subordinate clauses

I’ll just get this one out of my system:

So. A clause with an e on the end can be a) a separate item or provision in a contract, bill, or treaty, such as those “Terms of Service” nobody ever reads. (Ethics question: Is it lying to click “I have read the Terms of Service” when you haven’t read the terms of service? Is it a situation where you’re expected to lie, so it isn’t really lying? Discuss amongst yourselves.)

Fortunately, we’re talking about the other clause—the grammatical kind. A “clause,” in this sense, is a group of words with a subject and a verb that’s almost a sentence, but not quite. What makes it “not quite” is usually the addition of a subordinating conjunction. Observe:

James went to the theater last Saturday.

This is a complete thought. It tells you what James did, and when.  But this—

After James went to the theater last Saturday

–is not complete. It leaves us hanging. The only way it could seem complete would be if it answered a question (such as, When did Milton let the dogs out?). Otherwise, we can’t leave it alone; we want to poke and pry until we get some closure about James and the theater.

Dependent clauses (also called subordinate clauses) include a subject and verb like every sentence should. But they are not complete sentences because they depend on another complete sentence to make sense. Dependent clauses can function as adjectives (modifying nouns) or adverbs (modifying verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs).

• Adjectival clauses are often called relative clauses because they relate the clause directly to a noun. Who, whose, that, and which typically introduce a relative clause:

The book that she wrote about leeches will be available next month.        (Modifying book)

A hobbit is a small person with furry feet who lives in a shire.                       (Modifying person)

• Adverbial clauses are introduced by words indicating when, where, or how, such as when, where, before, after, during, while,

You had better finish your homework before the Smiths arrive.

Do you remember where you left your keys?

While Heath was climbing the fence, the rottweiler snapped at his heels.

• But there’s more! Noun clauses. In this example, the entire clause what is showing at the cineplex this afternoon serves as the object of the verb checked:

Harry checked what’s showing at the cineplex this afternoon.

And here, the clause that you showed your work for each problem is the object of see:

I want to see that you showed your work for each problem.

And here, Whoever comes along with me is the subject of the whole sentence:

Whoever comes along with me should ask their parents first.

One more subject clause: What happens when atoms collide.

What happens when atoms collide is the topic of tonight’s science talk.

Did you notice that’s a clause within a clause? When atoms collide modifies the verb happens. Here’s how it looks in a diagram (because you’re dying to know!):

Dependent clauses can do all kinds of tricks: hanging from, curling up within, balancing over. Impressive! The linguist Noam Chomsky defines this capacity of enclosure (i.e., language units within other language units), as the distinctive mark of human language. That may not be true—human languages without that capacity have been discovered—but it’s pretty cool anyway.

There’s another type of clause we should look at, but it deserves close and philosophical consideration all by itself. That’s up next!