General English

Presented by : supervised by: prof. Jennifer June EvansMustapha Aboulahassan prof. Tamer Youssef

Subject clauses and related structures

Pretest

Indicate the subject clause in each sentence and identify its type( infinitive, gerund,that,or interrogative)

1. That Obama got so many votes surprised everyone.

2. for Alan to spread such an outright lie would be unthinkable.

3. Whether they will take disciplinary action against him has not been decided yet.

4.

Answers :1. That obama got so many votes ( that

clause)2. for Alan to spread such an outright lie

( infinitive clause)3. whether they will take disciplinary action

against him ( interrogative clause).4.

The outline TYPES OF SUBJECT CLAUSES USE OF SUBJECT CLAUSES IN

DISCOURSE MOVEMENT OF SUBJECT CLAUSES EXTRAPOSITION PATTERN VR.

SENTENCES WITH SUBJECT CLAUSES RELATED STRUCTURES WITH NOUN

PHRASE SUBJECTS

SUBJECT RAISING SENTENCES VR. SENTENCES WITH EXTRAPOSED THAT CLAUSES

PROBLEMS EFL/ESL STUDENTS HAVE WITH SUBJECT CLAUSES AND RELATED STRUCTURES

ACTIVITY

TYPES OF SUBJECT CLAUSES

There are four types of subject clauses that appear in subject position.

e.g. [ that he is lazy all the time] doesn’t

surprise her.

Infinitive clauses are clauses that contain a verb in its infinitive form. They are a type of nonfinite clause.

e.g. To speak fluent English requires a lot of time and work.

The infinitive clause

Infinitive clauses can appear in subject position in these cases.

Before verbs like delight and occur

Before be+adjectives like, easy and difficult

Before be+nouns including, error, mistake, offense and task.

Infinitive clauses may have a subject, which is preceded by for.

e.g. For Kamal to ignore her advice would be

foolish.

complementizer

Gerund clauses contain a verb in the present participle form, like the infinitive clause they are not marked for a tense.

e.g. Speaking fluent English requires a lot of time and work.

The gerund clause

Gerund clauses may contain as their subject. noun in the possessive forme.g. Ali’s refusing our invitation took us

completely by surprise. possessive pronoune.g. His refusing our invitation took us

completely by surprise.

Gerund clause can occur with many of the same verbs and be+adjectives and noun combinations as infinitive clauses.

Many subject infinitive clauses have gerund clause counterparts

e.g. To get an interview with him is practically impossible.

e.g. Getting an interview with him is practically impossible.

That clauses are introduced by the complementizer that and include a subject and a past or present tense.

e.g. That the earth is round was a revolutionary idea at that time .

That clauses

That clauses occur before : be+adjective including, apparent, clear,

and remarkable. e.g. That I managed to get my MA degree at

all is truly remarkable be+nouns including, accident, miracle,

result of e.g. That we continue to help each other is

the result of our collaboration.

Interrogative clauses, or embedded question clauses, begin with a wh-element and like that clause, they have a present or past tense verb or a modal.

Interrogative clause can be the subject of verbs including , bother, concern, depend on…

e.g. Whether this is the right decision or not will depend on his principles.

Interrogative clauses

Interrogative clauses can also occur before: Be+adjectives, such as arguable, certain,

obvious…e.g. How he plans to that is not obvious. Be+nouns, such as concern, issue,

matter…

e.g. Whether Brahim completes the task today or next week is not the matter.

USE OF SUBJECT CLAUSES IN DISCOURSE

Subject clauses are a vehicle for linking new information to old information.

e.g. The scientific community is now focusing

intently on finding a cure for this dreaded disease. To accomplish this goal will not be easy. It requires very expensive research.

The object NP this goal is an old information referring to finding a cure for this dreaded disease and thus linking to the preceding sentence.

Movement of Subject clauses

Extraposition : Clauses in subject position can be moved to

the end of a sentence. The subject position is filled by it.

e.g. For Khalid to ignore her advice would be stupid.

It would be stupid for Khalid to ignore her

advice .

Extraposition applies to : Infinitive clauses: with main clause verbs

including amuse,bother,delight… And be+adjective like difficult,

easy ,foolish

e.g. To understand this lesson is easy. It is easy to understand this lesson.

with that clause , extraposition is possible with main verbs such as amaze, bother, and surprise.

And be+adjectives including, apparent, clear, evident.

e.g. That he likes her is quite obvious It is quite obvious that he likes her.

A few number of intransitive verbs – appear, come about, develop, happen,seem… can appear only in sentences with extraposed that clauses but CAN NOT occur in sentences with that clause in subject position.

e.g. It appears that she wont be joining us ⃰� That she wont be joining us appears.

Interrogative clause can be extraposed when they are followed by be+adjectives such as clear,important,obvious and so on.

e.g. How Omar does it is not important It is not important how Omar does it.

Generally, gerund clauses resist extraposition. But exception can be found.

e.g. Protesting the new policies would be no use It would be no use protesting the new policies

Exercise 2: Indicate whether each of the following sentences has an extraposed counterpart. If so, give the extraposed counterpart; if not, explain why.

Example: insulting the boss in front of everyone was really a dumb idea.

Answer: no ( Gerund clauses do not extrapose well)

1. To be awarded first prize in this contest is a great honor.

2. For Alan to be denied the right to a fair trial would be outrageous.

3. Paying off our mortgage has markedly improved our financial position.

Answers: 1. Yes, It is a great honor to be awarded first

prize in the contest. 2. Yes, It would be outrageous for Alan to be

denied the right to a fair trial.3.No ,Gerund subject clauses do not extra

pose well

Extraposition pattern sentences vs. Sentences with subject clause

Extraposition pattern Subject clause

Occur far more in speech and writing

Makes it possible to create sentences with multiple embedded clauses. e.g. It embarrassed her that it was so obvious that he was angry.

� [That [that he was angry] was so obvious ] embarrassed her.

Used to Link to previous discourse and to shift to a new topic .

When we have a complex constituent in the main clause following the verb.

e.g. To include that issue in the forthcoming Students Loans Bill would make the measure hybrid.

Related structures with noun phrase subjects

In addition to the extraposition patternsentences , they are other sentences that arealternative to subject clauses. And they bothinvolve the movement of an NP from an extraposed subject clause into subject position in the main clause.These alternatives are Tough movement

and Subject Raising sentences.

Tough movement An object of an infinitive clause in an

extraposition pattern sentence moves into subject position in the main clause occupied by it*.

e.g. It is easy [ to understand this lesson]. This lesson is easy [to understand].

Tough movement can also operate on infinitive clause with subjects.

e.g. It’s easy for Kamal to understand this lesson.

This lesson is easy for Kamal to

understand.

For tough movement to apply the main clause must have be, or a similar verb followed by either,

an ease\difficulty adjective. OR An NP that has a similar ease\difficulty

meaning. For example, a joy, a pain

Subject Raising sentences The subject of an infinitive clause is moved

into the subject position in the main clause. The rule that does this is subject raising

Subject raising occurs with verbs such as appear, happen ,and seem.

e.g. It seems[Mohamed to enjoy my company]. Mohamed seems [to enjoy my company].

Subject raising rule can also apply to sentences with be+probability adjectives including unlikely, likely, certain.

e.g. It is likely [the value of the dollar to go up in January].

The value of the dollar is likely [to go up in January].

Subject Raising sentences vs. Sentences with Extraposed That Clauses

subject raising sentences: e.g. The first thing he thought of when he

woke up was Marge. She wasn’t likely to take a taxi to Naples.

The pronoun she has an antecedent link to the previous discourse. Which is Marge.

Extraposed That clause sentences e.g. The report states that it is likely that more

than half of all conventional gas reserves that will be ultimately produced in US have been already produced.

The principle of end weight favors that pattern when that clause is a long, complex noun phrase.

Problems that ESL\EFL students have with Subject clause and Related structures

EFL\ESL students do not find problems with subject clause sentences may be because they are not used that frequently and they occur in written English. But the real problem is with Tough Movement and extraposition structures which occur in spoken English.

Spanish speakers will often omit the it required in extraposition structures. An intermediate ESL student may make errors like this:

� Is very hard to live without privacy.

⇨ this particular type of errors is fairly common with low-intermediate and intermediate-level students.

Activity