Thursday 19 March 2009

The structure of the SENTENCE

There are 4 main types of CLAUSES in English:
1) MAIN CLAUSE
2) CO-ORDINATE CLAUSE (AND, BUT, OR, EITHER…OR, NEITHER…NOR)
3) SUBORDINATE CLAUSE
4) ABBREVIATED CLAUSE (WHILE, WHEN, WHERE)

1) The main clause: subj, vb and complements have independent meanings
2) They are linked by a conjunction, may stand alone and have complete meaning:- He runs a lot AND plays a lot of sports
3) They’ve got no complete meaning if they stand alone- Althogh he is tired, he doesn’t want to go to bed
4) The verb is implicit- While in Africa, he wrote a book


SUBORDINATE CLAUSES:

A) CAUSALI (BECAUSE, BECAUSE OF, AS, SINCE, IN CASE, OWING TO, DUE TO, GIVEN, GIVEN THAT)

B) FINALI (TO, SO AS TO + base form, IN ORDER TO/THAT, FOR + obj + infinitive)
C) CONSECUTIVE (SO THAT, SUCH A/AN… THAT)
D) TEMPORALI (WHEN, WHILE, AS, AS SOON AS, UNTIL, TILL, AFTER, BEFORE)
E) CONCESSIVE (ALTHOUGH, THOAUGH, EVEN IF)
F) AVVERSATIVE ( WHILE, WHEREAS, BUT, ON THE CONTRARY)
G) ECCETTUATIVE (BUT, EXCEPT, UNLESS)
H) STRUMENTALI (BY + vb-ing)
I) MODALI (AS, AS THOUGH, AS IF + subj + vb)
J) ESCLUSIVE (WITHOUT + vb-ing)

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