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Eddie88 Posted 17 years ago
Grammar

Help with this clause, please.

As my crew and I travel further away from the safety of our families and homes, all that I can see is a sunset casting its last light on the blue nothingness ahead.

The first clause is adverbial.

What makes up the second clause? (participle phrase at the end, for example) It seems as though it begins with a noun clause as the subject...But I thought it HAD to begin with that, and ALL begins the sentence in this case...

Can you break it up for me into its parts to help me answer this question, please.

Thanks.
  

Top answer

As my crew and I travel farther away from the safety of our families and homes- - Adverbial clause (as you said). all that I can see is a sunset casting its last light on the blue nothingness ahead. -- Complement .

  • As my crew and I travel farther away from the safety of our families and homes- - Adverbial clause (as you said).
  • all that I can see is a sunset casting its last light on the blue nothingness ahead.
  • -- Complement .
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12 Answers
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As my crew and I travel farther away from the safety of our families and homes-- Adverbial clause (as you said).

all that I can see is a sunset casting its last light on the blue nothingness ahead. -- Main clause

all that I can see-- Subject

is -- Main verb

a sunset casting its last light on the blue nothingness ahea
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Hi,

I was hoping for a more refined analysis than that. Two questions are below:

1) For example, what kind of subject is that? It seems like a noun clause, but I thought they had to begin with complementizers like 'that' not 'all'?

2) Also, could you say that the complement is more specifically the sunset and the particple phrase and prepositional phrase are its modifier
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Hello, Eddie.
There are two other dependent clauses in your sentence.

1. (that I can see)
This is a relative clause, post modifier of the pronoun "all". "I" is the subject of the clause, and "that" together with "can see" the predicate. In the predicate you have the verb phrase, made up of a modal auxiliary (can), and a lexical verb (see), and there is also a D.O. (that). Remembe
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I've just seen your second post.

1. The subject is "all that I can see". It is a noun phrase, not a noun clause. The head of the subject is the pronoun "all", and "That I can see" is a clause, only not a noun clause but, as I said before, a relative clause, post modifier of "all". (remember that "that" can introduce BOTH relative and noun clauses, but when the that-clause is a nominal on
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"As my crew and I travel further away from the safety of our families and homes, all that I can see is a sunset casting its last light on the blue nothingness ahead."

I am not familiar with the way native speakers analyze English and don't know some of their terms. That's why my analyses are sometimes different from those of native speakers. I do not wish to be involved in a
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Hi, yes it does make sense, thanks!

I have one question, however.

You mentioned that 'that I can see' is the relative clause; however, I thought that if you omit the relative clause, the sentence still makes sense, but, in this case, it doesn't.

Please help, thanks.
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I'm glad I was of some help, Eddie.

Now, about relative clauses, there are two main types: restrictive (also called defining) and non-restrictive (or non-defining).

What you have in your sentence is a restrictive relative clause. It is never between commas, it is not similar to a parenthetical comment, thus it can't be omitted. It is necessary for the sentence to make sense.
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Hi, Miriam,

thanks for the second reply. I am aware that 'that' can introduce both noun clauses and adjective clauses. It sounds like you have the knowledge to answer another post of mine- it would be great if you could.

In regards to your second reply, I have one question.
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Hello, Eddie.
Sorry about yesterday. I typed a long answer to your question about the noun clause, but when I hit "post" I was taken to a page that told me to come back later, because the forums were down sort of due to maintenance. I waited for almost half an hour and then left. And I hoped my answer hadn't been lost, but unfortunately it was.
So here I am again. I didn't want
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Hi, thanks Miriam!

I have never heard of complex noun phrases. Sites I learn from just discuss noun phrases.

So the difference between a noun clause and a complex noun phrase is that a complex noun phrase is a noun phrase with one or more dependent clause within it.

The way I determine noun clauses is by simply asking if they function in the same way as a noun and have b

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