Grammar

Alternative Question

A question where the speaker offers the hearer a closed choice

between two or more alternative possibilities:
 Is the kitten male or female?
 Would you like orange juice, grapefruit juice or tomato juice?
The word or signals the relation between the alternatives.
Unlike yes- no questions, alternative questions normally end
with a falling intonation contour. There are also reported
alternative questions: these are subordinate nominal clauses
(or complement clauses) where the alternatives are expressed
by whether . . . or . . . (If can replace whether here.)
 They asked her whether/if the kitten was male or female.
 Maria wondered whether/if he was waving or drowning.

Exclamatory Question 1
A kind of yes-no question having the force of an exclamation.
Exclamatory questions are often negative in form and are
spoken with falling intonation rather than with the rising
intonation associated with ordinary yes-no questions:
Isn’tthisfun! (Thisisfun)
 Haven’t they grown! (They have grown)
The meaning, contrary to the appearance of the literal wording,
is vigorously positive.

Exclamatory Question 2
A positive yes-no question, also with a falling tone, is another
(but less common) way of expressing a strong positive
conviction:
 Am I upset!
 Is this fun!

Rhetorical Question 1
A question which does not seek information, but rather implies
that the answer is self evident. A positive rhetorical yes-no
question is like a strong negative assertion, while a negative
question is like a strong positive one.
 Can anyone say what will happen? has the effect of a forceful
negative statement: ‘No one can say what will happen.’
Haven’t you got anything better to do? has the effect of a
forceful positive statement: ‘Surely you have something better
to do’

Rhetorical Question 2
There are also rhetorical wh-questions. The positive question is
equivalent to a statement in which the wh-element is replaced
by a negative element:
 Who cares? [Nobody cares]
How should I know? [There is no reason why should I
know]
 What should I say? [There is nothing that I should say]

Rhetorical Question 3
The less common negative question is equivalent to a
statement in which the wh-element is replaced by a positive
element:
How couldn’t you remember? [You certainly should have
remembered]
Whodoesn’tknow? [Everybodyknows]

Directives (Commands): Introduction1

Commands represent the sentence type that is normally
associated with the Imperative Mood.
When we examine commands such as:
 Go away.  Be quiet.
we are struck by the fact that there is no obvious (overt)
subject noun phrase.

Directives (Commands): Introduction2

It is intuitively clear that the meaning of a directive implies that
the omitted subject is the 2nd person pronoun you. The
implication can be demonstrated by the:
Occurrence of you as subject of a following tag question (Be
quiet, will you?),
 Occurrence of only yourself or yourselves as the reflexive
(Behave Yourself or Behave yourselves, not *Behave myself,
etc)
 Occurrence of only the emphatic possessive your own (Use
your own comb, not *Use her own comb, etc)!

Commands: Clause Patterns

(S)V: Wait.
(S)VC: Be quiet.
(S)VOC: Consider yourself traitor. (S)VOA: Put the flowers on
the table. (S)VO: Open the door.
(S)VA: Get inside.
(S)VOO: Tell me the truth.

Verbless Commands
Adverbials may have the illocutionary force of commands.
Generally a verb of motion is implied.
 Forward! Faster! Left, right!
 Inside! Hands up! Eyes down!
 Backs to the wall!
 Hands on head!
 Thumbs down!
Shoulders back! Thumbs up!
Heads up!

Lack and Restriction 1

The imperative verb lacks tense distinction and does not allow
modal auxiliaries. The progressive form is rare, and the
perfective even rarer:
 Be listening to this station the same time tomorrow night.
 Be doing your homework when your parents arrive home.
 Start the book and have finished it before you go to bed.

Lack and Restriction 2

Passives with be occur chiefly in negative directives, where they
generally have the meaning 'Don't allow yourself to be . . .':
 Don't be deceived by his looks.
 Don't be made to look foolish.
 Don't be bullied into signing.
 Don't be told what to do.
They are less common in positive directives:
 Be guided by what I say.  Be reassured by me.

Lack and Restriction 3

What might be treated as passives occur with get:  Get
washed.
 Get transferred.
 Get known.
 Get dressed.
 Get weighed. Get introduced.  Don't get misled by their
promises.
 Get lost. ['go away' (informal)]
 Don't get dressed yet.

Lack and Restriction 4

Imperatives are restricted to predications that allow a dynamic
interpretation, hence the incongruity of :
*Need a car, *Be old, *Sound louder.
Many predications that are stative with respect to disallowing
the progressive are easily available with a dynamic
interpretation for imperatives:
Forgive us, Love your enemies, Owe nobody anything, Be early,
Be glad that you escaped without injury, Don't be a stranger, Be
a pilot, Know the poem by heart by the next lesson.

Lack and Restriction 5

Imperatives refer to a situation in the immediate or more
remote future and are therefore incompatible with time
adverbials that refer to a time period in the past or that have
habitual reference:
*Come yesterday. *Usually drive your car.

Commands with Subject

There is, however, a type of directive in which the stressed
subject you is added. You may be non- contrastive and
admonitory, and express strong irritation.
 You keep your mouth shut.
 You be quiet.
 You do your job silently.
There is also a type of directive with 3rd person subject:
 Parents with children go to the front.
 Men in the front row take one step forward.
 Nobody move.

Commands with Let

First person imperatives can be formed by preposing the verb
let followed by a subject in the objective case:
 Let us vote for the fittest.
 Let them confess their guilt.
 Let me think what to do next.
The same applies to 3rd person subjects :  Let no one speak
badly about him.
 Let each man decide for himself.
If anyone shrinks from this action, let him speak now

Negative Commands
To negate 2nd and 3rd person imperatives, one simply adds an
initial (Don’t), replacing assertive by non-assertive forms as
well:
 Don’t wear loose clothes.
 Don’t work without gloves.
 Don’t take off your helmet.
 Let’s not say anything about it.
 Don’t let me disturb you.

Persuasive Commands
We can make a positive imperative more persuasive or
insistent by adding (do) before the verb. Do reinforces the
positive sense of the imperative:
 Do have another piece of cake.
 Do let’s go to the movies.
 Do be seated.

Mitigated Commands
Commands are apt to sound abrupt unless tone down by
markers of politeness such as please:
 Please show me your hands.  Go ahead please.
Another way to mitigate the force of the imperative is by
changing the structure into a statement of a question:
 Will you convince them to come?
 I wonder if you would kindly answer my question.

Illocutionary Force of Commands 1

Imperative sentences are used for a wide range of illocutionary
acts. It is not, however, always possible to make precise
distinctions because the illocutionary force depends on the
relative authority of speaker and hearer and on the relative
benefits of the action to each. Here are some examples of
sentences that may be used for different illocutionary acts, but
we should be aware that
illocutionary force depends in most cases on the situational
context.

Illocutionary Force of Commands 2

 ORDER, COMMAND /Fire! [fire as verb]

 PROHIBITION/Don’t touch.
 REQUEST/shut the door, please
 PLEA /help!
 ADVICE, RECOMMENDATION/Take an aspirin for your
headache
 WARNING/Lookout
 SUGGESTION  /Ask me about it again next month
INSTRUCTION/Take the first street on the left.

Illocutionary Force of Commands 3

 INVITATION/Make yourself at home

 OFFER/Have a cigarette
 GRANTING PERMISSION  /Help yourself
GOOD WISHES/Enjoy your meal
 IMPRECATION/ Go to hell

Aphoristic Sentences 1

What is aphorism?
Aphorism is a statement of truth or opinion expressed in a
concise and witty manner. The term is often applied to
philosophical, moral, and literary principles.
The aphoristic sentence structure is found in many proverbs.
The common structural feature is the balancing of two
equivalent constructions against each other:

Aphoristic Sentences 2

(i) The more, the merrier. The sooner, the better. The less said,
the better.
(ii) Least said, soonest mended.
Easy come, easy go.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Here today, gone tomorrow.
Once bitten, twice shy.
First come, first served.
(iii) Spare the rod, and spoil the child.
Marry in haste, repent at leisure. Love me, love my dog.
Waste not, want not.
(iv) More haste, less speed.
In for a penny, in for a pound. No work, no money.
Out of sight, out of mind. So far, so good.
All are to some extent anomalous. Items in set (i) appear to be
elliptical. Thus, the first example may be considered elliptical
(depending on the context) for something like The more there
are of us, the merrier we are.
In (ii) the verb is nonfinite; the first part is semantically
subordinate (mostly conditional). In (iii) the verbs may be
analyzed as imperatives, the two clauses being in a conditional
relationship similar to that in the regular structure exemplified
in Spare the rod, and you (will) spoil the child

Block Language
Block language appears in such functions as labels, titles,
newspaper headlines, headings, notices, and advertisements.
Simple block language messages are most often non-sentences,
consisting of a noun or noun phrase or nominal clause in
isolation; no verb is needed, because all else necessary to the
understanding of the message is furnished by the context.
Some forms of block language have recognizable clause
structures. Those forms deviate from regular clause structures
in omitting closed-class items of low information value, such as
the finite forms of the verb BE and the articles, and other words
that may be understood from the context.

Block Language /Signs 1

Learning the following four basic forms of deletion can give
your tools in reasoning out the meaning of signs.
 Be deletion – The deletion of be in signs is easily noticed by
proficient English speakers. When be is a copula (linking the
subject to the complement), it is often dropped.
Ex. Elevator out of order. (The elevator is out of order) Ex.
Checkpoint ahead. ( A checkpoint is ahead)
Be is also dropped when it is used as an auxiliary verb in the
progressive or the passive.
Ex. Paint drying. (This paint is drying) Ex. Road blocked. (This
road is blocked)

Block Language /Signs 2

Auxiliary deletion – A sign like “Use Front Stairs” looks like an

imperative construction, but it’s really not. The sign is not
commanding you to use the front stairs but suggesting it as an
alternative. So, it can be interpreted something like, “You can /
may / should use the front stairs.”
 Article/Demonstrative deletion- articles and other
determiners are often dropped from the language of signs.
Ex. Ministry of Health (This is the Ministry of Health) Ex.
Theatre closed. (The theatre is closed)

Block Language /Newspaper Headlines 1

Newspaper headlines commonly contain block language
because of pressure on space. They can generally be analyzed
in terms of clause structure.
 Film star marries ex-priest/ SVO
 Coronavirus threat increasing/. SV
 Protesters call for justice/ SVO
 Meat prices rise again/ SVA
 Study links hair dye to breast cancer/ SVOA
 Three civilians wounded/ SV
Block Language /Newspaper Headlines 2
In addition to those mentioned for signs certain other syntactic
features are characteristic of newspaper headlines:
(i) The simple present is used instead of the present perfective:
Meat prices rise again ['Meat prices have risen again.']
(ii) To is commonly used to express the future or a predicted
arrangement:
Trump to seek reelection [Trump is to seek reelection]
(iii) Asyndeton (omission of conjunction)
Woman claims drug caused cancer, sues [A woman has claimed
that a drug had caused her cancer, and she has sued
somebody]
(iv) Verbs that are generally transitive are used intransitively:
Watford victory surprises [Watford victory has surprised
spectators]

Simple Sentence VS Complex Sentence 1

A simple sentence in grammar has only one main or
independent clause and no dependent or subordinate clauses.
Comprising a subject and a predicate, this short and
independent syntactic entity intends to convey a complete idea
or meanings of an idea. Consider this example:
 She seemed very depressed.
A complex sentence is a sentence that contains one
independent and at least one dependent clause (sometimes
called a subordinate clause). Consider this example:
 She seemed very depressed because she lost her job.

Simple Sentence VS Complex Sentence 2

A complex sentence is like a simple sentence in that it consists
of one main clause, but unlike a simple sentence it has one or
more subordinate clauses functioning as elements of the
sentence. In addition, a complex sentence expresses two or
more ideas, whereas a simple sentence expresses one single
idea. Compare the following sentences:
 I like to eat candy. [one idea/simple sentence]
 I like to eat candy before I watch a movie. [Two
ideas/complex sentence]
Though Mitchell prefers watching romantic films, he rented
the latest spy thriller, and he enjoyed it very much. [Three
ideas/compound complex sentence]

Dependent VS Independent Clause

A dependent clause has a subject and a verb, but it is not a
complete sentence because it does not make sense by itself, it
needs the independent clause to complete its meaning.
Consider this example:
 He proposed, so they got married. [independent +
Dependent] An independent clause also has a subject and a
verb
and makes sense by itself. Consider this example:
Although she was considered smart, she failed all her exams.
[Dependent +independent ]

Coordination VS Subordination
The English language has at least two methods at hand to use
to express two or more ideas in the same sentence. These
methods are coordination and subordination. Both methods
involve the linking of units (clauses), but in coordination each
clause has a complete meaning by itself. However, in
subordination one of the clauses is a constituent of a
superordinate (main) clause.
This means that both clauses in coordination are independent;
whereas in subordination one clause or more are dependent on
the main clause.

Syndetic and asyndetic coordination

The term COORDINATION is used by some grammarians for
both syndetic (or linked) coordination, and asyndetic (or
unlinked) coordination. The difference between the two
constructions is that syndetic coordination is marked by overt
signals of coordination.(and, or, but), whereas asyndetic
coordination is not overtly marked. Sentence [la] exemplifies
syndetic coordination, with and as explicit marker, while [Ib]
exemplifies asyndetic coordination, with and omitted :
 Slowly and stealthily, he crept towards his victim. [la]
 Slowly, stealthily, he crept towards his victim. [lb]

Coordinators 1
Coordinators (or coordinating conjunctions) are words that
connect units that are on the same syntactic level. The
conjunctions (and, but, for, nor , or , so and yet) are clearly
coodinators. They are used to connect:
Single words:
1. Nouns: Men and women are equal.
2.Adjectives: Myparentsarepoorbuthappy.
3. Verbs: Last night I was watching TV and correcting papers.
Prepositional Phrases:
- You can lie on the bed or on the sofa.
- There is plenty of food in the living room and in the kitchen.
B.

Coordinators 2
C. Dependent Clauses:
- Where you go and what you do are not my concern.
- We can talk while you are here or when you return home.
- He is a person whom I respect and whom I will always admire.
D. Independent Clauses:
- Jack loves Mary and she loves him.
- He proposed, so they got married.
- They lived in her home town, yet they were not happy. - We
stayed there, for my father refused to move.
- Audrey didn’t pass her Math. Exam, nor did John.
Coordinating Independent Clauses
When used to connect independent clauses, the coordinators
show the kind of relationship that holds between the
coordinated clauses. They express such relationships as:
addition, alternative, condition, contrast, cause and result.

Coordination: Rules 1
1. Coordinating conjunctions cannot connect different
structures. Consider the following examples:
- The journalist is successful and well-liked. [adj +adj] - *The
journalist is a success and well-liked. [N+addj]
The first sentence above is correct for it connects two similar
structures (two adjectives), whereas the second sentence is
incorrect for it connects two different structures (a noun and
an adjective).

Coordination: Rules 2
2. When a coordinating conjunction connects two dependent
clauses, no punctuation is needed.
- What I say and what I believe are none of your business.
3. When a coordinating conjunction
connects two independent clauses, a
comma precedes the conjunction.
- I was tired after working all day, so I decided to go to bed
early.
Coordination: Rules 3
4. The coordinating conjunctions (for, nor ,and so) can only be
used to connect independent clauses . Therefore, they cannot
be used to connect single words, prepositional phrases, verb
phrases, and dependent clauses.
Subordination
Subordination is a non-symmetrical relation, holding between
two clauses in such a way that one is a constituent or part of
the other. Subordination enables us to express a larger variety
of relationships between ideas. It also allows us to show the
relationships between facts or ideas more clearly. Compare:
I don’t admire her reasoning, and I reject her conclusions.
Because I don’t admire her reasoning, I reject her conclusions.
In sentence A, the coordinating conjunction and adds one fact
to another. In sentence B, by changing one of the independent
clauses to a dependent clause, we are able to bring out the
relationship between the two facts [cause & result
relationship].

1.
Formal Indicators of Subordination 1
In general, subordination is marked by some indications
contained in the subordinate rather than the main clause. Such
an indicator may be of a number of different kinds:
Subordinators: They have a relating or connecting function.
They fall into the following types:
- Simple Subordinators: (after, (al)though, as, because, before,
if, once, since, that, until, when, where,
while....etc
- Compound subordinators: ending with that:
(but that, in that, in order that, insofar that (formal, rare), in
the event that, save that (literary), such that)

Formal Indicators of Subordination 2

- Compound subordinators: ending with optional that:
[assuming, considering, excepting, given, granted, granting,
provided, providing, seeing, supposing ] (that)
- Compound subordinators: ending with as:
[according as, as far as, as long as, as soon as, forasmuch as
(formal),inasmuch as (formal), insofar as, insomuch as (formal)]
Other Compound subordinators:
[as if, as though, in case]

Formal Indicators of Subordination 4

2. The clause is initiated by a wh-element:
- When the cat's away, the mice will play.
3. Initial elements in the clause are inverted.
- Were she here, she would support the motion.
4. The verb element of the clause is either nonfinite or absent.
- Denying any interest in politics, she claimed that she wished
to continue in forensic medicine.

Syntactic Functions of Dependent Clauses 1

Subordinate (dependent) clauses may function as subject,
object, complement, or adverbial in a superordinate clause:
subject: That we need a larger computer has become obvious.
direct object: He doesn't know whether to send a gift. indirect
object: You can tell whoever is waiting that I'll
subject complement: One likely result of the postponement is
that the cost of constructing the college will be very much
higher.
object complement: I know her to be reliable.
adverbial: When you see them, give them my best wishes.
be back in ten minutes.

Syntactic Functions of Dependent Clauses 2

In addition, subordinate clauses may function within these
elements, e.g:
Post-modifier in noun phrase: (Few of the immigrants retained)
the customs that they had brought with them.
prepositional complement: (It depends) on what we decide.
adjectival complementation: (We are) happy to see you.

Functional classes of dependent clauses

On the basis of their potential functions, we distinguish several
major categories of dependent clauses: NOMINAL,
ADVERBIARL,RELATIVE, and COMPARATIVE.
Now, we shall be speaking about each one of these categories
in details. Before that, I feel that it is convenient to explain to
you the general outline of these categories.
Nominal clauses have functions that approximate to those of
noun phrases: subject, object, complement, appositive, and
prepositional complement. Every nominal clause may function
in some or all of these functions. Unlike noun phrases,
however, nominal clauses may also function as adjective
complementation without a preposition.

Functional classes of dependent clauses

ADVERBIAL CLAUSES function mainly as adjuncts or disjuncts.
In those functions they are like adverb phrases, but in their
potentiality for greater explicitness, they are more often like
prepositional phrases.
RELATIVE CLAUSES generally function as restrictive or
nonrestrictive Modifiers of noun phrases and are therefore
functionally parallel to attributive
adjectives.
Comparative clauses together with their correlative element
(eg: more, as, -er) are equivalent to degree adverbs.

NOMINAL CLAUSES
Nominal clauses (clauses approximating in function to noun
phrases) fall into six major categories:
1. that-clauses
2. interrogative clauses
3. exclamative clauses
4. nominal relative clauses
5. to-infinitive clauses
6. ing-clauses

that-clauses
Nominal that-clauses may function as:
subject: That we need more hospitals is clear to everyone.
direct object: The government denied that the announced
numbers of Covid19 infection are untrue.
subject complement: My idea is that we stay at home.
appositive: We agree to the opinion that we must maintain
social distancing.
adjectival complementation: It was very obvious that this was
the murder weapon.

that-clauses: notes
1. that-clause rarely functions as an indirect object:
- The government has given that the poor need
health care little consideration.
2. When the that-clause is direct object or subject complement,
the conjunction (that) is frequently omitted except in formal
use, leaving a zero (that- clause).
- I saw (that) she had injured her arm. [direct object]
- I noticed (that) he spoke English with Australian
accent. [direct object]
- My assumption is (that) the covid-19 will last for a long time.
[subject complement]
 that-clauses: notes
3. The conjunction (that) is similarly omitted when a subject
(that-clause) is extraposed (delayed).
- That the banks are closed on Saturday is nuisance. - It is
nuisance (that) the banks are closed on ..........
- That you don’t speak English is a pity.
- It is a pity (that) you don’t speak English.
- That you have been misled is obvious.
- It is obvious (that) you have been misled.

that-clauses: notes
4. Extraposition of subject (that-clause) is particularly preferred
when the main clause is interrogative, passive, or exclamative.
Consider the following examples:
- That they cannot afford to rent that flat is possible. To form a
yes/no question about this sentence we
need to extrapose the subject (that-clause):
- Is it possible that they cannot afford to rent that
f lat?
- It was thought that the cease-fire still held.
- How strange it is that the children are so quiet!

that-retention
The zero-that clause is particularly common when the clause is
brief and uncomplicated. Retention of the conjunction that is
necessary under the following conditions:
1. To clarify whether an adverbial belongs to the main clause or
the that-clause. Compare the following:
- They told us, once again, that the situation was serious.
The position of (that) after the second comma, rather than
before the first comma, in this sentence, is decisive in assigning
the parenthetical adverbial to the main clause not to the that-
clause. If the conjunction (that) had been omitted, the structure
would have been left unclear.
 that-retention
2.
When the object that-clause is fronted. Consider the following
example:
- I simply don’t believe (that) she never said such a thing. - That
she never said such a thing I simply don’t believe.
3-When a clause or a long phrase intervenes between the verb
and the that-clause.
- We decide, in view of the current situation, that we would
deliver our lectures online.

Wh-Interrogative Clauses
In English grammar, a "wh"-clause is a subordinate clause that's
introduced by one of the wh words (what, who, which, when,
where, why, how). They may function as:
Subject: How you protect yourself from getting infected
depends on social distancing.
direct object: Peter writes what he wants.
subject complement: The problem is who will sing if the
singer doesn’t show up.
appositive: My original question, why he did it at all, has not
been answered.
adjectival complementation: I wasn’t certain whose house I was
in.
Prepositional Complement: No one was consulted on who
should have the prize.

Are there any similarities between Wh-Interrogative clauses

and Wh-Questions?
The answer for this question is definitely, yes. These similarities
are both semantic and grammatical. Semantically speaking
both leave a gap of unknown information represented by the
wh/element. Grammatically speaking, they are similar in the
following respects:
 The wh-element is placed first.
 If the wh-clause is prepositional complement, we have the
same choices for the wh-element in wh-questions, which
means that we have the choice to place the preposition before
the wh-element or we delay it to the end of the clause.
Consider the following examples:
- I asked them for which candidate they voted.
- I asked them which candidate they voted for.

Notes:
1. An infinitive wh-clause (with an obligational sense) can be
formed with all wh-words except (why).
- I don’t know what to say to comfort them.
- You must explain to them how to operate the machine.
2. Although the wh-subordinate clause usually does not have
subject-operator inversion, such inversion may occur,
particularly when the clause functions as complement and the
main verb is a form of the verb (be), or when it functions as
appositive.
- The problem is who (can we/we can) get to replace her.
- Your original question, why (did he not/he did not) reported
to the police earlier, has not yet been answered.
3. Prepositions are optionally omitted before wh-clauses in
certain circumstances.
- We solved the problem (of ) who was at fault.

Yes/No & Alternative Interrogative Clauses

Subordinate Yes/No interrogative clauses and subordinate
alternative interrogative clauses occur in the whole range of
functions available to subordinate wh-interrogative clauses.
Yes/No interrogative clauses are introduced by the
Subordinators (Whether and If).
• Do you know whether the banks are open? The alternative
clauses are formed with the correlatives whether . . . or or
if. . .or:
• I can’t find out (whether/if) the flight has been delayed or
(whether/if) it has been cancelled.

Yes/No & Alternative Interrogative Clauses

If the second unit is a full clause the subordinator is repeated
[as in 1 below]. It is not repeated in [2 & 3], where the second
unit is an abbreviated form:
1. The weather girl didn’t say whether it will rain or whether it
will be sunny.
2. I asked them if they wanted meat or fish.
3. I don’t care if they join us or not.

Yes/No & Alternative Interrogative Clauses

Subordinate alternative clauses with the subordinator
(whether) pose alternatives more obviously than Subordinate
alternative clauses with the subordinator (if), which can be
ambiguous between this construction and that of conditional
clauses. Whether-clauses, unlike if-clauses, may be used where
there is little resemblance to an indirect question:
• It is irrelevant whether she is under sixteen. * if

Yes/No & Alternative Interrogative Clauses

The subordinator (if) tends to be more frequent than whether
in informal style for yes-no clauses. On the other hand, it is
more restricted syntactically than whether. It must occur as
complementation of verbs and adjectives, in consequence of
which it is excluded from certain contexts:
(i) If cannot introduce a subject clause unless the clause is
extraposed:
- Whether she likes the present is not clear to me.
- * If she likes the present is not clear to me.
As you see it is incorrect to introduce the subject clause with
the subordinator (if). To correct the above sentence we should
extrapose the clause.
- It is not clear to me if she likes the present.
 Yes/No & Alternative Interrogative Clauses
(ii) If cannot introduce a subject complement clause:
- My main concern right now is whether they can make it. - *
My main concern right now is if they can make it.
Since the alternative clause functions as a subject complement,
it cannot be introduced by (if).
(iii) The if-clause cannot be the complement of a preposition:
- It all depends on whether they will support us. - * It all
depends on if they will support us.
Since the alternative clause functions as a complement of a
preposition, (if) doesn’t work here.
(iv) The if-clause cannot be an appositive:
- You have yet to answer my question, whether I can count on
your vote.
- * You have yet to answer my question, if I can count on your
vote.

Yes/No & Alternative Interrogative Clauses

(V) If cannot introduce a to-infinitive clause:
- I don't know whether to see my doctor today. - * I don't know
if to see my doctor today.
(vi) If cannot be followed directly by or not:
- He didn't say whether or not he'll be staying here. - *He didn't
say if or not he'll be staying here.
But or not can be postposed:
- He didn't Say if he'll be staying here or not.

Nominal Relative Clauses

In today’s lecture we shall be speaking about another category
of nominal clauses which is Nominal Relative Clause. Nominal
Relative Clauses are more like noun phrases, since they can be
concrete as well as abstract and can refer even to persons. In
fact, we can paraphrase them as noun phrases modified by a
relative clauses, except that the wh-element is merged with its
antecedent (the phrase to which the wh-element refers).
Consider the following examples:
• Whoever did that should admit it. [the person who did....]
• I took what they offered me. [the thing that they offered..]

Nominal Relative Clauses

Furthermore, nominal relative clauses share with noun phrases
a wider range of functions than are available to other nominal
clauses (see below). In addition, like noun phrases, they may
display number concord with the verb of the sentence.
Contrast for example:
• Whatever book you see is yours to take.
• Whatever books I have in the house are borrowed
from the public library.

Nominal Relative Clauses: Functions

Nominal Relative Clauses have the same range of functions as
noun phrases:
Subject: What I need right now is a cup of coffee.
Direct object: You should see whoever deals with complaints
Indirect object: He gave whoever came late a notice. Subject
complement: Macy’s is where she buys her clothes. Appositive:
You should pay me the debt, what you originally borrowed
from me.
Object Complement: You can call me what(ever) you like.
Prepositional Complement: You should vote for which(ever)
candidate you think best.

Universal VS Definite Meaning

The presence or absence of (ever) in the wh-element indicates
a difference between definite (specific) meaning and universal
(nonspecific) meaning. Definite (specific) meaning is generally
indicated by the absence of the suffix (ever). However,
universal (nonspecific) meaning is indicated by the presence of
the (ever) suffix. Consider the following examples:
• Who breaks this law deserves a fine. [The person who breaks
this law deserves a fine] [Definite (specific) person]
• Whoever breaks this law deserves a fine. [Anyone who breaks
this law deserves a fine][universal (nonspecific) person]

Nominal Relative Clauses: Ambiguity

In certain occasions ambiguity may arise especially when it is
difficult to decide whether the wh-clause is nominal relative or
wh-interrogative. This will lead us to think of two
interpretations. Consider the following examples:
• They asked me what I knew.
Relative Interpretation: [They asked me things that I knew]
Interrogative interpretation: [They asked me “what do you
know?”]
Think of relative and interrogative interpretations of the
following sentences:
• What she wrote was a mystery.
• Do you remember when we got lost?

Nominal Relative VS Adjectival Relative Clauses

Nominal relative clauses and adjectival relative clauses are very
much like each other except for the adjectival relative clauses
the antecedent is present and the relative clause is used to
define it. Whereas in nominal relative clauses the wh- element
is merged with its antecedent. Consider the following
examples:
• That’s not the bus which goes to the city center. [AR]
• That’s not which goes to the city center. [NR]
• This is the hotel where we stayed for our honeymoon. [AR]
•This is where we stayed for our honymoon.[NR]