Grammar I Graciela Palacio

LV/UB 2012

LESSON 36
TYPES OF NOUN CLAUSES

Noun clauses are one type of subordinate clause. They have nominal functions, i.e. functions
that approximate to those of noun phrases. They function as complements and as subject.
But before we discuss the different functions they can have, we will look at their internal
structure. There are five different types:

1. That Noun Clauses

2. Wh-interrogative Noun Clauses
3. Whether Noun clauses
4. If Noun Clauses (also called Yes-no Interrogative Noun Clauses)
5. Exclamative Clauses

THAT NOUN CLAUSES:

Characteristics:
1) In Traditional Grammar, they are said to be introduced by the subordinating conjunction
that, which has no other function than to introduce the clause. This is not the analysis that we
will adopt here but it has been included because this is the label that you will find in most
dictionaries and pedagogical grammar books.

In Generative Grammar, the subordinating conjunction that is called a complementiser and it

functions as the head of a complementiser phrase or CP. The complementiser that marks
the clause as declarative (i.e. it gives us its illocutionary force) and tells us that the clause
will be finite. The complement to the complementiser is something like a sentence. It is
called a Tense Phrase or Inflectional Phrase.

Notice that complementiser is not the same as complement. Complementiser is a category,

a functional category, a type of word. The complement to a complementiser is what follows
the complementiser. To avoid confusion we will adopt the label Comp for complementiser
and we will go on using the letter C to mark complements, e.g.:

[I know <CP that Harry is dishonest >.]

that Harry is dishonest

H (Comp) C/Comp (TP)

2) When the that-clause is direct object or complement to the main verb the complementiser
that is frequently omitted except in formal use, leaving a zero that-clause or a contact
clause, e.g.:

I know it's late. (Contact noun clause)

I'm sure Ted has paid. (Contact noun clause)

In these cases, we have a null complementiser, i.e. a complementiser which is silent, which
has no phonological content:

Page 1 of 9/Lesson 36
 Ø Harry is dishonest
H (Comp) C/Comp (TP)

3) That noun clauses are generally used to report statements, they refer to facts and ideas and
never to concrete objects:

Direct speech: “I’m tired,” said Ann.

Indirect speech: Ann said (that) she was tired.

4) They are always finite clause.

WH-INTERROGATIVE CLAUSES:
Characteristics:
1) They are introduced by wh-interrogative pronouns, adjectives and adverbs, which can
never be omitted and which always have a function within the clause they introduce. As was
said before:

a) Interrogative pronouns have nominal functions

b) Interrogative adjectives have adjectival or determiner function and
c) Interrogative adverbs have adverbial functions.

2) They can be used to report wh-questions, e.g.:

Direct speech: She asked me, "Who will look after the baby?"
Indirect speech: She asked me who would look after the baby.

3) These subordinate clauses resemble wh-questions semantically in that they leave a gap of
unknown information, represented by the wh-element. Contrast the known information
expressed in the that clause with the unknown information in the wh-clause:

I know (that) Caroline will be there.

Do you know who will be there?

I'm sure (that) Ted has paid.

I'm not sure who has paid.

In all the following sentences, which have wh-interrogative clauses, a question is explicitly or
implicitly raised:

I'm not sure who will look after the baby.

It's obvious who will look after the baby.
I found out who will look after the baby.
It's irrelevant who will look after the baby.
I told you who will look after the baby.

4) There are also grammatical similarities to independent wh-questions:

a) The wh-element is placed first in its clause (i.e. there is wh-movement).

Page 2 of 9/Lesson 36
b) If the wh-element is the complement to a preposition the preposition can be stranded:

I asked them on what they based their predictions. <formal>

I asked them what they based their predictions on. (Preposition stranding)

c) The wh-elements have the same range of functions as the wh-elements in wh-questions. (cf.
see the analysis of wh-questions)

d) The subordinate clause usually does not have subject auxiliary inversion:

What is he doing? (Wh-movement and subject-auxiliary inversion)

I don’t know < what he is doing >. (Only wh-movement)

e) Although the subordinate clause usually does not have subject auxiliary inversion, such
inversion may occur, particularly:

i) When the clause functions as complement and the verb of the main clause is be,
e.g.:

The problem is who can we get to replace her.

ii) When the clause functions as appositive, e.g.:

Your original question, why did he not report it to the police earlier, has not yet
been answered.

5) There may be more than one wh-element in the clause:

I don't know who wants what.

6) These interrogative words are called operators. The notion of operator comes from logic.
An operator is an element that has power over a variable. A question such as “Who did you
meet?” is roughly equivalent to “of all the possible x’s that you could have met, please
narrow down the reference and tell me who it was”. A question such as “What did you buy?”
is roughly equivalent to “of all the possible x’s that you could have bought, please tell me
what you have actually bought”. The x is the variable. In the semantic representation of a
sentence (i.e. in the representation of its meaning) operators always appear at the beginning.

The wh-operators are operators that have phonological content (i.e. they are not silent). The
wh-element occupies a slot that precedes the slot of the complementiser that. According to
Radford (1997), in Belfast English (BE) it is possible for a wh-word to coexist with the
complementiser that so that sentences such as the following are grammatical:

[I wonder <CP which dish that they picked>.]

[They didn’t know <CP which model that we had discussed>.]

In Standard English (SE) that is no possible. If we have a wh-word or operator, the

complementiser is null. Compare the two varieties of English:

Page 3 of 9/Lesson 36
 BE: I wonder which dish that they picked.
SE: I wonder which dish Ø they picked.

7) These clauses will also be CPs (i.e. complementiser phrases). In Belfast English their head
is the overt complementiser that and in Standard English, their head is the null
complementiser Ø.

8) In these clauses there will be wh-movement but no subject auxiliary inversion. You will
have to include in your analysis a separate representation of the movement operations.

WHETHER NOUN CLAUSES

Characteristics:
1. In Traditional Grammar, whether is called a subordinating conjunction, with no function
within the clause it introduces.

Modern approaches, however, tend to place whether together with the wh-words, not only
because of its spelling but also because of its syntactic behaviour. Whether is also considered
to be an overt operator and it occupies the slot that precedes the complementiser. It occurs
with a null complementiser. The difference between whether and other wh-words is that
whether seems to be inserted in its position directly (i.e. it is not there as a result of
movement).

Spec of CP Comp Slot Subject Tense Lexical V C/ DO

whether Ø I had finished the book

2) Whether clauses are used to report yes-no questions and alternative questions (i.e.
questions that present two or more alternatives).

a) Yes-no questions:

Direct speech: She asked me, "Have you finished?"

Indirect speech: She asked me whether I had finished.

b) Alternative questions1:

Direct speech: Has the flight been delayed or cancelled?

Indirect speech: She wanted to know whether the flight had been delayed or whether it had
been cancelled.

The subordinator whether is repeated only if the second unit is a full clause, e.g.:

I can't find out whether the flight has been delayed or whether it has been cancelled.

They didn't say whether it will rain or be sunny.

1
If can also be used for an alternative question: She wanted to know if the flight had been delayed or if it had
been cancelled. I don´t care if they join us or not.

Page 4 of 9/Lesson 36
3) According to Radford (1997) in Early Modern English there were root yes- no questions
introduced by whether, as illustrated by the following Shakespearean example:

Whether dost thou profess thyself a knave or a fool? (Lafeu, All’s Well That Ends Well,
IV.v)

This would lead us to hypothesize that in Modern Standard English, all yes-no questions are
introduced by a covert or silent operator whether, which may become overt when the
question is reported.

Spec of CP Comp Slot Subject Tense Lexical V C/ DO

whether Have you have finished the book?

IF NOUN CLAUSES:
Characteristics:
1) In Traditional Grammar, if noun clauses are said to be introduced by the subordinating
conjunction if, which has no other function than to introduce the clause. Again, we will adopt
a more modern perspective.

In Generative Grammar, the subordinating conjunction if, the same as the subordinating
conjunction that, is called a complementiser and it functions as the head of a
complementiser phrase or CP. The complementiser marks the illocutionary force of the
clause as interrogative and tells us that the clause will be finite. The complement to the
complementiser is something like a sentence. It is called a Tense Phrase or Inflectional
Phrase.

2) Unlike the complementiser that, which introduces that noun clauses, the complementiser if
can never be omitted.

3) These clauses are used to report yes-no questions, e.g.:

Direct speech: "Can you help me?"

Indirect speech: [I wonder <CP if you can help me>.]

4) We said above that questions are introduced by operators. There are operators which have
phonological content (e.g., whether and the wh-words) and operators which are null (i.e.
silent). Linguists hypothesize that if noun clauses, which are used to report yes-no questions,
are introduced by a null operator which occupies the slot before the complementiser and
which is the null counterpart of whether. Consider the following representation where Op
stands for operator:

Spec of CP Comp Slot Subject Tense Lexical V C/ DO

Whether or if you can help me
null operator

The operator whether and the complementiser if are in complementary distribution. When
one occurs, the other doesn’t.

Page 5 of 9/Lesson 36
EXCLAMATIVE CLAUSES:
Subordinate exclamative clauses generally function as:
1) Extraposed Subject:

It's incredible how fast she can run. ["It's incredible that she can run so fast"]

2) Direct Object:

I remember what a good time I had at your party. ["I remember that I had such a
good time at your party"]

3) Complement to a Preposition:

I read an account of what an impression you had made. ["I read an account that you
had made an excellent (or a terrible) impression"]

In these exclamative clauses we have what as predeteminer in a noun phrase or how as a

modifier or intensifier of an adjective or an adverb. By predeterminer we mean the element
that precedes the indefinite article a, which is called a determiner. We will be discussing the
determiner system later. By intensifier we mean an adverb of degree. Remember that adverbs
can modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs.

The following sentence with predeterminer what is unambiguously exclamative:

They didn't know what a crime he had committed. ["...the terrible crime he had
committed." cf.: What a crime he had committed!]

The following two are interrogative:

They didn't know what crime he had committed. [cf. What crime had he
committed?]

They didn't know what the crime was. [cf. What was the crime?]

In the first clause what is an interrogative adjective (or central determiner) and in the second
it is an interrogative pronoun.

A subordinate clause may be ambiguous between exclamatory and interrogative

interpretations:

You can't imagine what difficulties I have with my children.

Exclamatory interpretation: You can't imagine the great difficulties I have with my children.
Interrogative interpretation: You can't imagine the kinds of difficulties I have with my
children.

I told her how late she was.

Exclamatory interpretation: I told her that she was very late.

Interrogative interpretation: I told her the extent to which she was late.

Page 6 of 9/Lesson 36
To sum up:
There are four complementisers:

1) that, which introduces that noun clauses

2) if, an interrogative complementiser, which introduces if noun clauses
3) Ø, an interrogative null complementiser (i.e. with no phonological content) and
4) For, which introduces non-finite clauses but which we haven’t discussed yet.

The operators we have discussed so far are:

1) wh-interrogative words,
2) whether
3) and the null operator.

Negation is also an operator, modal auxiliaries are also operators. However, we will not
discuss them in this course.

IF VS. WHETHER
If tends to be more frequent than whether in informal style for yes-no clauses. On the other
hand, if is more restricted syntactically than whether. For example:

1) It cannot introduce a subject clause unless the clause is extra posed (placed at the end):

Whether she likes the present is not clear to me.

*If she likes the present is not clear to me.

But:

It's not clear to me whether she likes the present. or

It's not clear to me if she likes the present.

2) If cannot introduce a non-finite clause (or to infinitive clause):

I don't know whether to see my doctor today.

* I don't know if to see my doctor today.

3) If cannot be followed directly by or not:

He didn't say whether or not he'll be staying here.

* He didn't say if or not he'll be staying here.

If or not is postposed then the sentence is grammatical:

He didn't say if he'll be staying here or not.

4) If clauses cannot appear as complement of a preposition:

She was curious about whether I was wearing one.

*She was curious about if I was wearing one

Page 7 of 9/Lesson 36
We will here present the arguments that have led linguists to group whether with the wh-
words and not with if.

1) The same as wh-interrogative words, whether can introduce finite and non-finite clauses.
The complementiser if can only introduce finite clause:

I didn’t know what Ø I should wear.

I didn’t know what Ø PRO to wear.

I didn’t know whether Ø I should go.

I didn’t know whether Ø PRO to go.

I didn’t know Ø if I should go.

*I didn’t know Ø if PRO to go.

2) The same as wh-interrogative clauses, whether noun clauses can function as the
complement to a preposition, whereas if noun clauses cannot.

She was curious about <what Ø I had said>.

She was curious about <whether Ø I was wearing one>.
*She was curious about <Op if I was wearing one>.

3) The same as wh-interrogative clauses, a whether clause can function as subject, whereas an
if noun clause cannot.

<What Ø he said> will remain a mystery.

<Whether Ø 007 was a double-agent> will remain a mystery.
<*Op if 007 was a double-agent> will remain a mystery.

Consider the following charts where the parallelism becomes evident:

I didn’t know what Ø I should wear.

I didn’t know what Ø PRO to wear.

I didn’t know whether Ø I should go.

I didn’t know whether Ø PRO to go.

I didn’t know Op if I should go.

*I didn’t know Op if PRO to go.

Lesson 36 Activity1: (to be discussed in class)

Be ready to answer the following questions in class:
1) What type of function do noun clauses have?
2) How many types of noun clauses are there? List them and provide at least one
example of each.

Page 8 of 9/Lesson 36
 3) What was that called in Traditional Grammar?
4) What is that called in Generative Grammar?
5) In what way do the two analyses differ?
6) Provide an example of a contact noun clause.
7) Provide an example of a wh- interrogative noun clause introduced by a wh-
interrogative pronoun.
8) Provide an example of a wh- interrogative noun clause introduced by a wh-
interrogative determiner.
9) Provide an example of a wh- interrogative noun clause introduced by a wh-
interrogative adverb.
10) What was whether called in Traditional Grammar?
11) With which elements is whether grouped in Generative Grammar?
12) How many complementisers are there? List them and provide examples.
13) What is an operator?
14) How many operators have we discussed so far?
15) Which is more restricted syntactically if or whether? Discuss.
16) Provide an example of an exclamative clause.

REFERENCES:
Quirk, R., S. Greenbaum, G. Leech, J. Svartvik (1985) A Comprehensive Grammar of the
English Language. Longman.
Radford, A. (1997) Syntactic theory and the structure of English, Cambridge.

Page 9 of 9/Lesson 36