Clauses: main, subordinate and embedded

Question

How would you analyse this in terms of main, subordinate and embedded clauses?

Dr Henry Gee, the manuscript editor who decided to publish the paper in the journal Nature, said that it was gradually dawning on him just how important the discovery was.

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

AnonymousHow would you analyse this in terms of main, subordinate and embedded clauses?

First, find the verbs.
Next find the subjects.
That will lead you to the clauses. The main clause will be the core of the sentence that can stand by itself. The subordinate clauses depend on the rest of the sentence being intact. They cannot stand alone.
Can you underline the subjects and verbs? Post your results, and we can help you with the next steps.

Anonymous · Answer

There is only one main clause here and that is the sentence as a whole.

There are a number of subordinate clauses in your example:

1. the manuscript editor who decided to publish the paper in the journal Nature.
2. who decided to publish the paper in the journal Nature.

1. comprises a noun phrase containing the underlined subordinate relative clause.
2. is the subordinate clause in 1, and it contains the underlined subordinate infinitival clause. So here we have a subordinate clause embedded within a larger subordinate clause.

3. said that it was gradually dawning on him just how important the discovery was.
4. that it was gradually dawning on him just how important the discovery was.

3. comprises a subordinate content clause.
4. is the subordinate clause in 3, and it contains the underlined subordinate content clause, so like 2. above we have one subordinate clause embedded within another.

Note: there is no real need to make a distinction between the terms subordinate and embedded. A subordinate clause is broadly defined as a clause embedded within a larger clause.

Hope that helps.

Anonymous · Answer

Sorry, please substitute the word italicized for underlined in my reply.

Clauses: main, subordinate and embedded

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