Dummy it, nominal clause

Question

I wonder about the form of this sentences:

1:

"What worries many parents is their youngsters"

Is "what worries many parents" a nominal relative clause?

2:

-It was JOhn who took part in the qualifying matches

-It was surprising that he had to take part in the qualifying matches

Is the first sentence an "it cleft" and the second a "anticopatory it"?

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

Adonica86"What worries many parents is their youngsters"

Is "what worries many parents" a nominal relative clause?

It's possible that some textbooks use that terminology. Yes. You may also see the term "fused relative clause".

Adonica86-It was JOhn who took part in the qualifying matches

-It was surprising that he had to take part in the qualifying matches

Is the first sentence an "it cleft" and the second a "anticipatory it"?

Yes. Exactly.

CJ

BillJ · Answer

Adonica86I wonder about the form of this sentences:1: "What worries many parents is their youngsters"Is "what worries many parents" a nominal relative clause?

'What worries many parents' is not a clause, it's a noun phrase. 'What' is a fused relative word - 'fused' because it functions simultaneously as head of the noun phrase (the antecedent) and subject of 'worries' in the relative clause. It's meaning is comparable with that of the non-fused (and more formal) 'The thing that worries many parents' where 'thing' is the head of the phrase and 'that worries many parents' is an embedded relative clause modifying the head, 'thing'.

Adonica862:-It was John who took part in the qualifying matches-It was surprising that he had to take part in the qualifying matchesIs the first sentence an "it cleft" and the second a "anticopatory it"?

Yes, to both, but 'it' is usually called a 'dummy pronoun'.

BillJ

Adonica86 · Answer

We have nothing about fused relative words in my grammar text book... I guess we just call it something else here in norway. You have never heard the term nominal relative clause?

Thanx for helping me

BillJ · Answer

Adonica86We have nothing about fused relative words in my grammar text book... I guess we just call it something else here in norway. You have never heard the term nominal relative clause? Thanx for helping me

'Nominal relative clause' is an outdated term for 'fused relative' construction. Terms incorporating 'clause' are unsatisfactory because the construction is effectively headed by a noun and is thus a noun phrase, not a clause. There are other reasons, but the phrase/clause argument is the most important.

BillJ

Adonica86 · Answer

I am a student at the university, I guess I will ask my teacher about this! Thanx!

Dimsumexpress · Answer

Hi BillJ, I remember sometime ago we had a rather deep discussion about " adverbial phrase " which you said should be called "a clause". I don't mean to disagree, but I think it noun clause

'What worries many parents' is not a clause, it's a noun phrase'.

Now with this analystical statement, I am totally confused. Would you mind sharing your definition of a phrase?
I seemed to be lost becauase where I thought something should be a "phrase", you called it a clause, and vise versa.

Thank you much!

BillJ · Answer

dimsumexpressI am totally confused. Would you mind sharing your definition of a phrase?I seemed to be lost becauase where I thought something should be a "phrase", you called it a clause, and vise versa.Thank you much!

OK. Clauses and phrases have quite different structures. The two major elements in a clause are the subject and predicate, which is the reason we say that a clause has a subject-predicate structure where the subject is normally a noun phrase (NP), and the predicate a verb phrase (VP). For example, in 'Cats like milk', the noun phrase 'cats' is subject and the verb phrase 'like milk' is predicate. The idea is that in simple examples like this the predicate represents what is 'predicated of' (i.e. said about) the subject. There are two other distinguishing features of clauses: the head of a clause is a verb phrase, and a simple clause can be a sentence.

Phrases, by contrast, have quite a different structure. There's no subject or predicate. Instead the structure is that of a 'head word', either alone or accompanied by one or more dependents. The category of the phrase depends on that of the head: a phrase with a noun as head is a noun phrase (NP), a phrase with an adjective as head is an adjective phrase (AdjP) and so on. The head word is always the most important word in the phrase - the one on which all the other words depend for their very existence - hence the term 'dependent'. Dependents in a phrase can be modifiers ('a tall building', 'extremely hot'), complements ('my criticism of her decision', 'kind to children') or determiners ('the city', 'her income'). In contrast to clauses, a phrase cannot normally be a sentence.

dimsumexpressI don't mean to disagree, but I think it noun clause 'What worries many parents' is not a clause, it's a noun phrase

I can easily see why you are confused, especially as traditional grammar books also define it as a clause. Alas, they are misguided! The reason it's a noun phrase and not a clause is this: the relative word 'what' has a fused meaning. It really means 'The thing which', in other words 'what' represents the antecedent (thing) and the relative word (which) rolled (i.e. fused) into one word, instead of being expressed separately as in simpler constructions. Thus 'what' is simultaneously head of the NP and subject of the relative clause, which gives a meaning comparable to that of the non-fused 'The thing which worries many parents ...'. It's not unusual for clauses to be embedded in phrases; it happens most of the time in relative constructions. For example in 'The guy [who stole my car] has been apprehended', the underlined expression is a noun phrase headed by 'the guy' which is modified by the bracketed relative clause. In other words, the relative clause is just part of the noun phrase.

Does that help?

BillJ

Dimsumexpress · Answer

Thanks for your reply, appreciate your time with the explanations. I've tried, but not digesting everything as yet. Without the fine lines, I'd learned over the years that a structure with complete subject, verb and object is considered a "clause", i.e. What he has achieved in just a few years is beyond what most people have tried with their life time; whereas a phrase, is an incompete sentence. i.e. Having devoted 100% of his time in helping others, he has accomplished more that most of us. I' however' do agree that phrases and clauses do take on different forms.

Dummy it, nominal clause

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