Clauses

The term clause which is used in English grammar for the designa­tion of one of the predicative units is very specific and exact in its application. It has no terminological equivalent in Russian grammati­cal terminology, it is unjustly identified with the sentence. The clause is a predicative unit and occupies its appropriate place among the pre­dicative units of English. It can be conventionally placed between the predicative word-group and the sentence.. The clause has common fea­tures with both these units. The clause is the dependent predicative unit of finite predication, it represents in fact the structural body of the sen­tence but it is lower in its syntactical status than the sentence because the clause is devoid of communicative force. Due to its dependent nature the clause resembles the units of non-finite predication. They can sometimes be substituted one for another in some syntactic posi­tions but there is certain selection on the part of English verbs to pattern either with predicative constructions or with clauses. Causatives or verbs of modal meanings pattern preferably with predicative com­plexes whereas the verbs of mental activity take clauses as their com­plements.

By common tradition clauses are considered to be parts of compo­site sentences. This assumption is, still, refutable because the consti-

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i Verbal ^vfm~ synthetic ^у-^Ье + ^Сргес!

predicates V_fm~ analytic

I Simple verbal I Nominal "be"-predicates

a) Simple verbal: V_fm V-be + A

b) Simple Verbal phraseological: V-phrase V-be + N

c) Simple verbal complicated: V_fin-f Complement V-be + prep N

N-^^^D

II Complex verbal II Adverbial "be"-predicates

a) complex modal: V_mod+V_fin V-be + D

b) complex aspect: V_a$p + V^ / V_bf V-be + prep N

Mixed predicates: V_mod 4- V-be + A/N/D

Vmod ^^Vasp +^Ving ,V_W +V_bftag-«- A/N/D,