Noun clauses

Hi,

Welcome to the Forum.

It seems to me to function as the object of the verb 'find', ie "I find that you like it difficult to believe."

But perhaps you are looking for some other form of analysis and answer?

Best wishes, Clive

Thanks for your reply.

Definitely, this is the object to the verb "find". What upsets me is that this is a quite common structrure, but I cannot account for the fact that the CO appears at the beginning of the sentence. For sure this is not a case of cleft sentence, is it? How do we explain this movement?

best wishes

qgaby

In "That You like it I find difficult to believe" What is the function of the that clause? Is "find"a complex verb ( V+do+OC)? is there an extraposition there???

I may be wrong, but as I view your sentence, I keep telling myself that there should be another "it" in it.

I find it difficult to believe that you like it.

Shouldn't the object complement "difficult

The function of the that-clause is direct object of believe.
Believe what? Believe that you like it.

The that-clause can also be considered the direct object of the find construction.

Note the grammar of find.
I find this difficult. (this is the direct object of find. Find what? Find

I also find that there should be an "it" functioning as an anticipatory OD.Then, the Structure would be like this:

[ Find it difficult to believe that you like it] P

S Complex Ant CO REal DO

verb DO

But the fact is that there's no "it" in the sentence!! And this changes the whole story

The clause that you like it is moved to the beginning of the sentence, so anticipating it is out of the question! That would be anticipating the blank space at the end of the sentence where that you like it used to be (before fronting it).

Anticipatory it only occurs before the entity it anticipates.

CJ

Your explanation is really very clear. Thanks a lot. What I was not able to conceive was that the DO was preposed, although it was a common structure.

QG

You are right. I meant that "it" would be anticipating the real DO "That you like it" in a structure like :

" I find it difficult to believe that you like it" , the that clause being the real DO. QG