Clauses and Moods

byPrashanth Kamle

Under the guidance of Prof. Pushpak BhattachharyaDepartment of Computer Science

IIT Bombay

Overview

• What are clauses?

• Finite and Non-finite clauses

• Properties

• Moods

Clause

Group of words that forms part of a sentence, has a Subject & a predicate of its own

Types of sentences

• Simple

– 1 subject, 1 predicate, only 1 Finite Verb• His courage won him honour.

• Compound– Made up of 2 (or more) independent (main) clauses

– Joined by co-ordinating conjunction and, but etc• Ram went to Nagpur and Shyam went to Pune

• I did my best, nevertheless I failed.

Types of sentences (contd)

• Complex sentence contains– One main clause

– One or more subordinate clauses

• They rested when the night came on

– “when night came on” cannot be a sentence by itself

– Hence lower rank, called subordinate clause

• Anil called at 5:30 and I told him that you had gone out

Types of clauses

• Based on the verb

– Finite

– Non-finite

Finite and non-finite verbs

Finite Verbs inflected by tense and person

I/he/she/it was late You/we/they were late

Non-finite Verbs are not inflected by tense and person

Non finite clauses - types

1.Infinitive – I've never known [ John to be so rude to anyone ]

2.Gerundial – We don't want [ it raining on your birthday ]

3.Past participle – I had [ my car stolen from the car park ]

Tests to detect finite/non-finite

Change tense/person and see whether verb gets inflected

It would be silly [ for me/you/him/her/us/them to hate science ]

It would be silly [ for him/her to hates science ] It would have been silly [ for you/them to hated

science ] Any clause which contains a modal is finite

I know [ that you will/might/could/should hate science ]

Observations

Clause containing inflected verb or modal is finite

Is the converse true? Not always!

I know [ that you leave for Hawaii tomorrow ] I demand [ that you leave for Hawaii tomorrow ]

Both indicative and subjunctive clauses are finite

Why are subjunctive clauses finite?

Both Indicative and Subjunctive clauses share certain morphosyntactic properties

Property 1

Both indicative and subjuntive clauses MUST take a subject, non-finite clauses can be subjectless Indicative: I know [ that leaves for Hawaii tomorrow ] Subjunctive: I demand [ that leave for Hawaii

tomorrow ] Infinitive: I intend [ to leave for Hawaii tomorrow ] Gerund: I intend [ leaving for Hawaii tomorrow ]

Property 2

• Subjunctive clauses pattern like indicative clauses with respect to case marking

Cases

• English personal pronouns are typically said to have three morphological cases

Nominative I he we they

Objective me him us them

Genetive my his our their

Property 2 (contd)

• Subject of subjunctive and indicative clauses are always assigned nominative case

– I know [ that they/them/their leave for Hawaii tomorrow ]

– I demand [ that they/them/their leave for Hawaii tomorrow ]

• Subject of infinitive clauses is assigned objective case

– I want [ them/their/they to leave for Hawaii tomorrow

Property 2 (contd)

• Gerund clauses take either objective or genetive case

– I don't like the idea of [ them/their/they leaving for Hawaii tomorrow ]

Therefore, subjunctive clauses have been classified as finite

Moods

Mood

Mood is a term in grammar that identifies utterances as being statements, expressions of wish, commands, questions, etc

'Mood' is derived from 'mode', but at some stage the vowel changed by association with the completely different word 'mood', meaning a state of mind

Moods in English grammar

Declarative/Indicative Subjunctive Imperative Interrogative Conditional

Declarative mood

a statement in the active voice of a verb auxiliaries take their "usual" position following

the 'subject' He was seen I am walking home. They are singing. He is not a dancer. We are very happy.

Subjunctive mood

Used to express counterfactual or if-then statements

Typically marked in the present tense by the auxiliary "were" plus the continuous (-ing) form of the verb

I am eating, so I will sit. (Factual/Declarative) Were I eating, I would sit. (Counterfactual) If they were eating, they would sit. (Counterfactual

conditional / If-then) God save the king (subjunctive) If I were you... (subjunctive)

Conditional mood

Denote or imply a probable future action verbal auxiliaries could, would, should, may and

might in combination with the root stem of the verb

I may think of quitting You could go to the store I might meet you tomorrow

Imperative mood

used for commands or instructions occurs only in the second person, and the

subject ("you") is generally not explicitly stated Listen! Do not smoke here. Let me do the talking. Let them dance.

Interrogative mood

Question marked by starting a clause with an auxiliary

verb or a WH-word Can you do that? What time is it?

References

• Transformational Grammar by Andrew Radford

• Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_grammar accessed 24 Aug 2009