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 Ling 131: Language & Style
 

 Topic 7 (session A) - The grammar of complex sentences > Linking, listing and nesting clauses > Task F

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Linking, listing and nesting clauses
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Linking, listing and nesting clauses

Task F - a final nesting exercise

Now try analysing this slightly more complex sentence:

Because she was annoyed with him, when John turned up at tea time Mary told him that he could make his own tea.

Our Answer

The main Predicator in this sentence is 'told', which has 'Mary' as its subject. There are three other clauses (cf. the three Predicators 'was', 'turned up' and 'could make' and their associated SPOCA structures. So the overall structure of the sentence is:

A (= Adv clause)

Because she was annoyed with him,

A (= Adv clause)

when John turned up at tea time

S

Mary

P

told

O

him

O (= Noun clause)

that he could make his own tea.

The two nested Adverbial clauses should be clear enough after Task E (ii). We can substitute two phrasal (PP) Adverbials (e.g. 'because of her annoyance' and 'at tea time') for them without changing the overall structure of the sentence.

We can use the same kind of substitution test on the clause 'that he could make his own tea'. We can substitute a Noun Phrase like 'her trenchant view' for it. Prototypically, Objects are NPs, of course, and as this clause is a substitute for an NP, we call it a Noun clause.

We can draw a tree diagram for it as follows:

chuckle stop!

 

 

 

 

 


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