SYNTAX OUTLINES

Syntax is the grammatical structure of sentences. The format in which words and phrases are arranged to create
sentences is called syntax.
Syntax is not about meaning! Sentences can have no sense and still be grammatically correct:
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. – nonsense, but grammatically correct (Chomsky)
*Sleep ideas colorless furiously green. – grammatically incorrect

A. THE SENTENCE
What is a Sentence?
■ A sentence is a complete set of words that conveys meaning. It is a sequence of words whose first word starts with a
capital letter and whose last word is followed by an end punctuation mark (period/full stop or question mark or
exclamation mark).
■ A sentence is a unit of speech whose grammatical structure conforms to the laws of the language and which serves as
the chief means of conveying a thought. A sentence is not only a means of communicating something about reality but
also a means of showing the speaker's attitude to it. (Kaushanskaya)

Structure
A sentence is composed of one or more clauses. A clause contains a subject and a verb.

Independent and Dependent Clauses

■ There are two types of clauses: independent clauses and dependent clauses. A sentence contains at least one
independent clause and may contain one or more dependent clauses.
• An independent clause (or main clause)
~ is a complete thought.
~ can stand by itself.
• A dependent clause (or subordinate clause)
~ is an incomplete thought.
~ cannot stand by itself.
Independent clause: When I go to the movies, I usually buy popcorn.
Dependent clause: When I go to the movies, I usually buy popcorn.
Independent clause: I don’t like the ocean because sharks scare me.
Dependent clause: I don’t like the ocean because sharks scare me.

Different types of sentences according to their structure

■ From the point of view of their structure sentences can be divided into: simple and composite (compound, complex
and compound-complex).

Structure

Quasi-sentences
Simple Composite

Compound Complex
One-member Two-member

Compound-complex

• Simple Sentences
Definition A simple sentence contains one independent clause.
Examples Johnny rode his bike to school.
Who is your best friend?
She ate her lunch, took a walk, and went back to work.
• Compound Sentences
Definition A compound sentence contains two independent clauses. A coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor,
but, or, yet, so) often links the two independent clauses and is preceded by a comma.
Examples She wanted to go on vacation, so she saved up her money.
I like apples, but my sister loves bananas.
Tim loves to read, and he also loves to hike.

• Complex Sentences
Definition A complex sentence contains one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses. A
complex sentence will include at least one subordinating conjunction.
Examples She went to class even though she was sick.
As John was arriving to work, he realized he forgot his lunch.
While I enjoy classical music, I prefer rock and roll because I play the drums.

• Compound-Complex Sentences
Definition A compound-complex sentence combines complex sentence and compound sentence forms. A
compound-complex sentence contains two or more independent clauses and one or more
dependent clauses.
Examples Although she felt guilty for missing her friend’s birthday, she took her out to dinner the next day,
and they had a great time.
I try to eat healthy food, but because fast food is so convenient, I cannot maintain a healthy diet.
A tree fell onto the school roof in a storm, but none of the students was injured, although many of
them were in classrooms at the top of the building.

• Single words that form a full sentence are known as word sentences (quasi-sentences). Ordinary sentences are
characterized by a subject-predicate base. They describe a situation of the objective reality, while quasi-sentences do
not contain any information, they have no subject-predicate base. They are sentences used to merely express emotions
or salutation sentences or sentences-addresses or formula-like sentences used for metacommunication purposes.
E.g. Alas. Yes. Hello!

Different types of sentences according to their function (purpose)

■ According to the purpose of the utterance we distinguish four kinds of sentences.

Purpose

Declarative Interrogative

Exclamatory Imperative

• A declarative sentence
Definition A declarative sentence states a fact in the affirmative or negative form. In a declarative sentence
the subject precedes the predicate. Declarative sentences always end with a period/full stop.
Examples My parents like to watch bullfights.
He is not as friendly as he looks.
That hotel restaurant serves minced crocodile meat.

• An interrogative sentence
Definition An interrogative sentence asks a question and ends in a question mark. This distinguishes it from
the other types of sentences: the inversion of the normal subject-verb order with the verb or verb
phrase coming before the subject.
Examples Do you expect me to believe what you just said?
When are we going to the haunted castle tonight?
Is there enough money for us to dine in that restaurant?
• An imperative sentence
Definition An imperative sentence gives an instruction, expresses a command or issue a request. The subject
is not normally shown in an imperative sentence, while the verb used is always in the base
form. The implied subject is understood to be you.
Examples Bake it in the oven until golden brown.
Don't just stand there; do something, anything to show you are busy
Please get me a carton of frozen yogurt on your way home.

• An exclamatory sentence
Definition An exclamatory sentence conveys strong feeling such as excitement, surprise, anger or shock. It
typically ends with an exclamation mark (!).
Examples Bake it in the oven until golden brown.
Don't just stand there; do something, anything to show you are busy
Please get me a carton of frozen yogurt on your way home.

B. THE SIMPLE SENTENCE

■ The simple sentence is a sentence with only one independent clause (also known as a main clause), so it contains a
subject and a verb (predicate). It does not contain either a dependent clause or another simple sentence.

Structure of a simple sentence

■ In a sentence like Helen sighed there obviously are two main parts: Helen, which denotes the doer of the action and is
called (grammatical) subject, and sighed, which denotes the action performed by the subject and is called
(grammatical) predicate. Sentences having this basic structure, i.e. a word (a phrase) to denote the doer of the action
and another word (or phrase) to denote the action, are termed two-member sentences.

■ A two-member sentence may be complete or incomplete.

• It is complete when it has a subject and a predicate.
Blake and Leighton decided to return their surfboards back to the van.
Have you received your birthday gift yet?
• It is incomplete when one of the principal parts or both of them are missing, but can be easily understood from the
context. Such sentences are called elliptical and are mostly used in colloquial speech and especially in dialogue.
Best not to see her again. Best to forget all about her.
What were you doing? Drinking. (Shaw)
Who does it for Mr. George? James, of course.
Where were you yesterday? At the cinema.

■ There are sentences which do not contain two separate parts, in these sentences there is only one main part: the
other main part is not there and it could not even be supplied, at least not without a violent change in the structure of
the sentence. Examples of such sentences, which are accordingly termed one-member sentences, are the following:
Fire! Come on!
There is no separate main part of the sentences, the grammatical subject, and no other separate main part, the
grammatical predicate.

■ One-member sentences in English are of two types: nominal sentences and verbal sentences.
• Nominal sentences are those in which the principal part is expressed by a noun or another grammatical structure of a
pronominal nature. They state the existence of the things expressed by them. They are typical of descriptions.
Night. A lady's bed-chamber.
The sixth of March.
• Verbal sentences are those in which the principal part is expressed by a non-finite form of the verb, either an infinitive
or a gerund. Infinitive and gerundial one-member sentences are mostly used to describe different emotional
perceptions of reality.
To think of that! To think that he should have met her again in this way!
Living at the mercy of a woman!

■ According to the presence of secondary parts simple sentences, both two-member and one-member, can be
unextended (unexpanded) and extended (expanded).
• A sentence consisting only of the primary or principal parts is called an unextended sentence.
She is a student. – two-member, unextended
Birds fly. – two-member, unextended
Silence. Summer. Midnight. – one-member, unextended

• An extended sentence is a sentence consisting of the subject, the predicate and one or more various optional
elements (including attributes, certain kinds of prepositional objects and adverbial modifiers).
John ran quickly to me. – two-member, extended
Dusk of a summer night. The grass, this good, soft, lush grass. English spring flowers! – one-member, extended

C. PARTS OF THE SENTENCE

Sentence Parts

Principal/Main Secondary Independent

Addressing
Subject Predicate Object Attribute enclosure

Adverbial Parenthetical Interjection

Modifier enclosure enclosure

• The principal parts of the sentence are the subject and the predicate. The subject is a person-modifier of the
predicate. The predicate is a process-modifier of the subject-person. They constitute the backbone of the sentence. The
secondary parts of the sentence are the object, the attribute, the adverbial modifier.
• The secondary parts of the sentence modify the principal parts or each other. The object is a substance-modifier of a
processual part. The attribute is a quality-modifier of a substantive part. The adverbial is a quality-modifier of a
processual part or the whole of the sentence.
• Besides these two kinds of sentence components there are so-called independent elements, that is, elements
standing outside the structure of the sentence, and therefore of lesser importance. The independent elements are the
parenthetical enclosure, the addressing enclosure, the interjectional enclosure. The parenthetical enclosure is a
detached speaker-bound modifier of any sentence-part or the whole of the sentence. The addressing enclosure
(address) is a substantive modifier of the destination of the sentence and hence, from its angle, a modifier of the
sentence as a whole. The interjectional enclosure is a speaker-bound emotional modifier of the sentence.

D. PRINCIPAL PARTS
Subject
■ The subject is the principal part of a two-member sentence which grammatically independent of the other parts of
the sentence and on which the second principal part (the predicate) is grammatically dependent, i. e. in most cases it
agrees with the subject in number and person. The subject can denote a living being, a lifeless thing or an idea.

• Subjects are typically nouns or other pronominal units and any dependent words before or after it:
The teacher told the class to sit down. (determiner + noun)
Doesn’t he eat meat? (pronoun)
Spring is like a breath of fresh air after a winter indoors. (noun)
Callum is so good at sport. (proper noun)
They don’t open the shop on Sundays. (pronoun)
Surfing is becoming more and more popular. (gerund)
The wounded were taken good care of. (substantivized adjective)
Of course, the two were quite unable to do anything. (numeral)
To live is to work. (infinitive)
Examples of the work of the four artists will be in an exhibition at the Tate Gallery from Nov 4–29. (a syntactically
indivisible group)
• Dummy subjects
Sometimes we need to use a ‘dummy’ subject where there is no other subject to put in the subject position. We
use it or there as subjects:
It’s not raining, is it?
It’s strange the way the weather changes so quickly.
There are lots of things to do here in the city centre.

• It as the subject
IT

Notional Formal

Personal Demonstrative Introductory/

Impersonal
Anticipatory

Emphatic
Don’t drink the milk. It smells terrible. – notional personal
It’s the best flat we’ve seen so far, isn’t it? – notional demonstrative
I know it’s going to rain today! – formal impersonal (denotes natural phenomena)
It’s getting a bit late now, so let’s watch a DVD at home, shall we? – formal impersonal (denotes time and distance)
It’s good that she’s doing more exercise. (or, more formally: That she’s doing more exercise is good.) – formal
introductory (introduces or ‘anticipates’ the subject or object of a sentence, especially when the subject or object of the
sentence is a clause. Most commonly, such clauses are to + infinitive and that clauses.)
It was nice to talk with them again. (or, more formally: To talk with them again was nice.) – formal introductory
(introduces or ‘anticipates’ the subject or object of a sentence, especially when the subject or object of the sentence is a
clause. Most commonly, such clauses are to + infinitive and that clauses.)
It was his sister who ran the marathon in New York, wasn’t it? – formal emphatic
It's great living here. – formal introductory (to express opinions)
It's nice to meet you. – formal introductory (to express opinions)

We also use it when a clause is the subject of a verb such as appear, seem, look, occur, which soften the statement,
making it less direct:
It seems they’ve all lost contact since they met at the wedding.
It occurred to me that we might visit them while we are in South Africa.

Predicate
■ The predicate is the second principal part of the sentence which expresses an action, state, or quality of the person or
thing denoted by the subject. It is grammatically dependent upon the subject.

■ The predicate may be considered from the semantic or from the structural point of view. According to the meaning of
its components, the predicate may denote an action, a state, a quality, or an attitude to some action or state ascribed to
the subject. These different meanings find their expression in the structure of the predicate and the lexical meaning of
its constituents.
Predicate

Simple Compound Mixed Phraseological

Modal
Compound Compound
Nominal Verbal
Aspect
► The simple predicate is expressed by a finite verb.
Adam lives in Bangor.
The telegram contained exciting news.
► The compound nominal predicate : link V + predicative (i.e. complement = a nominal part of speech: N/ Adj/ ProN)
We completed the project and won a prize.
The mail was late.
► The compound verbal modal predicate : a modal verb / phrase /a verb with a modal meaning + non-finite verb form
You should have told me about it yesterday.
He is sure to be waiting for us.
After getting lost, Susan decided to learn how to read maps.
► The compound verbal aspect predicate : a verb with the meaning of the beginning, repetition, duration or cessation
of the action + non-finite verb form
I kept glancing at her through the rest of the play.
I used to write poetry myself when I was his age.
That view had come to give him a feeling of ease and happiness.
► There is a type of predicate in which we have elements of two types of predicates – the mixed predicate. Such
predicates contain three components.
~ The compound modal nominal predicate.
He greatly longed to be the next heir himself.
Don't think I mean to be unkind.
~ The compound aspect nominal predicate.
The grey house had ceased to be a house for family life.
I began to feel rather hungry.
~ The compound modal aspect predicate.
And all the while he felt the presence of Pat and had to keep on resisting the impulse to turn round.
Something happened nearly a year ago that altered my whole life. I had to begin living all over again.
He ought to stop doing nothing and criticizing everybody.
► There is a special kind of predicate expressed by a phraseological unit, such as to get rid, to take care, to pay
attention, to lose sight, to have a wash, to give a push, etc.
When we clear the forests we get rid of such inconveniences.
I went to the bathroom and had a good wash for it had been a dusty journey.
She gave an unkind throaty laugh.
The characteristic feature of this predicate is that the first component, i. e. the finite verb, has lost its concrete meaning
to a great extent and forms one unit with the noun, consequently the noun cannot be regarded as an object to the verb.
This can also be easily proved by the impossibility of putting a question to the second component.

E. SECONDARY PARTS
Object
■ The object is a noun, a noun phrase, or a pronoun that is affected by the action of a verb.

Types of Objects
Objects can be:
► Direct objects are the results of action. A subject does something, and the product is the object itself. It is the thing
or person that is affected by the action of the verb.
They didn’t take their mountain bikes with them.
A: Have you seen the car keys?
B: Yes I had seen them earlier.
► Indirect objects receive or respond to the outcome of an action. An indirect object is usually a person (or animal)
who receives a direct object. The indirect object always needs a direct object with it and goes before the direct object.
She gave the dog its dinner.
Do I owe you some money?
► Objects of a preposition (prepositional) are nouns and pronouns in a phrase that modifies the meaning of a verb and
are managed by prepositions.
My childhood was passed with a grandmother. (Dickens)
I want to thank you for your kindness.
► Cognate objects
There is a special kind of object in English which has the following peculiarities.

~ It is used with intransitive verbs though it has no preposition.

~ It is expressed by a noun which is either of the same root as the verb or is similar to it in meaning.
But she died a dreadful death, poor soul...
He’s lived a life and traveled the world lifting people’s spirits, sights, motivation.
He slept a deep leaden sleep, and dreamed of the submarine.
Rachel smiles a pretend smile back.
They had danced a single dance in London, and now they spent an afternoon together.
The warrior died a horrible death and had been dragged into the pits of hell.
► Complex object
The direct and the prepositional indirect object may be simple and complex.
The complex object consists of two components, of which the second stands in predicate relation to the first. The two
components form an indivisible unit and consequently must be regarded as one part of the sentence. The complex
object can be non-prepositional and prepositional.
I observed Agnes turn pale.
Thus these two waited with impatience for the three years to be over.
The first component of the complex object is a noun in the common case or in the possessive case, a personal pronoun
in the objective case, or a possessive pronoun; the second is an infinitive, a participle, a gerund, seldom a noun, an
adjective, a word denoting state, or a prepositional phrase.
He hated her to work in the boarding house.
On looking towards her again, I perceived her face clouded with embarrassment.
He could see the man and Great Beaver talking together.
She thinks herself very clever.
As he spoke, he felt himself unusually on edge.

• It as the object
IT

Notional Formal /
Introductory

Sometimes the pronoun it is used as a real (notional) object.

She pulled out a cigarette and let it dangle between her lips unlighted.
But sometimes it only introduces a real object expressed by an infinitive or gerundial phrase or by a subordinate clause.
In this case it is a formal introductory object. The formal it is mostly used after certain verbs followed by adjectives
(sometimes nouns). Here belong such verbs as to think, to find, to consider; to make, etc.
He found it impossible to utter the next word. – notional
She made it clear from the beginning that she had come with Bing. – formal introductory (introduces or ‘anticipates’
the subject or object of a sentence, especially when the subject or object of the sentence is a clause. Most commonly,
such clauses are to + infinitive and that clauses.)

Attribute
■ The attribute is a secondary part of the sentence which qualifies a noun, a pronoun, or any other part of speech that
has a nominal character. The attribute can be either in pre-position or in post-position to the word it modifies.
The attribute of a noun may be an adjective, a noun, a pronoun, a numeral, an adverb, a participle, a gerund, an
infinitive or a phrase.
Fresh milk is wholesome. (Attribute – an adjective)
The room above is large. (Attribute – an adverb)
His voice shook. (Attribute – a possessive adjective)
He himself said this. (Attribute – an emphatic pronoun)
A rolling stone gathers no moss. (Attribute – a participle)
She hated the idea of borrowing. (Attribute – a prepositional gerundial phrase)
Birds of the same feather flock together. (Attribute – a prepositional phrase)
His will to live pulled him through the difficult times. (Attribute – an infinitive)
■ The apposition is a special type of the attribute which is expressed by a noun, often with accompanying words.
~ The close apposition consists of a proper name and a common name which explains it. E.g. Professor Brown, Mount
Doom, the city of London.
~ When we use two noun phrases next to each other in a clause, and they refer to the same person or thing, we call this
the loose or detached apposition. The loose or detached apposition follows the modified word and is separated by
commas. The second noun phrase tells us something more about the first noun phrase (its identity or its qualities).
The living room, the biggest room in the house, looks out on to a beautiful garden. (The living room and the biggest
room in the house are the same room.)
Timothy, their youngest child, is very musical. (Timothy and their youngest child are the same person.)

We can also reverse the order of the phrases:

The biggest room in the house, the living room, looks out on to a beautiful garden.
Their youngest child, Timothy, is very musical.
Prof. Brown, our teacher, knows something.
Kennedy, President of America, was assassinated.

Compare

commas no commas

My brother, Philip, works at the local My brother Mark is a police officer. My brother Joe is still at university. (The
museum. (The speaker probably only speaker has more than one brother. Mark and Joe specify which brother
has one brother.) we are talking about.)

Adverbial modifier
■ The adverbial modifier is a secondary part of the sentence which modifies a verb, an adjective or an adverb.

According to their meaning we distinguish the following kinds of adverbial modifiers.

► Adverbial Modifier of Place and Direction. Identifying questions: where? where to? where? how far? where from?:
He lives far from his parents.
► Adverbial Modifier of Time. Identifying questions: when? how often? how long?:
We owned an Alsatian dog once.
► Adverbial Modifier of Manner. Identifying questions: how? in what way? by what means? Prepositions which may
introduce them: with, without, by, by means of, with the help of, etc.:
Hooper danced badly, but with great energy.
► Adverbial Modifier of Cause (Reason). Identifying questions: why? for what reason? Prepositions which may
introduce them: because of, due to, owing to, on account of, for the reason of, thanks to, etc.:
Thanks to my parents I got a decent education.
► Adverbial Modifier of Purpose. Identifying questions: what for? for what purpose? Prepositions which may introduce
them: in order, so as ( never used before an infinitive complex), for (introduces nominal or gerundial phrases):
Jane has come to help us.
► Adverbial Modifier of Result. It refers to an adjective or adverb accompanied by an adverb of degree too, enough,
sufficiently, so… (as; too signals a negative result; enough suggests a necessary amount of quality to perform the action;
sometimes modifies a noun with qualitative meaning; so… as implies a realized action:
It is too cold to go out.
► Adverbial Modifier of Condition. Identifying questions: in what case? on what condition? Prepositions which may
introduce them: but for, except for, without; conjunctions if, unless:
Without faith there can be no cure.
►Adverbial Modifier of Concession. It shows an idea that is in contradiction with what is stated in the modified part of
the sentence. Identifying questions: in spite of what? Prepositions which may introduce them: in spite of,
despite, conjunctions though, although, if:
Despite his smile, the man was difficult to deal with.
► Adverbial Modifier of Attendant Circumstances and Subsequent Events. It states a fact that accompanies the event
presented by the modified part of the sentence or an event following the event presented:
We walked three miles without meeting anyone.
He woke up to see that it was daylight
► Adverbial Modifier of Comparison. Conjunctions introducing them: than, as, as if, as though, etc.:
A mountain is higher than a hill.
► Adverbial Modifier of Degree. Identifying questions: how much? to what extent?:
The story is extremely long.
F. INDEPENDENT PARTS
The independent elements of the sentence are words and word- groups which are not grammatically dependent on any
part of the sentence. They are:
■ Interjections, such as ah, oh, hurrah, eh, hallo, goodness, gracious, good heavens, etc.
Bah! That was a total waste of time.
Bless you! I couldn't have done it without you.
Humph. He probably cheated to make such good grades.
Oh dear! I don't know what to do about this mess.
■ Direct address.
Good morning, sweet child!
Ladies and gentlemen, the play is about to begin.
Excuse me, sir, you dropped something.
■ Parenthesis.
Unfortunately, it will be you who will have to explain that to him.
But you shouldn't pay him to-night, anyway, you're his guest.
Besides, you know, I'm a pensioner, anyway. That makes me 65, to begin with.

E. THE COMPOUND SENTENCE

■ The compound sentence is a composite polypredicative construction built on the principle of coordination.
Coordination can be expressed either syndetically or asyndetically:
• syndetically, i.e. by means of coordinating conjunctions (and, or, else, but, etc.) or conjunctive adverbs (otherwise,
however, nevertheless, yet, etc.). E.g.: The darkness was thinning, but the street was still dimly lighted.
• asyndetically, i.e. without a conjunction or conjunctive adverb. E.g.: The rain fell softly, the house was quiet. (Collins).

■ The main semantic relations between the clauses connected coordinatively are copulative, adversative, disjunctive,
and causative-consecutive. Accordingly we can distinguish the corresponding types of coordination.
► Copulative coordination (єднальний зв’язок) expressed by the conjunctions and, nor, neither … nor, not only … but
(also). With the help of these conjunctions the statement expressed in one clause is simply added to that expressed in
another.
It was a nice little place and Mr. And Mrs. Smith were proud of it.
► Disjunctive coordination (розділовий зв’язок) expressed by the conjunctions or, else, or else, either…or, and the
conjunctive adverb otherwise. By these a choice is offered between the statements expressed in two clauses.
He knew it to be nonsense or it would have frightened him.
► Adversative coordination (протиставний зв’язок) expressed by the conjunctions but, while, whereas and the
conjunctive adverbs nevertheless, still, yet. These are conjunctions and adverbs connecting two clauses contrasting in
meaning.
The room was dark, but the street was lighter because of its lamps.
►Causative-consecutive coordination (причинно-наслідковий зв’язок) expressed by the conjunctions for, so and the
conjunctive adverbs therefore, accordingly, consequently, hence. For introduces coordinate clauses explaining the
preceding statement. Therefore, so, consequently, hence, accordingly introduce coordinate clauses denoting cause,
consequence and result.
After all, the two of them belonged to the same trade, so talk was easy and happy between them.

F. THE COMPLEX SENTENCE

■ The complex sentence is a composite polypredicative construction built up on the principle of subordination. The
complex sentence of minimal composition includes two clauses – a principal one and a subordinate one.

■ The subordinate clause is joined to the principal clause either by a subordinating connector (subordinator) or, with
some types of clauses, asyndetically, without subordinators.
• Syndetically, i. e. by means of subordinating conjunctions or connectives. E.g.: He thought that the train arrived at 6.
• Asyndetically, i. e. without a conjunction or connective. E.g.: The book you gave me is very interesting.
■ The subordinate clauses are:
► the subject clause;
► the predicative clause;
►the object clause;
► the attributive clause;
► the adverbial clause.

►The subject clauses perform the function of subject to the predicate of the principle clause and answer the
questions Who? What? E.g.: What you say is interesting. Subject clause are connected with the principal clause by
means of that, whether, if, who (whom), whose, what, which, when, where, how, why, whoever, whatever.
► The predicative clauses perform the function of a predicative nominal part of the predicate. E.g.: The trouble is that I
have lost his address. Predicative clause is connected with the principal clause by means of the same subordinators as
in case with subject clauses: that, if, whether, as if, as though, what, when… E.g.: The difficulty is whether we shall be
able to get documents in time.
► The object clauses perform the function of an object to the predicate-verb of the principal clause and answer the
questions Whom? What? About what? For what? E.g.: He told us that he felt ill. Object clauses are connected with the
principal clause by means of the same subordinators as in case with subject and predicative clauses: that, if, whether, as
if, as though, what, when. E.g.: He told them what he had seen there.
► The attributive clauses serve as an attribute to a noun (pronoun) in the principal clause. This noun or pronoun is
called the antecedent of the clause. Attributive sentence answer the questions What? Which? E.g.: I know the man
(antecedent) whom you mean.
► The Adverbial clauses perform the function of an adverbial modifier. It can modify a verb, an adverbial modifier. It
can modify a verb, an adjective or an adverb in the principal clause. According to their meaning we distinguish the
following kinds of adverbial clauses of: time; place; cause
(reason); purpose; condition; concession; result; manner; comparison.

G. THE COMPOUND-COMPLEX SENTENCE

■ The compound-complex sentence combines elements of compound and complex sentences. A compound-complex
sentence is comprised of at least two independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses.
Though Mitchell prefers watching romantic films, he rented the latest spy thriller, and he enjoyed it very much.
There was a song in every heart; and if the heart was young the music issued at the lips.
When we won the state championship, the team captain jumped for joy, and the fans cheered.

H. PARENTHECAL CLAUSES
■ Besides all the types of clauses mentioned above, there is a special type of clause called the parenthetical clause.
Parenthetical clauses are often called comment clauses, because they do not simply add to the information given in the
sentence, but comment on its truth, the manner of saying it, or express the attitude of the speaker toward it. In some
cases it is direct address to the listener or reader.
You are, I am afraid, far more urgently in need of medical advice than your daughter.
The next and last step in the investigation brought matters, as they say, to a crisis.
Her singing is something quite exceptional, I think.
He waited (which was his normal occupation) and thought, like other citizens, of the cost of living...
Besides, you know, I'm a pensioner.