THE COMPLEX SENTENCE A CLASSIFICATION OF DEPENDENT CLAUSES As previously shown, the complex sentence is made up of at least one main

n clause and a dependent or a subordinate one. Unlike in the case of compound sentences which are based on coordination - the complex sentence relies heavily on the process of subordination. This is the reason why a classification of subordinate clauses should be in order. Nota bene! The complex sentence is made up of main clauses and other subordinate clauses. e.g. If you want to listen to Bohemian Rhapsody, turn on the stereo and you will hear the most amazing combination of sounds which will certainly delight you. Classifying dependent clauses will employ two main criteria: 1. the FUNCTIONAL one which, as the name suggests it, takes into consideration the syntactic function of the respective clause. From the functional point of view, subordinates can be classified into: a) subject clauses (1) Whoever did that was a genius. (Cel care a fcut acest lucru a fost un geniu.) (2) It seems that he is not your friend. (Se pare c nu i este prieten.) b) object clauses this class includes direct objects, indirect objects and prepositional objects: (3) I believe that he is not here. (Direct Object) (Cred c nu este acolo.) (4) I am afraid that he wont come (Prepositional Object) (Mi-e team c nu o s vin.) (5) I gave this to whomever wanted it. (Indirect Object) (Am dat asta cui a vrut-o.) At this point we need to provide some further explanation. An OBJECT refers to only those items (phrases, sentences) required by the verb (or, in certain cases, by an adjective + preposition, such as proud of, for example). They have the feature [+ obligatory] and, even on the rare occasions when they can be omitted, they are still presupposed by the speaker. For instance, the verb give is always accompanied in our mind by its obligatory complements (direct and indirect objects): (6) He gave the book (DO) to her (IO). (I-a dat cartea.)

Whenever we think of this particular verb, we associate it with these objects. In a way, we presuppose their existence in connection with the presence of the verb give in a sentence. We do not presuppose however something like, for instance, an adverbial item, such as a manner adverbial: with pleasure/willingly. (7) He willingly gave the book to her. (I-a dat cartea de bun voie.) In (7) we can identify the verbs obligatory objects ( the book, to her) and one extraitem, an additional one, which is the adverbial willingly. These non-obligatory items are called adjuncts. The term comes from the verb to adjoin, i.e. to add something. Thus, a phrase such as willingly is adjoined to the verb and its obligatory objects. In other words, it is added to the verbal phrase in order to provide extra information. A second observation, related to example (4), has to do with why we consider the subordinate that he wont come to be a prepositional object. The explanation is simple: this subordinate can be easily replaced by a phrase preceded by a preposition, and this preposition is in fact required and presupposed as accompanying the adjective afraid: (8) a. I am afraid of his not coming/of this fact. (Mi-e team c n-o s vin.) b. I am afraid that he wont come. (Mi-e team c n-o s vin.)

The example under (8a) is the basic structure: an adjective and the prepositional object it selects. The second example, under (8b) represents the derived structure: the prepositional object is replaced by a that clause. The subordinating conjunction THAT has completely replaced the preposition, since English no longer allows for a conjunction and a preposition to be put together: (9) *I am afraid of that he wont come. We presuppose that the preposition of has been deleted, but its effect remains even after its wipeout. That is why we choose to call prepositional object the that-clause following the adjective afraid. Last but not least, we need to draw attention to the important fact that direct objects are normally required by transitive verbs, such as want, like, make, etc. So, before you decide on what label to stick on an object, please check what particular item requires its presence in the sentence. If it so happens that the object appears after a transitive verb, then you have your typical case of direct object. So far we have discussed subject clauses and object clauses. The third class is made up of (c) adjuncts those clauses (or phrases) whose presence is not obligatorily required by a verb or an adjective. They normally have an adverbial (circumstantial) interpretation:

(10) Before she left the room she closed all the windows. (nainte s plece din camer, a nchis toate ferestrele.) (11) If you dont marry me, Ill die. (Dac nu te nsori cu mine, am s mor.) (d) attributes or modifiers those clause (or phrases) that characterize nominal phrases: (12) The woman who was wearing red was sitting next to him on the platform. (Femeia n rou sttea lng el pe peron.) (13) The red-wearing woman was sitting next to him on the platform. (Femeia n rou sttea lng el pe peron.) To sum up so far, the functional criterion we employed has helped us classify subordinate clauses as follows: SUBORDINATE CLAUSES [+ obligatory] SUBJECTS OBJECTS e.g. Whoever did a) Direct: I that was a believe that he genius. is smart. b) Indirect: Give this to whomever wants it. c) Prepositional: He was afraid that she might come back. [- obligatory] ADJUNCTS e.g. They came to an agreement because they wanted to go home. MODIFIERS e.g. The book that you gave me was very boring.

2. The second criterion we employ to differentiate between various subordinate clauses is the STRUCTURAL one. We classify dependent clauses according to what introductory element they exhibit: a) complement clauses mainly those clauses introduced by THAT, WHETHER, FOR, etc. (the term complement is a false friend: it does not have the same meaning as the one we use in Romanian. The Romanian term is translated by object in English. As you can see, in example (16) the complement for him to leave fulfills the function of subject, not object.) (14) I knew that he liked me. (tiam c m simpatizeaz.) (15) I didnt know whether he would visit me in jail. (Nu tiam dac o s m viziteze la nchisoare.) (16) It is advisable for him to leave. (E de dorit s plece.) (17) I wanted to leave immediately.
3

(Am vrut s plec imediat.) b) wh-complements those clauses introduced by a wh-word/phrase (such as what, who, where, when, how, which, why, etc.) These include: indirect questions (18) I didnt know who had killed him. 3 (Nu tiam cine l-a ucis.) relative clauses

(14) I was afraid of what he might say. (Mi-era groaz de ce ar putea spune.) cleft sentences

(15) It is John who did it. (John este cel care a fcut asta.) pseudo-cleft sentences

(16) a. Who did it was John. (Cel care a fcut asta este John.) b. Where he went is London. (Locul n care s-a dus este Londra.) (c) adverbial clauses those clauses subordinated by such adverbial conjunctions as: although, if, before, etc. Unlike complement clauses, these ones are introduced by subordinating conjunctions with a distinct semantic charge. Compare, for instance, the following two clauses: (17) She told me that I was a fool. (Mi-a spus c sunt un prost.) (18) She told me this before she left. (Mi-a spus aceasta nainte s plece.) In (17) the meaning of the subordinate clause is imposed by the verb in the main clause. The subordinating conjunction that is abstract in meaning, and this is why it is the verb that has to dictate the sense of its object. In (18), however, the meaning of the subordinate (that of a time adverbial clause) is offered and imposed by the subordinating conjunction not by the main clause verb. In conclusion, consider the following table, which sums up this classification, done from a structural point of view, that is function of the subordinating conjunction/adverb/pronoun that introduces the respective clause. As you will see, the categories are reduced to only three in this case. But we are going to show that we can

trace correspondences between the classes of embedded clauses mentioned under 4.1. and the ones we are characterizing in the table below: SUBORDINATE CLAUSES COMPLEMENT CLAUSES Introduced by that, for, whether: e.g. I dont know whether he will come back. WH- COMPLEMENTS Introduced by wh words: e.g. I will come back when I feel like it. ADVERBIAL CLAUSES Introduced by adverbial conjunctions/adverbs such as because, as, before, after, etc.: e.g. I will go there because I feel like it.

a. A Cross-Classification of Dependent Clauses Now that we have seen two possible ways of classifying subordinate clauses, let us try and look at how these two types of classification can be fit in the same picture . As you have probably noticed already, the four classes discussed under the first classification do not completely correspond to the three classes discussed under 4.2. However, a correspondence can be traced. Consider the following table: SUBORDINATE CLAUSES [+ obligatory] [- obligatory]

SUBJECTS

OBJECTS

Complements can Complements can be subjects: be objects: e.g. That he e.g. I know loved her was that he likes clear. her (Direct)/ I was afraid that she knew the truth Wh Complements (Preposition can be subjects: e.g. al) Whoever did that was a genius. Wh Complements can be objects: e.g. I dont know what you want (Direct)/ I am interested in what you know (Prepositional)/ I gave this to whomever wanted it (Indirect).

ADJUNCTS MODIFIERS . Wh Complements Wh Complements can be can be adjuncts: e.g. modifiers (or I helped her attributes): whenever she e.g. The book asked me to. which/ that you left on the table is very Adverbials can be interesting. adjuncts: e.g. I told her everything after Nota bene! she arrived. Relative that is not the same as Complement that, since they are translated differently in English: care vs. c

This table makes a few things obvious: firstly, none of the three classes we have mentioned under 2., i.e. complements, wh complements and adverbials can fulfill all the functions we introduced in the table under 1. Secondly, the only category that can fulfill any syntactical function is the one containing wh complements. So, whenever you identify a wh- complement, you will have to choose from the four possible functions mentioned here. We will come back to that in the next chapter. Thirdly, that complements are not the same as relative that complements: there is a clear-cut distinction between a sentence like (19) I think that she likes me. (Cred c m place.) and (20) The girl that likes me is pretty. (Fata care m place e frumuic.) The translation of the word that in Romanian disambiguates between these two readings. This problem will also be the topic of the next chapter.

In the fourth place, adverbial clauses can only be adjuncts. This means that adverbial clauses are the easiest to identify, whereas wh complements are the hardest to figure out. A very good reason for that is the fact that in the case of adverbials, their introductory elements (e.g. after, because, before, etc) give very clear information about the function and meaning of the subordinate they introduce. Nota bene! Wh Complements can have any syntactical function. Adverbials can only be adjuncts. 4. Key Concepts We classify dependent (i.e. subordinate or embedded) clauses according to their function into subjects, objects (which are always obligatorily required by a verb or adjective), adjuncts and attributes (or modifiers, because they modify, offer a plus of meaning to the nominal they accompany). According to a structural criterion, which regards the introductory conjunction / pronoun/ relative adverb of the subordinate, these clauses can be complements, whcomplements and adverbials (which normally correspond to he Romanian complement circumstanial). Dont forget three important points made in this chapter: there is no correspondence between the Romanian complement and the English one, since the English term has nothing to do with syntactical function. English makes use of prepositional objects that are normally required by the fact that the main verb/adjective is accompanied by an obligatory preposition (e.g. think of, look at, interested in, etc.) We use the term prepositional object even for those cases when the preposition imprinted in the lexical entry of the verb is not visible: I thought that he was smart. The Romanian term complement indirect (i.e. indirect object) is only available in English for Dative objects, answering the question to whom? So, be very careful to use this term correctly, since it is not as frequent in English as it is in Romanian. A complete syntactic analysis of a sentence will have to take into consideration both criteria we have discussed in this chapter.