Sentence Complexity and Embedding
Subordinate Noun Clauses
Activity 15.2: Identifying Noun Clauses
Find the answer to each question and underline it. What structure is used in the answer?
What is obvious?
The problem is obvious. ____________________
That we need money is obvious. ____________________
What we should do is obvious. ____________________
What do you know?
I know the culprit. ____________________
I know that Ted stole the money. ____________________
I know who stole the money. ____________________
What should we give a chance?
We should give her idea a chance. ____________________
We should give what Molly suggested a chance. ____________________
What did you talk about?
We talked about the debate. ____________________
We talked about what Megan said. ____________________
What was his position?
His position was a ridiculous stance. ____________________
His position was that no one should pay any taxes. ____________________
His position was what caused the Revolution. ____________________
What do most people consider Herb’s position?
Most people consider Herb’s position foolish. ____________________
Most people consider Herb’s position what caused the Great Depression. _____________
What is the position?
His position, a ridiculous stance, became a plank in the party platform. _____________
The position that no one should pay taxes became a plank in the party platform. ________
Answers
The sentences in Activity 15.2 should demonstrate that clauses can, indeed, function in the ways that nouns usually function in a sentence. The answers to the what questions above result in either nouns, noun phrases, or full clauses, which we may call noun clauses. As we look at the noun clauses in the sentences above, we discover that our previous device for distinguishing a subordinate clause from a main clause has become inadequate, and we discover that the elementary school definition of a complex sentence is also insufficient. Let’s look more closely at the two clauses in sentences that include noun phrases.
Page 3
|
