses cannot –
they need to be within another clause.
Independent clauses
a. Sam left.
b. After Sam left, the bell rang.
c. The bell rang.
Dependent clauses
a. *after Sam left.
b. *that Min-joo left.

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Matrix vs embedded clauses

• Dependent clauses are embedded ‘inside’ other clauses, hence
embedded clauses.
• The clause they are embedded in is called the matrix clause.

a. Ahmed said that Lin left.

b. That Lin left surprised me.

Embedded clauses can be introduced by words like that, for, if, whether
– these are called complementizers.

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Matrix vs embedded clauses

• Matrix clauses can themselves be embedded clauses.

• The middle clause above (in the blue box) is simultaneously a matrix
and an embedded clause.
• The top-most/outer-most clause in a sentence (in the red box above)
is called the root clause (see page 56 in Moulton 2021).

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Finite and non-finite clauses

• Finite clauses contain a verb that is tensed.
• Non-finite clauses contain a verb that is NOT tensed (cannot be
inflected for tense). The untensed verbs are often preceded by to.

Yousef says that Lex makes wines.

Yousef prefers for Lex to make wine.

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Clausal functions
• Recall that phrases can function as subjects and objects:
[Haru] surprised [the child]
• Clauses function in the same way too, either as:
Subject clause: subject of the sentence
[That Haru smiled] surprised the child
Complement clause: object of a verb
Haru knew [that the child smiled]
Adjunct clause: expresses time, reason, cause, etc.; can appear in various positions
The bell rang [when Haru arrived].
[When Haru arrived], the bell rang.
Haru, [after the child arrived], called his friend.

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Relative clause
• A very important type of embedded adjunct clause is called a
relative clause.
• Relative clauses modify nouns.
The cat chased the mouse [ that runs fast ].
My mom completely ate the pizza [ that I made ].
• Relative clauses cannot stand alone as independent sentences.
*that runs fast *that I made
There’s a ‘gap’ (notated by ___ ) in them.
the mouse [ that ___ runs fast ]
the pizza [ that I made ___ ]
The gap inside the clause is referring to the same noun it modifies.

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Relative clause
The noun related to the gap can be:
a. The subject of the relative clause
She ate the pizza [ that ____ had hot peppers on it]
b. The object of the relative clause
She ate the pizza [ that I made ____ ].
c. The object of the preposition of the relative clause
She was the person [ that I sent a pizza to ____ ].

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Relative clauses
• In addition to the complementizer that, relative clauses can be
introduced by elements called relative pronouns. These are wh-
words:
the book [which I read ____ ]
the kid [who ____ read the book]

• In English, the relative pronoun (wh-word) or complementizer (that)

can be deleted:
the pizza [ that I ate ____ ]
the person [ who I sent a book to ___ ]
• We call these reduced relative clauses.

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Illustrating clauses in syntax trees

• There is one more layer of phrase structure we will need to illustrate
clauses.

• To illustrate the dependent/embedded clauses in orange, we’ll need

another phrase – we call it a complementizer phrase (CP).

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Complementizer Phrase
• We will add a new phrase structure rule to accommodate
complementizers (C): the Complementizer Phrase (CP).
• CP → C TP
• Hassan said [that Franny sneezed].

• We’ll get to how to connect this CP

with the matrix Hassan said… in
the next slides

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Complementizer phrases
• If the CP rule is correct, then CPs are predicted to be constituents, and indeed
they are!
I know [that Reading Week is in February]
• Substitution test:
I know so
• Coordination test:
I know [that Reading Week is in February] and [that the weather will be snowy]
• Fragment test:
Q: What do you know? A: [that Reading Week is in February]

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Cs select TP complements
• Based on the rule CP  C TP, C ‘selects’ the TP complement.
• Complementizers (C) are picky about what kind TP they occur with.
(1) a. I heard that [TP Franny called the senator]
b. *I heard that [TP Franny to call the senator]
(2) a. *I prefer for [TP Franny called the senator].
b. I prefer for [TP Franny to call the senator].
What’s the difference between that and for?

that selects finite clauses

for selects non-finite clauses

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Some verbs select clauses as complements

• As we have seen from previous examples, some verbs select a clause
as a complement.

NP complement
a. I heard [NP the noise].

CP complement
b. I heard [CP that Franny called the senator].

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Some verbs select clauses as complements

• Verbs that select clausal complements can be picky about the choice
of complementizer.
(1) a. Franny must know [that she will leave]
b. Franny must know [if she will leave]
c. Franny must know [whether she will leave]
(2) a. Franny may think [that she left]
b. *Franny may think [if she left]
c. *Franny may think [whether she left]
(3) a. *Franny will wonder [that she left]
b. Franny will wonder [if she left]
c. Franny will wonder [whether she left]

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Subcategories of Cs
• The data we just saw tell us that not all Cs are the same. There are different
subcategories of C.
• One important difference between subcategories of C is whether they
mark the clause as declarative, i.e. a statement/assertion or interrogative,
i.e. a question.
a. Franny must know [that she will leave] declarative
b. Franny must know [if she will leave] interrogative
• Each C is categorized as [+Q] (interrogative/question) or [-Q] (declarative):
a. that [-Q]
b. if [+Q]
c. whether [+Q]

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Revised rules with CPs

• Now that we have CPs in our Grammar, we need to revise our Phrase
Structure Rules to accommodate them.
• CPs can appear as complements and as subjects.

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CP as a subject
a. TP → { NP/CP } T VP The slash ‘/’ means ‘either/or’
Quy surprised me
That Quy left surprised me

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CP as a complement
The slash ‘/’ means ‘either/or’
b. VP → (AdvP+) V (NP) {(NP)/(CP)} (AdvP+) (PP+) (AdvP+)
asked Ivan a question
asked Ivan if Quy left

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Clause typing
• When there isn’t an overt C, as in below, we will assume there is one
with abstract Q feature.
• Alex knows Sam will win.

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You should be sure to read pages 46–61 of Moulton 2021 carefully (I’ve
covered most of it here, but other important things you should know):
• More details about subject-predicate (section 3.1)
• The English tense-aspect system (section 3.2)
• Passive (section 3.3)
• Coordinated clauses (page 57)

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Phrase structure in other languages

• The phrase structure rules (PSRs) we have now developed are not
only tools for analyzing English sentences.
• They are also tools for investigating other languages.

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Developing new PSRs

• When we encounter a new language, we need to making some
starting assumptions
1. Assume a core subject-predicate structure to the clause.
2. Assume that the subject phrase and the predicate phrase are
combined in a TP that contains NP, T and VP (in some order).
3. Then determine the finer structure inside the subject NP and
predicate VP (e.g., NP, PP). In these phrases, identify the order of
the head and its dependents.
4. Lastly, assume the entire clause can be contained in a CP that
selects TP as its complement (in some order).

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An example: Sinhala (language spoken in Sri Lanka)

What phrase structure rules can we form for:

TP
VP
NP
PP

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An example: Sinhala
NP VP

Let’s figure out the basic clause structure is (subject-predicate):

• from (a): subject Jon (NP); predicate ballavə däkka (VP)
• Position of T? We don’t see a separate tense morpheme or auxiliary
• Let’s hypothesize that it occurs at the end since the verb is at the end of the sentence

Hypothesized Sinhala TP  NP VP T

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An example: Sinhala
NP

PP NP

NP

Let’s break down the predicate VP:

• In (a), the NP complement ballavə ‘dog’ precedes the verb
• In (b), the PP janele indəla ‘from window’, also precedes the NP ballavə ‘dog’
• In (c), the NP complement eyage tadi ballavə ‘his big dog’ precedes the verb

Hypothesized Sinhala VP: VP → (PP) NP V

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An example: Sinhala
NP
NP

NP

Let’s break down the NP:

• In (a) and (b), ballavə ‘dog’ is a noun
• In (c), we have eyage ‘his’ (Det), tadi ‘big’ (AdjP), and ballavə ‘dog’ (N)

Hypothesized Sinhala NP: NP → (Det) (AdjP) V

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An example: Sinhala

PP

Let’s break down the PP:

• The order is janele ‘window’ (NP), and indela ‘from’ (P)
• Hypothesized Sinhala PP: PP → NP P

This is known as a postpositional phrase (in contrast to English prepositional

phrases.

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An example: Sinhala

Let’s list down the rules!

TP  NP VP T
VP  (PP) NP V
NP  (Det) (AdjP) N
PP  NP P
We don’t have a CP example, but we might expect it to be
CP  TP C (all heads of the phrases are in the final position!)

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Head-initial versus head-final language

Languages tend towards being head-initial or head-final in their phrase
structure.
• All the phrases we had evidence for headedness in Sinhala were
head-final
• English phrases tend to be head-initial

But it is always not so simple: quite a few languages show a mix of

head-initial and head-final phrases.

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Generalizing across languages

• Clause structure is an important point of variation across languages.
• One traditional way of classifying languages by clause structure is to label them
according to the (default) order of their subject (S), verb (V), and object (O).
• It turns out all possible orders are attested to varying degrees (the most
prominent being SOV and SVO):
• SVO
• SOV
• VSO
• VOS
• OSV
• OVS

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