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Case Assigner Posted 19 years ago
Linguistics Studies

1. Getting into the nitty-gritty of embedded clauses

0 I already asked whether someone studies generative grammar. I have some questions concerning excercises taken from a book. I do not want to ask my Prof. if everything is correct or not. There will be lots of questions, and I´m going to ask all of them. I would be very pleased if there is someone out there who can help me to find the way through the nitty-gritty of generative grammar.02br
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00Here is the first question..... I am not pretty sure of all of them. 02br
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001) 00Identifiy the embedded clauses in the following sentences. Classifiy them according to whether are finite clauses, non – finite clauses, or small clauses.02br
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00My answer is marked with brackets. Furthermore, there is an explanation of my choice.02br
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00a) 00[ That Louise should have left ] surprised everyone.02br
00“That” selects finite clauses, therefore we find a finite clause here02br
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00b) 00[ The news that Louise has left] surprises everyone.02br
00Here the embedded clause is a finite one. 02br
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00c) 00I consider [ Louise an impossible choice ].02br
00What we find here is an example of a small clause, because it does not contain a verb. 02br
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00d) 00I wonder when they will anounce [that Louise has left. ]02br
00A finite embedded clause. “That” introduces finite clauses. 02br
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00e) 00I wonder [ whom I will meet at the party.] 02br
00This is a finite clause because will is part of I, which is inflected for tense ( at least in the book the exercises come from ) Furthermore, whom is a complementizer. 02br
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00f) 00I asked her [ what to do.]02br
00This is a non-finite clause because of the non-overt subject that is controlled by “I”.02br
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00g) 00[ The woman whom you will meet at the party ] is his sister.02br
00A finite embedded clause, because will is inflected for tense. See e) 02br
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00h) 00I need a knife [ to cut the bread with.]02br
00A non-finite clause. “to cut” = infinitive 02br
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00Is this one here the same like in example f)? This one puzzles me….. I do not understand what happens here. It cannot be the same like in example f) 02br
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00i) 00I consider [ that Louise is the best choice.]02br
00Again, a finite clause because of tense and the introducing “that” 02br
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00j) 00[ For Louise to have left ] surprised everyone.02br
00The same like in a), but this time it is non-finite. “For” introduces non-finite clauses. 02br
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00k) 00I consider [ Louise to be the best choice.]02br
00Looks nearly like a small clause, but it isn´t. It is a non-finite clause because of “to be”.02br
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00 l) [When they had announced 01u00that Louise had left02u00 ] everyone was relieved02br
00Not really sure here, I am wondering whether it is possible to claim that the underlined partis the embedded02br
00sentence. Nevertheless it is a finite embedded clause.02br
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00m) 00I am not certain [ that Louise has already announced that she is going.]02br
00A finite embedded sentence.02br
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00n) 00They all expect [ for Jim to come back.]02br
00A non-finite embedded clause….. “for” is introducing this clause here.02br
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00o) 00They arranged for us [ to meet Bill at the cinema.]02br
00The same like in f) A non-overt subject controlled by “us”; a non-finite sentence.02br
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Top answer

0 I already asked whether someone 01font 00(anyone)02font 00 studies 01font 00(is studying)02font 00 generative grammar. I have some questions concerning excercises taken from a book. I do not want to ask my Prof.

  • 0 I already asked whether someone 01font 00(anyone)02font 00 studies 01font 00(is studying)02font 00 generative grammar.
  • I have some questions concerning excercises taken from a book.
  • I do not want to ask my Prof.
  • if everything is correct or not.
  • There will be lots of questions, and I´m going to ask all of them.
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3 Answers
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0 I already asked whether someone 01font00(anyone)02font00 studies 01font00(is studying)02font00 generative grammar. I have some questions concerning excercises taken from a book. I do not want to ask my Prof. if everything is correct or not. There will be lots of questions, and I´m going to ask all of t
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0 Thank you very much..... especially for the correction of the mistakes I have done. I will check the sentences again, maybe I can find an answer to the problematic cases. The problem is that the book I am learning with does not really offer good explanations to all these cases. Therefore it is really hard for me to decide where the embedded clause starts and where it ends. In the book hasn´t o
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0 Ok, I made some changes..... Talked to my Prof. today and he said that an important criterion for identifying embedded clauses is to have lexical verbs with a tense form.... Not an infinitival one. Hmmmm, makes me wonder whether there is good reason to change something in g)...02br
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00I changed l) 00into:02br
00 00[When they had announced [ that Lou

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