HANOI UNIVERSITY

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

ASSIGNMENT

TOPIC: Five syntactic functions of subordinate

clauses in Charles Dickens’ short stories

Supervisor: Vu Thi Thanh Thuy, M.A.

Students:
1. Phùng Thanh Vân; Student‟s ID: 1807010330
2. Nguyễn Như Phương; Student‟s ID: 1807010236
3. Lê Phương Liên; Student‟s ID: 1807010154
4. Vũ Vân Trang; Student‟s ID: 1807010323

Hanoi, November 16, 2021

 STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY

This is to certify that to the best of our knowledge, the content of this paper is
our own work. This paper has not been submitted for any degree or other purposes.
We certify that the intellectual content of this paper is the product of our own work
and that all the assistance received in preparing this paper and sources have been
acknowledged.

Date: November 16, 2021

Group leader‟s name: Phùng Thanh Vân

Leader‟s signature:
 TABLE OF CONTENT
I. INTRODUCTION
1. Background of the study
2. Rationale
3. Scope of the study
4. Significance of the study
5. Research questions

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

1. Previous studies
2. Research gap

III. METHODS

IV. THE STUDY/ANALYSIS

1. Subordinate clauses
2. The concept of syntactic functions
3. Syntactic functions of subordinate clauses in Charles Dickens‟ short stories
3.1. Syntactic functions based on the theory of Le, Dang & Tran (2015) and Quirk et al.
(1985)
3.2. Syntactic functions of subordinate clauses in Charles Dickens‟s short stories
3.2.1. Subject
3.2.2. Object
3.2.3. Complement
3.2.4. Attribute
3.2.5. Adjunct

V. RECOMMENDATIONS & CONCLUSION

1. Recommendations
2. Conclusion

REFERENCES (APA 7th)

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I. INTRODUCTION

1. Background of the study

In English grammar, complex sentences have been the subject of much discussion. A
complex sentence comprises one main clause and at least one subordinate clause joined by a
subordinator. There are various studies investigating the nature of clause combining, notably
„subordination‟; nevertheless, not much research about subordinate clauses regarding their
syntactic functions in English literary works are put on the table. Furthermore, when it comes
to a common form of English literature which is short stories, the topic of subordinate clauses
has sparked the interest of many researchers.

2. Rationale

In the process of communicating or reading a literary work, people might face certain
challenges when they are learning, comprehending, constructing, or using complex sentences.
Regarding literary works, notably novels or short stories, people might encounter many types
of English sentences, but complex sentences tend to be used frequently. The fact that a
complex sentence includes more than one unequal clause causes people to have difficulties in
grasping the sentence‟s main idea. Therefore, it is essential to carry out research about
subordinate clauses in English literature, specifically their syntactic functions, to help
individuals extend their knowledge of the grammatical phenomena. There are numerous
literary works that contain complex sentences; however, in this paper, we select Charles
Dickens‟ short stories to analyze since they have high usage of subordinate clauses and have
few studies to be conducted.

3. Scope of the study

This paper is about „Five syntactic functions of subordinate clauses in Charles Dickens‟
short stories‟. To be more specific, in this research, several grammatical features will be
clarified: (1) subordinate clauses in English complex sentences, (2) the concept of syntactic
function in English grammar, (3) five syntactic functions of subordinate clauses in Charles
Dickens‟ short stories.

Since Charles Dickens‟ literature reservoirs are potential for studies of grammatical
phenomena, the researchers chose data from four of his notable short stories for this analysis
with an aim to better learners‟ understanding of five syntactic functions of subordinate clauses
in these literary works. The four stories, by name, Hunted Down, The Child‟s Story, A
Message from the Sea, and The Poor Relation‟s Story are all written with concrete plots.

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 Hunted Down is a detective story where a Mr. Julius Slinkton is suspected by
Sampson to be more than meets the eyes. The suspicion turned out more dire as Slinkton
shows up more frequently in Sampson's life with a horrid crime to be committed.

The Child‟s Story is a parable about the life's journey of a traveler who was on a magic
journey to nowhere. Each person that he met on this trip had their own favorite things to do
and always disappeared afterward. In the end, those friends showed up in front of him and he
realized that they were the reflection of him from time to time.

A Message from the Sea is a story about a fisherman who finds a bottle with a message
from survivors of a wrecked boat. He joined the crew to locate the survivors and rescued
them.

The Poor Relation‟s Story is about the poor relation who narrates the story of his life
at a holiday feast hosted by a rich relation, which is dominated by his being his own worst
enemy by being soft and naive rather than hard and smart.

4. Significance of the study

The research is believed to assist learners in having more insights into syntactic
functions of subordinate clauses that appeared not only in Charles Dickens‟ short stories but
also in other English literary works. Furthermore, learners might find it easier to identify and
distinguish different syntactic functions of subordinate clauses.

5. Research questions

a. What is a subordinate clause in English complex sentences?

b. What is the concept of syntactic function in English grammar?

c. What are the syntactic functions of subordinate clauses in short stories of Charles Dickens?

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

1. Previous studies

The syntactic functions of clauses types of sentences, including complex sentences,

have been widely studied by researchers as both theories and empirical applications. As a
result, a great number of books and journal articles have been published to provide profound
knowledge about this grammar point.

The first established publication that discussed the concept syntactic function of
subordinate clauses is titled “A comprehensive grammar of the English language” and
published under the supervision of Cambridge University Press. In this monumental work,

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Randolph Quirk, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, and Jan Svartvik (1985) distinguished
four major categories of subordinate clauses, namely nominal, adverbial, relative, and
comparative.

From the same publishing house as “A comprehensive grammar of the English

language”, the sophomore book that introduces the theory of subordinate clauses is titled “A
Student‟s Introduction to English Grammar”. In Chapter 11 of Section 2, Rodney Huddleston
and Geoffrey K. Pullum (2005) concentrated on the concept of subordinate clauses with
elaborated definition and categorization. Subordinators are also introduced as a subset of
conjunction.

More in-depth still, the journal article titled “Complex sentence and its syntactical
constituents occurred in the novel Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows” offers a minute
details of the empirical use of subordinate clauses and its respective syntactic function. With
data from the acclaimed English fantasy of J.K.Rowling, this study is distinctive of its
combined approach: subordinate clauses are analyzed both horizontally (using Quirk &
Sydney‟s (1973) framework on the universal grammar of subordinate clauses) and vertically
(using Quirk, et. al (1985) framework on syntactic tree diagrams). The findings thus show that
subordinate clauses can perform five grammatical functions, namely Subject (S), Object (O),
Complement (C), Adverbial (A), and Modifier.

2. Research gap

The most prominent research gap encompasses the mention of clauses examples.
While most studies focus on the use of subordinate clauses as introductory theories with
instances found mostly in acclaimed contemporary novels, few attempts have been made in
exploring short stories with considerably shorter lengths and denser plots. Moreover, the
quantitative method is more widely used to count the occurrences of subordinate clauses,
without penetrating their in-sentence position and function. Against such backdrop, this study
will focus on the syntactic function of subordinate clauses in classic short stories.

III. METHODS

In order to study the use of subordinate clauses extracted from English short stories,
two main methods including data collection and data analysis were used in this research. In
collecting the data, four classic short stories written by British author Charles Dickens were
chosen, namely, Hunted Down, The Child's Story, A Message from the Sea, and The Poor
Relation's Story. In these stories, Charles Dickens used complex sentences containing several
types of subordinate clauses, which fulfills our research purpose. Firstly, we read four short

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stories thoroughly to identify subordinate clauses in complex sentences and underlined the
appropriate data for analyzing. During analysis, the data were grouped into five kinds of
subordinate clauses according to the theory of Quirk et al. (1985) and Le, Dang & Tran
(2015). The selected data were then dissected using the descriptive qualitative method,
specifically by giving narrative explanations about the type of subordinate clause and its
syntactic constituent structure.

IV. THE STUDY/ANALYSIS

1. Subordinate clauses

According to Utami (n.d.), a subordinate clause is a combination of one subject and

one verb, and takes a certain function in a complex sentence's structure, making it like a single
sentence. Besides, Quirk et al. (1985) added that a subordinate clause functions as an element
of a superordinate clause, or in some situations, plays the role of a nonsymmetrical relation of
two clauses in which one is a constituent of the other. Generally, as Kaefiyah (2015)
mentioned, a subordinate clause, introduced by a subordinating conjunction, can either join
with the main clause to form a complex sentence or join with two main clauses to make up a
compound-complex sentence. Additionally, as being a dependent clause, a subordinate clause
cannot convey a complete meaningful expression or exist independently as an individual
sentence (Nugraha & Sulatra, 2020), but has to appear with the main clause and add
information to it (Bestari et al., 2021). In this paper, we define a subordinate clause as a
dependent clause that acts as an element in a complex or a compound-complex sentence. This
type of clause occurs with the main clause and plays the role of modifying the meaning of the
main clause as well as giving more details about it.

2. The concept of syntactic functions

In terms of definition, as stated by Tiono (2003), syntactic refers to the way in which
words combine into sentences as well as the rules that affect the formation of sentences.
Hence, a syntactic function can be considered as a grammatical relationship between
constituents within a clause or syntactic construction (Glossary of linguistic terms, 2021).
Regarding the types of syntactic functions, different researchers may have different ways to
classify them. Bestari et al. (2021); Nugraha & Sulatra (2020) and Komang et al. (2021) all
agreed that there are three syntactic functions containing complement, attribute, and adjunct
corresponding to three clauses: complement, relative and adverbial clause. Meanwhile, Utami
(n.d.) in his research about complex sentence and its syntactic constituent stated five syntactic
functions: subject and object, adjunct, attribute, complement, and subject complement
equivalent to five clauses: nominal, adverbial, relative, non-finite, and verbless clause.
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 In this paper, base on two books: A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language
by Quirk et al. (1985) and A Grammar of the English language by Le, Dang & Tran (2015),
we concern five types of clauses: subjective clause, objective clause, complement clause,
attributive clause and adverbial clause, which respectively express five types of syntactic
functions including (1) subject, (2) object, (3) complement, (4) attribute and (5) adjunct.

3. Syntactic functions of subordinate clauses in Charles Dickens’ short stories

3.1. Syntactic functions based on the theory of Le, Dang & Tran (2015) and Quirk et
al. (1985)

Specifically, each type of syntactic function has the description as follows:

(1) Subject: the subordinate clause as subject (S) can either stand in the initial position
before the verb or come after the subject in a sentence. It functions as the subject to the
predicate of the main clause.

(2) Object: the subordinate clause as object (O) comes in the medial position of the
complex sentence or follows the subject (S) and the verb phrase (VP). It functions as the
object and modifies the main verb of the sentence.

(3) Complement: the subordinate clause as complement (C) comes after the verb be or
copular verb such as become, look, seem, etc. It functions as a complement (C) and gives
more information to subject (S) of the sentence.

(4) Attribute: the subordinate clause as attribute is called antecedent and serves as an
attribute to noun or pronoun in the main clause. For example, a subordinate clause which
functions as an adjective (Adj.) adds further information for the preceded noun (N) in a
sentence

(5) Adjunct: subordinate clause as adjunct is indicated by indicators of adverbial, such

as when, where, before, if which add more information related to time, place, manner, reasons,
etc. for the main clause.

3.2. Syntactic functions of subordinate clauses in Charles Dickens’s short stories

3.2.1. Subject

(1) “What the captain and the young fisherman made out together, after much re-reading
and much humouring of the folds of the paper, is given on the next page.” (A Message from
the Sea, chap. 2)

The subordinate clause in the complex sentence above is ‟What the captain and the
young fisherman made out together‟ belongs to subjective clause because it stands in the
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initial position and its initial element is the subordinate conjunction ‟What‟. The grammatical
function of the subordinate clause is functioning as the subject of the sentence to the predicate
„is given on the next page‟ of the main clause.

What the captain and the young fisherman made out together, after much re-reading and
much
S A
humouring of the folds of the paper, is given on the next page.
V
(2) “How he availed himself of it is all that remains to tell.” (A Message from the Sea, chap.
5)

From the data above, the subordinate clause ‟How he availed himself of it‟ belongs to
the subjective clause and is indicated by the subordinate conjunction „How‟ because it appears
in the initial position before the main verb ‟is‟. This clause functions as subject of the
sentence to the predicate ‟is all that remains to tell‟ of the main clause.

How he availed himself of it is all that remains to tell.

S V

3.2.2. Object

(1) “My brother considered that our father left the good name to us, to keep clear and true.”
(A Message from the Sea, chap. 1)

From the complex sentence above, the subordinate clause ‟that our father left the good
name to us, to keep clear and true‟ belongs to objective clause since it is indicated by the
subordinate conjunction „that‟ and it is preceded by the main verb ‟considered‟ and also
modifies that verb. The grammatical function of the subordinate clause is functioning as the
object of the sentence. The analysis of the grammatical function is:

My brother considered that our father left the good name to us, to keep clear and true.

S V O

(2) “Think what I have got to tell her!” (A Message from the Sea, chap. 2)

From the data above, it is shown that ‟what I have got to tell her‟ is a subordinate
clause and is the type of objective clause because it starts with the subordinate
conjunction ‟what‟ and follows the main verb ‟think‟ . It functions as the object of the
sentence and modifies the main verb ‟think‟. Besides, this subordinate clause ‟what I have got

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to tell her‟ refers to a thing which is affected by the verb ‟think‟, so it can be considered as a
direct object of the sentence.

Think what I have got to tell her!

V O

3.2.3. Complement

(1) “I am not what I am supposed to be.” (The Poor Relation‟s Story, p. 3)

From the complex sentence above, it is demonstrated clearly that the subordinate
clause is „what I am supposed to be‟ and it belongs to complement clause since it is indicated
by the subordinate clause ‟what‟ and follows the main verb ‟am‟. This complement clause
together with the link verb ‟am‟ forms a compound nominal predicate to the subject ‟I‟ of the
main clause.

I am not what I am supposed to be.

S V O

(2) “It was when I first took John Spatter into partnership.” (The Poor Relation‟s Story, p. 7)

The subordinate clause in the sentence above is ‟when I first took John Spatter into
partnership‟ belongs to complement clause, because it is indicated by the subordinate
conjunction ‟when‟ and preceded by the link verb „was‟. This complement clause together
with the link verb forms a compound nominal predicate to the subject ‟It‟ of the main clause.

It was when I first took John Spatter into partnership

S V O

3.2.4. Attribute

(1) “Late in September or early in October I was down at Scarborough for a breath of sea-air,
where I met him on the beach.” (Hunted Down, p. 18 )

In this sentence, the initial element is the subordinate „where‟, making what follows an
attributive clause. It stands after the proper noun of place ‟Scarborough‟ and right after the
adjunct ‟for a breath of sea-air‟. This subordinate clause adds further information to the
location named Scarborough by indicating that a certain seashore in this place was a past
rendezvous spot of the two characters. This sentence can be analyzed by the formation of its
constituents as follows:

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Late in September or early in October I was down at Scarborough for a breath of

A S V A

sea-air, where I met him on the beach.

When serving as an attribute, subordinate clauses are termed attributive clauses (Le,
Dang & Tran, 2015). There are two types of attributive clauses of opposite spectrums, namely
defining clauses and non-defining clauses. As on-defining clauses provide additional
information on their preceding element, their presence is entirely not mandatory for the
overall meaning of the sentence. Take the following sentence as an example:

(2) “The art of reading that book of which Eternal Wisdom obliges every human creature to
present his or her own page with the individual character written on it, is a difficult one,
perhaps, and is little studied.” (Hunted Down, p. 5)

The attributive clause in bold here is headed by the preposition „of‟ and the relative
pronoun „which‟. With this combination of preposition and subordinator, the clause serves to
express a clearer relation between the reading of the book and the writer‟s opinion on it. This
is a non-defining clause separated from other constituents using commas, so it can be omitted
without much influence on reader‟s understanding of this book in question. Assuming it is the
case, the remaining sentence remains comprehensible: „The art of reading that book is a
difficult one, perhaps, and is little studied.‟

In contrast with non-defining clauses, defining clauses, as its name may suggest,
define the antecedent and impose some restriction over the information it delivers (Le, Dang
& Tran, 2015). Commas are hardly employed to separate defining clauses from the rest of the
sentence. For instance:

(3) “He has just been expatiating on the affection that he has observed to exist between you
and your uncle.” (Hunted Down, p. 20)

As can be seen from the example, there‟s no comma between the clause and the noun
„affection‟ it accompanies. The attributive clause entails „that he has observed to exist
between you and your uncle‟. This defining clause is an important part of the sentence, and
any omission attempt could result in misunderstandings of the sentence as a whole. The word
„affection‟ mentioned in the sentence would be completely lost on readers without an
explanatory element of how it is represented between which characters.

3.2.5. Adjunct

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(1) “When it rained, they loved to watch the falling drops, and to smell the fresh scents.”
(The Child's Story, p. 3)

Looking at this example, the subordinate clause „When it rained‟ precedes and
modifies the main clause „they loved to watch the falling drops, and to smell the fresh scents‟.
This subordinate clause has function as the adverbial adjunct of time in the complex sentence
because it is introduced by the conjunction 'when' and adds more information related to the
time of the stated event in the main clause. The grammatical function of the constituents in
this complex sentence is analysed below:

When it rained, they loved to watch the falling drops, and to smell the fresh scents

A S V

(2) “The traveller lost the boy as he had lost the child.” (The Child's Story, p. 4)

This complex sentence above includes the main clause „The traveller lost the boy‟ and
the subordinate clause „as he had lost the child‟. By using the subordinating conjunction 'as',
the mentioned subordinate clause which follows and modifies the whole main clause is
categorized as the adverbial of comparison. To be more specific, the syntactic analysis of the
sentence is given as follows:

The traveller lost the boy as he had lost the child.

S V O A

(3) “Whenever these partings happened, the traveller looked at the gentleman, and saw him
glance up at the sky above the trees, where the day was beginning to decline, and the sunset
to come on.” (The Child's Story, p. 6)

In this sentence, two subordinate clauses are used to modify the meaning of the main
clause 'the traveller looked at the gentleman, and saw him glance up at the sky above the
trees'. Both subordinate clauses start with subordinating conjunctions „whenever‟ as an adverb
of time in „Whenever these partings happened‟ and „where‟ as an adverb of place in „where
the day was beginning to decline, and the sunset to come on‟. Therefore, the syntactic
functions of them are the adverbial adjunct of time and place respectively.

Whenever these partings happened, the traveller looked at the gentleman, and saw
A1 S V1 Conj. V2
him glance up at the sky above the trees, where the day was beginning to decline, and
A2
the sunset to come on.

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V. RECOMMENDATION & CONCLUSION

1. Recommendation

From the knowledge and analysis presented in previous parts, we believe that the
research can become a credible and useful source for learners to better comprehend the theory
of subordinate clauses in complex sentences and distinguish different syntactic functions of
the subordinate clauses that are occurred in not only Charles Dickens' short stories but also
literary works. Besides, researchers can utilize this study as a helpful reference in their further
research on subordinate clauses in other literary genres to figure out the similarities and
differences.

2. Conclusion

In conclusion, this study has provided basic information about the subordinate clause
and its syntactic function. From there, five categories of subordinate clauses based on
grammatical function are analyzed comprehensively and clearly in the context of four typical
short stories by Charles Dickens. Subordinate clauses used in the works of this talented author
serve as a beneficial linguistic tool to describe the thought and feeling of each character, and
also highlight the intentions of Charles Dickens.

(3536 words)

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 REFERENCES

Bestari, M. Y., Maharani, P. D., & Putra, I. G. B. W. N. (2021). Subordinate clause analysis
found in part III and IV “Gulliver‟s Travels” novel. Journal of Humanities, Social
Science, Public Administration and Management (HUSOCPUMENT), 1(2), 85-93.
https://doi.org/10.51715/husocpument.v1i2.52
Dickens, C. (1860). A Message from the Sea. Chapman and Hall.

Dickens, C. (2014). Hunted down. Project Gutenberg.

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/807/807-h/807-h.htm (Original work published 1860)
Dickens, C. (1852). The Child's story. Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing.

Dickens, C. (1852). The Poor Relation's Story.

https://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Dickens/Dickens_Relation.pdf

Huddleston, R., & Pullum, G. (2005). A Student's Introduction to English Grammar.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511815515

Kaefiyah, I. F. (2015). A syntactic analysis on sentences found in" Go Diego Go" eps. The
Artic Rescue. Jurnal Dialektika Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, 3(2), 1-15.
https://ns3.peradaban.ac.id/index.php/jdpbi/article/view/73

Komang, I. N., Bagus, W. N. P. I. G., & Nyoman, D. A. N. (2021). Subordinate clauses in the
Boscombe Valley short story. Elysian Journal: English Literature, Linguistics and
Translation Studies, 1(2), 133-142. https://e-
journal.unmas.ac.id/index.php/elysian/article/view/1592

Nugraha, W., & Sulatra, I. K. (2020). Subordinate clauses in adultery novel. Sphota: Jurnal
Linguistik dan Sastra, 12(1), 6-10. https://doi.org/10.36733/sphota.v12i1.681

Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., & Svartvik, J. (1985). A com-prehensive grammar of the
English language. London, GB: Longman.

Utami, N. P. C. P. (n.d.). Complex sentence and its syntactical constituent occurred in the
novel Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
https://scholar.googleusercontent.com/scholar?q=cache:axxp9nxE6K8J:scholar.google
.com/+COMPLEX+SENTENCE+AND+ITS+SYNTACTICAL+CONSTITUENT+O
CCURRED+IN+THE+NOVEL+HARRY+POTTER+AND+THE+DEATHLY+HAL
LOWS&hl=vi&as_sdt=0,5

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 GROUPWORK CONTRIBUTION ASSESSMENT SHEET

Date: 16/11/2021 Class: 3 Group: 9 Subject: Grammar 2

Assignment topic: Five syntactic functions of subordinate clauses in Charles Dickens‟ short
stories
Group leader‟s name: Phùng Thanh Vân
HANU email: 1807010330@s.hanu.edu.vn Tel. No.: 0837060200

Contribution (%)
Student’s (The maximum
Student’s name Special comments
ID percentage of each
member is 100%)
All of the members
1 Phùng Thanh Vân 1807010330 100%
always finish their
tasks on time and
2 Nguyễn Như Phương 1807010236 100%
support each other
with the content of the
3 Lê Phương Liên 1807010154 100% work as well as the
origin of some
4 Vũ Vân Trang 1807010323 100% documents.

Group leader
(Signature and full name)

Phùng Thanh Vân

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THE SIMILARITY REPORT (1ST PAGE) FROM TURNITIN

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