Chapter V Part 5 (and last)
IV.D.2
Non-Finite Clauses
75. Non-Finite Clauses are Minor Clauses having a Subject and a Non-Finite Verb and usually depending on a Finite Clause nearby.19 They mainly occur, like other Minor Clauses, to supply the Background in a Sentence, juxtaposed with a Major Process occupying the Foreground (cf. IV.64). The Non-Finite Verb could be a Present Participle for Active [1217] or Medial [1217] to express what is happening then; or a Past Participle for Passive [1219] to express what has happened before then. Pronouns functioning as Subject can occur in the forms of either Subject or Object [1220-21], a variation perhaps encouraged by the absence of a Finite Verb.
[1217] Seeing the peril past, all the bystanders burst into derisive laughter. (Ben Hur)
[1218] the ¡parson ar·!riving, and the
¡horses being !rea·dy, the squire departed (Jones)
[1219] The ¡work !fin·ished, the ¡dead !bur·ied and the ¡site !cleared, Batty Green revert-ed to a sullen silence (Wainwright)
[1220] he lifted a little silver crucifix
and held it out to me, ¡I being !near·est
to him (Dracula)
[1221] he called to give me advice about the old wheat, ¡me being a !widow (Middlemarch)
The preferred Prosody has Strong Stress for End Weight [1218-21], and a falling Pitch contour much like the Finite Minor Clause [1222-23].
76. A Non-Finite Clause can be loosely linked with a Finite one by ‘and’ or
‘what with’, maybe implying an ironic or distressing relation between Processes:
a Present Participle in an Active [1224] or a Medial
[1225], Past Participle in a Passive [1226], or Infinitive for what is about to
happen [1227]. Again, we see the Pronoun in the function
of Subject in the form of Subject or Object.
[1224] And here’s me
dyin’ to go and him havin’
all the chances, and him hating
books (conversation)BNC
[1225] The atmosphere is now different, what
with the cricketers playing
internationally and several fighters going
to South Africa (Daily Telegraph)
[1226] his master bolted with his place, and
him blamed for it! (Dombey)
[1227]
What! I love, I sue, I seek a wife, […] and
I to sigh for her! (Love’s
Labour’s Lost)
77.
A Non-Finite Clause can be Framed with suitable Framing Verbs for Communicative
Processes like ‘describe’ [1228], ‘declare’ [1229], or ‘proclaim’
[1230].
[1228] I described the gorgeous Babylonian harlot riding
forth in her chariots of gold (Parish)
[1229] These men declare, with alarmed countenance, the brigands to be coming (French
Revolution)
[1230]
This German Socialism […] proclaimed the German nation to be
the model nation (Manifesto of the Communist Party)
Similarly, the Object of Verbs for
Perceptive and Cognitive Processes can also be the Subject of a Non-Finite
Clause:
[1231] I beheld
the roof burning. (Volcanoes)
[1232] Bernice found her eyes
caught by flashes of light (Deceit)
[1233] Herr Nordern felt his
hand tremble. (Bury the Dead)
[1234] She knew her beloved
Catherine to have so feeling a heart
(Northanger)
[1235] she believed him to
be really taking comfort in some society (Emma)
78. A useful Non-Finite Clause makes up for the Imperative form limiting Commands to the Second Person (cf. IV.52). Here, the Command is formed with ‘let’, whose Object is also the Subject of an Infinitive expressing the Action or Event the Command is intended to motivate. ‘Let’ rates only Weak Stress, whilst End Weight mainly decides if the Infinitive rates either Strong Stress (e.g. ‘disband’ in [1236]) or Weak Stress (e.g. ‘disperse’ in [1236], ‘do’ in [1237]). The Pitch contour is usually a falling one, much as for ordinary Commands.
In a few data, the speaker commands some Second-Person Audience to perform
(or not perform) an Ergative of ‘letting do’ in the Affirmative [1238] or
Negative [1239], as distinct from ordinary ‘allowing’ [1240-41].
[1238]
most gracious Duke, with thy command let him be brought forth
(Comedy of Errors)
[1239]
Don’t let the ultrasophisticates put you off the guided
city tour. (Beaten Track)
[1240]
‘She had better go out of the room.’ ‘Let
her stay’, said Madame Merle. (Portrait)
[1241]
Look out, he’s turning! Don’t let him get away!
(Sawyer)
More
often, the plausible reading is merely a Non-Finite Command that the Direct
Object Agent should act without anyone in particular ‘letting’ them.
Affirmatives like [1242-43] are common in my data, whilst Negatives like
[1244-45] are rare.
[1242] Let the child who broke her slate come
forward! (Eyre)
[1243] Let the guilty tremble, therefore,
and the suspect, and the rich (French Revolution)
[1244] Let the Roman senator not despise
the poor Pompeian. (Pompeii)
[1245] don’t let the honourable gentleman
forget that we now have one point four million more in work in the UK
than we had ten years ago. (House of Commons)
Occasionally,
the intention is sarcastic defiance, implying it will hardly be done or else to
no purpose, and the Prosody caries louder Volume and slower Pace:
[1246] ‘Let him dare to force you!’ I cried.
‘There’s law in the land.’ (Wuthering)
[1247] Let him
do his spite. My services, which I have done the signiory, shall
out-tongue his complaints. (Othello)
And in exuberant discourse, the doing may be one the
speaker cannot realistically command at all:
[1248] let the whole of creation share this sublime happiness. (Joy Bringer)
[1249]
Let the sky rain potatoes; let it thunder to the tune of Greensleeves (Merry
Wives)
[1250] Let ugly
Darkness, with her rusty coach, smother the earth with never-fading mists (Tamburlaine)
79.
A Non-Finite ‘let’ Command may propose the audience to join the speaker in
acting together
[1251]. The unmarked Object of ‘let’ is then the First Person Plural us’
[1252], whereas I found just a few instances of ‘you and me’ [1253]. Again,
the Infinitive takes Weak Stress or Strong Stress.
[1251] ¡Let us ¡all !slip
into our !beds,
and !be ¡there
when she comes in (Pan)
[1252] ¡Don’t ¡let us !talk about it any more (Dorian)
[1253] Let ¡you
and ¡me ¡have a !story !club
all our own (Green Gables)
In
regional usage, the popular Contraction ‘let’s’ (‘let + us’) may get
additional Objects despite the contracted Pronoun, hence ‘let’s us’
(Strong Stress) [1254], or ‘let’s you and me’ [1255] and ‘let’s me and
you’ (Weak Stress) [1256].
[1254] ‘Go
‘long home and get laughed at.’ […] ‘Let’s
!us ¡go, too, Tom.’ (Sawyer)
[1255] ¡Let’s ¡me and
¡you !bunch our !com·mis·sar·y
de·!par·tments
and make a !stew (Options)
[1256] ¡Let’s ¡you and
¡me ¡go ¡down to the !cir·cus
(Punkin Center)
80.
Compared to Dependent Clauses, Non-Finite Minor Clauses generally
function more distinctly as Background. Apparently, the choice of Non-Finite
reflects an Intention to mention one Minor Process setting the scene or
circumstances for the Major Process in a Finite Clause (IV.58). However, the
Non-Finite Commands just reviewed reverse the priorities, with ‘let’ often
merely a dummy Process, and the Minor process by its form is the Major Process
by its function.
81.
Surely the most neglected among the frequent Patterns in the real Grammar of
English is the Non-Clause
,20
a discourse unit which serves the functions of a Clause without having the form
of Subject plus Verb. In speaking, it occurs as an Utterance in a distinct Tone
Group, and usually with at least one Strong Stress; in writing, it occurs as a
Sentence beginning with a capital letter and ending with a Period. School
‘grammars’ would spurn it as a ‘sentence fragment’
,
a heinous error indeed (cf. IV.67). Linguistic ‘grammars’ would re-tailor it
into a Clause that happens to be ‘subjectless’ or ‘verbless’ (or both),
or which, for obscure motives, has undergone ‘ellipsis’ but is still
‘understood’ as a Clause (cf. IV.103). Both moves obey staid notions of
English Grammar modelled on formal written English.
82.
In authentic discursive practice, Non-Clauses are essential as functional and
prosodic units. One recent survey found them
to constitute more than one third of all units in a sample of English
conversation.21 They are natural products of cooperative interaction,
as in [1257-58] (BNC data).
[1257]
Ruth:
you’ve got some imbeciles coming! Paul:
Who are they? Ruth: [laugh-ing] Well mainly the children. Paul:
Dunno them. Ruth: Your
cousins.
[1258]
Margaret:
Do
you remember that great big jumble sale they had that raised over a thousand
pounds? They had under the erm, Richard:
What
the Scouts?
Terence:
multi-storey? Margaret:
Yeah.
Richard:
Four
or five years ago now.
Written English too can produce
abundant Non-Clauses [1259], especially when representing conversation [1260].
[1259]
John Major is now being exposed for what some of us always warned that he was. A
fake. A flake. A
wimp. A phoney. (Daily Mirror)
[1260] ‘I thought
it was appalling’, she said. ‘What d’you mean, appalling?’ ‘The
noise. The dirt. The mindless, repetitive work.’ (Nice Work)
83.
In respect to position, the Look-Ahead Non-Clause points forward to a
Major Clause, as in [1261]; the Look-Back Non-Clause points backward, as
in [1262]; and the Free Non-Clause
stands alone without pointing to
any nearby Clause, as in [1263].
[1261] My noble father. He is looking down on us
now (Man and Superman)
[1262]
Something of a surprise. You
being here. And in your cab. (Suburban
Dead)
[1263] They found him in a trance. […] ‘Glorious, stirring sight!’ murmured Toad. (Willows)
84.
In the organisation of Conversational Turns among several speakers, a Non-Clause
can point ahead to the next Turn [1264]; or, far more commonly, it points back
to the previous Turn [1265]. Or again, it can share a Turn with a Clause [1266]
or with another Non-Clause [1267].
[1264] ‘ You and I —’ ‘We
shall always remember him’, I said, hastily. (Darkness)
[1265] ‘You sound very dull’, Katharine remarked.
‘Merely middle class’.
Denham replied. (Night and Day)
[1266] ‘But that’s you. Your handwriting.’ (Chung Kuo)
[1267]
‘Sorry’, I shouted. ‘My fault. Should
have spotted it myself’. (Uncle Albert)
85.
The balance favouring the Predicate over the Subject in the English Clause,
noted respecting Informativity back in IV.17, may suggest why the Subject is
more often missing in Non-Clauses than the Verb, and is easier to leave out in
context [1268-69]. Even so, Non-Clauses without a Verb, as in [1270], are no
rarity.
[1268] Gets
a bit lonely since our accident, you know. Can’t
get about. (Samaritan)
[1269] ‘What do you think they does?’ ‘Don’t know.’ ‘Gets up a grand
tea drinkin’. (Pick-wick)
[1270] But Baldwin and Mrs B. are wonderful. Never a word of bitterness or complaint. (Constitutional Texts)
86.
All four of the Major Clause Types reviewed in IV.C.1-4 have corresponding Major
Non-Clauses. A Non-Clause Statement
can
range from a single Word [1271] to an extensive Phrase [1272]. Each usually has
at least one Certain Strong Stress, often for End Weight
,
and is set off by longer Pauses conventionally marked in written English with
periods and highlighted here with double upright lines. Stylistic effects can be
quite impressive [1273-74].
[1271] She took herself off for long walks to ponder in the
ice and wind and snow. || !Cold.
||
!Chill.
||
!Freez·ing.
|| !Wet.
||
(I Believe in Angels)
[1272]
She was nothing to him. ||
Just another
!wor·ship·per
in a long string of !sub·jects. (Undo)
[1273] The !door,
her !moth·er coming. ||
!Sway·ing,
!skel·e·tal, and her face
like !snow.
|| !Clutch·ing something wrapped in !pa·per.
||
!Red on her !face and her !coat.
(Lying Together)
[1274]
The damp, yellow-brick !school·build·ing in its !cin·der·y !grounds. ||
The State !Bank,
| !stuc·co masking !wood. ||
The
!Farm·ers’ National !Bank. ||
An Ionic !tem·ple of !mar·ble.
(Main Street)
The series of Non-Clauses in [1273-74] nicely invoke
a disjointed series of visual impressions, e.g., for the spectral
materialisation of the ‘mother’ in [1273]; or for the iconic representation
of
the ‘planlessness’ of Gopher Prairie in [1274], where ‘each man had built
with the most valiant disregard of all the others’
(Main Street).
87.
Several indicators suggest that such Non-Clauses do count as Statements and not
just fortuitous leftovers. They can have their own Topics, as in news headlines:
[1275]
Baker’s hard man ‘soft’ on grammar (London Standard)
[1276] Sri Lanka rebels in sea suicide (BBC World
News)
Also,
they can have a Minor Clause depending on them (cf. IV47), though such usages
are uncommon in my data, e.g.:
[1277] A fever. Which
took Thérèse by the throat and shook her (Daughters)
[1278] The winter. When things would be quieter maybe on the farm.
(Oral history)BNC
And
they can be loosely linked with ‘and’ to a nearby Clause, much like the
Non-Finites shown in IV.69, but without any Verb form:
[1279]
He was forever ill-treating her, and she too
proud to complain. (Sherlock Holmes)
[1280] At a Labour conference you get Gerry Adams turning up at a fringe
meeting, and he the leader of Sinn Fein (Independent)
[1281] It’s funny you should be calling on her, and you a respectable young lady (Ridgeway)
88.
A simple function of a Non-Clause Statement
is
to echo or repeat, e.g., to emphasize what you just said [1282]; or to show you
have taken in what someone else has said [1283]; or to indicate some reservation
about it [1284].
[1282] ‘In
game-playing I always win. Always’, he emphasised. (My Heart)
[1283]
‘I could rent a place like this next year. In September.’ ‘September’,
she repeated and listened to the rain. (same)
[1284] ‘You
write novels?’ ‘Oh yes. That is, I want to write
them’. ‘Novels’, she repeated.
‘Why do
you write novels?’ (Voyage Out)
A
more elaborate function is to supply an Item or Pattern that might otherwise
have been integrated into a nearby Clause, such as a Modifier [1285], Direct
Object [1286] or Adverbial [1287]. But sometimes no plausible format for
integrating is readily indicated, though low Cohesion does not impede Coherence
[1288-89].
[1285] The barmaid caught my
eye in the mirror. Beautiful. (Other Country)
[1286] I have
various packets. And the tin of milk. And a plum. And a peach. (Like
Out)
[1287] It just took
off like a rocket from there. Every night.
All the time. (Living with Heroin)
[1288]
He was beautiful, your brother. Always a fair
price. Always there. (Payback)
[1289] ‘What was
the job, sir?’ ‘Secretary of a trade association. Widgets and gaskets,
that sort of thing. (Clubbed)
Common
too are Free Non-Clause Statements whose main function is to comment on
something in the communicative situation:
[1290]
They found Mr. Jarvis greasing a cat’s paws with butter. […] ‘A fine animal’,
said Psmith. (Psmith)
[1291] He took from De Gautet a bottle which he carried, and put it
to his lips. ‘Hardly
a drop!
he cried discontentedly, and flung it in the moat. (Zenda)
[1292]
Grace appeared. ‘Time for a break, boys.’
‘Ah, relief’, Byron said. (Undo)
[1293]
Mac eyed George’s retreating back till he had turned the corner. ‘A nice pleasant gentleman, Mr. Bevan’,
he said. (Damsel)
89.
Like the separated Dependent Clauses reviewed in IV.67, Non-Clause State-ments
are popular for answering Questions.
[1294] ‘Who is Glinda?’ inquired the Scarecrow. ‘The
Witch of the South’. (Oz)
[1295] ‘What’s
the matter with him?’ ‘Just crazy drunk’.
(Jungle)
[1296] ‘Are you drunk?’ ‘Tolerable
sober, my angel’, returns Mr. Bucket. (Bleak House)
[1297] ‘Where is the book?’ ‘In the
laboratory.’ (Egoist)
By contrast, full Clauses might sound
quite inappropriate. Even in carefully composed discourse like [1298], they
could create an irritable or pedantic impression; and in casual talk like [1299]
from BNC data, they could seem baldly out of place.
[1298]
Algernon:
What brings you up to town?
Jack:
Oh, pleasure, pleasure! […] [compare:
Pleasure brings me up to town.]
Algernon:
Where have you been since last Thursday?
Jack:
In the country. […] [compare:
I have been in the country since last Thursday] (Earnest)
[1299]
Ruth
: Have you got two tens you want to change for a twenty, Paul? Paul:
No
sorry.
[compare:
No,
I
am
sorry
that
I
have
not
got
two
tens
I
want
to
change
for
a
twenty.]
90.
Non-Clause Statements can be
strategically positioned near the Item they look toward in a nearby Clause. A
Look-Ahead Non-Clause Statement might look toward a Subject [1300] more
naturally than toward an Object [1301]; a Look-Back Non-Clause Statement might
look toward an added Object [1302] more naturally than to an added Subject
[1303].
[1300] A very fierce-looking man, Don Carlos. He asked me for a cigar in a most familiar manner. (Nostromo)
[1301] James Cardiff. You remember him. Chap with red
hair (Nudists)
[1302]
He went away, taking his men with him. And the guns of course. (WouldBe)
[1303] Tildy
came — a midnight beauty, with starry eyes and tapering limbs. And her
brother, correspondingly homely. And then the big boys. (Souls)
Similarly, Non-Clauses in the function of
Adverbials, such as Place or Time, are typically Look-Back Statements [1304-05],
resembling the unmarked position of Adverbials in a complete Clause.
[1304]
You must come here at once, Lord Wisbeach. To-night. To-day. (Picadilly)
[1305] We’re still in the office
block. In the basement. (Darkfall)
91.
Non-Clause Statements can also be followed by Tag Statements such as Pronoun +
Pro-Verb [1306-07], or Demonstrative + Pro-Verb [1308-09], or just Demonstrative
[1310-11] (cf. IV.18). The Non-Clause carries a Strong Stress, whilst these Tags
probably prefer Weak Stress.
[1306] Scientific !gen·tle·man,
| ¡he
was. (Adversary)
[1307] My God! Mean
as !muck,
| ¡they
are. (Rag Nymph)
[1308] Sweaty !work,
| ¡this
is. (Green Behind)
[1309] Good
drop of !gin,
| ¡that
was. (Ulysses)
[1310] A
gay old !grand·pa,
| ¡this. (Octopus)
[1311] Took some !do·ing,
| ¡that. (Chickens)
In Prosody, the Pattern of Non-Clause plus Tag has two falling Contours separated by a short Pause, one with Strong Stress for End Weight and one with Weak Stress on the Pronoun [1312]. In a clear prosodic contrast, a Statement Clause with a Fronted Subject Complement has one long falling Contour with Front Weight and End Weight, as shown in [1313]
92.
Once more like Major Statements, Non-Clause Statements can be followed by
Framing Tags (cf. IV.69).
[1314] Sober serious man with a bit in the savings-bank, I’d
say. (Ulysses)
[1315] ‘Same suit’, said Tuppe.
‘Same man, I’m telling you.’ (Ultimate Truths)
[1316] They’re particular at the National Gallery. Government show, you
know. (Adversary)
[1317] She
often said she’d like to visit. Slumming. The exotic, you see. (Ulysses)
93.
Non-Clause Questions
are
abundantly attested. With greater intensity than Non-Clause Statements,
Look-Back Questions repeat specific Items to indicate some reservation
[1318-19]. The repeated Items may be included in a Non-Clause Question-Word
Question with ‘what’ [1320], ‘where’ [1321], or ‘who’ [1322].
[1318] ‘That was
brave.’ ‘Brave?’ She
echoed the
word incredulously. ‘Brave?’ (Lover’s Charade)
[1319] ‘You can stay the weekend.’ Robyn stared aghast. ‘Stay the weekend?’ (Garden)
[1320] You ought to get ready’, she said. ‘Get ready for what?’ (Bury the Dead)
[1321]
‘I want a ticket to California, please.’ ‘California where?’
(Alternative Assembly)
[1322]
‘Have they taken him to prison
yet?’ ‘Taken who to prison?’ (Affair at Styles)
94.
The omission of the Subject in Questions works better
when the Agent or Medium of the Process Verb
would be the hearer [1323-24], than if it would be the speaker [1325-26].
[1323] Found the lost ball? Good man! Want any tea? (Room
with a View)
[1324] ‘Coming back to dinner?’ his
wife called after him. (Awakening)
[1325] This chick on the stool looked like Cleopatra. ‘Buy you a drink?’ I said. (Money)
[1326] I began to question to myself exactly what I
was doing. Give you an example? (Whirlpool)
The hearer can also be expressed as a Pronoun with no
Verb but with a Modifier [1327], Complement [1328], or Adverbial [1329].
[1327]
‘You engaged?’ said an American soldier
who asked me to dance. (Enigma)
[1328] ‘The barbies. I
should’ve tested them.’ ‘You a
pharmacist?’ (Payback)
[1329] ‘You in bed?’
he asked, his forehead twitching. (Howard’s End)
95.
Among the Question-Word-Questions, those with ‘why’ are most likely to be
Non-Clauses, e.g., with a Noun Phrase [1330]
or an Adverbial [1331].
[1330] Why cucumber sandwiches? Why such reckless
extravagance in one so young? (Earnest)
[1331] Stooping, Mr. Schofield discovered his son
squatting under the piano, near an open window. ‘Why under the piano?’ (Penrod)
96.
On occasion, a Look-Back Non-Clause
Question follows up a Major Clause Question to test a prospective Answer. A Noun
Phrase may be supplied to look back to the Subject as Agent [1332], a Subject
Complement as Identity [1333], an Object as Possession [1334], or a State as
Attribute [1335].
[1332] Who said twopence? The
gentleman in the scarecrow’s hat? (Marigold)
[1333]
What do you think I am? A busted
bookkeeper? (Babbitt)
[1334]
What do you aim to achieve? A cash income? (Smallholding)
[1335] Dear Duchess, and how is the Duke? Brain
still weak?’ (Husband)
97.
Like the Tag Statements in IV.91, Tag Questions can link to Non-Clauses:
[1336] A nervy little thing, isn’t she? (Paper
Faces).
[1337] ‘Good
fighters, are they?’ ‘Renowned.’ (Chung
Kuo)
[1338] Left ‘em in
the back of a cab, did she? (Just
Another Angel)
[1339] I don’t think I’ve seen your
books in the shops. Sell well, do they? (Raven)
So
too can Framing Tag Questions like those shown in IV.72:
[1340] A Special
Forces pub, do you think? (Ultimate Truths)
[1341]
A woman’s writing, would you say? (Patently Murder)
[1342] ‘He is
grieving very deeply.’ ‘For his child, don’t
you see?’ (Chymical Wedding)
98.
Non-Clause Exclamations are abundant too, probably because Exclamations most
readily dispense with Clause format, putting Strong Stress for Front Weight:
[1343] ‘What a funny !nose!’
‘Not so funny as yours, madam’. (Blue Fairy)
[1344] As usual they are talking
politics. How !tire·some! (Awakening)
Moreover,
most Non-Clause Patterns can function as an Exclamation, such as a Noun Phrase
[1345], a Modifier [1346], a Verb Phrase [1347], an Adverbial [1348], and of course an Interjection [1349].
[1345]
Hook stood shuddering, one foot in the air. ‘The
crocodile!’ he gasped. (Pan)
[1346] Cape Breton an
island! Wonderful! (Macaulay)
[1347] I stayed
there. Never lost an inch! (conversation)BNC
[1348]
‘Would you induce Mr. Lexman to lecture at my house?’ ‘At Portman Place!’ (Twisted)
[1349] Holmes whistled. ‘By George! It’s attempted murder at the least.’ (Sherlock Holmes)
Only
a few Non-Clause Exclamations are Look-Aheads, typically a Noun Phrase about to
be repeated in another Non-Clause Exclamation [1350-51]; on occasion, it can
point ahead to the Subject of an upcoming Clause [1352]
[1350]
Sir John cut in fiercely. ‘A lie!
A lie to save that foul villain’s neck!’ (Sea Hawk)
[1351]
he began to tremble, then to sob like a child, and at last spoke, through his
tears: ‘A sail! A sail—and heading towards us!’ (Miss
Bartram’s Trouble)
[1352] Good
rider! He’s through it again. (Western World)
Far
more numerous are Look-Backs, which, like the Non-Clause Questions in IV.93, can
repeat Items for emphasis or challenge.
[1353]
‘she’d better give me your married name.’ I was reeling with shock.
‘Married!’ (West of Bohemia)
[1354]
‘Matilda is a genius.’ At the mention of this word, Miss
Trunchbull’s face turned purple and her whole body seemed to swell up like a
bullfrog’s. ‘A genius!’ (Matilda)
[1355] ‘I
never saw such a gun in my life. It goes off of its own accord. It will
do it.’ ‘Will do it!’ echoed Wardle, with irritation (Pickwick)
The Look-Back can also supply Patterns that could have
been integrated into the foregoing Clause as a Subject [1356] or an Object
[1357].
[1356]
How you must miss her! And dear Emma, too! (Emma)
[1357] Beware the
Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! (Alice)
Numerous
too are Free Non-Clauses for exclaiming about the situation:
[1358] Anna stared over
the sweep of lawns. ‘A waterfall!’ she
exclaimed. (Warning)
[1359] She looked into the circle of
their cabal, and saw what had occupied them. ‘A
doll’s tea party!’ she exclaimed. (Sign for the Sacred)
These
include the Evaluations of one’s audience as ‘you’, usually Pejorative:
[1360] ‘You thankless dog!’ gasped Mrs. Brown. ‘You impudent insulting dog!’ (Dombey)
[1361] You witless weed! You empty-headed hamster! You stupid glob of glue! (Matilda)
98.
Interjections are in the main Non-Clause Exclamations whose functions
strongly outrank their forms, which can thus be diverse, e.g., using
Sound-Words.
[1362] By
God! Yes, I’ll beat her yet. Oh lord!
I feel sick. (House of Women)
[1363]’I
want to be a naturalist — like you.’
‘Humph! — Well!
— Dear me!
— You
don’t say!’ murmured the Doctor.
(Dolittle)
[1364]
Yuck! I am filthy! All bloody! (Oxford English programme)BNC
[1365] ‘My
man’s very angry.’ ‘Phew!’ said the bullocks. ‘He must be
white!’ ‘Of course he is,’ said Vixen. ‘Huah! Ouach! Ugh!’
(JungleBook)
99.
Non-Clauses taking Strong Stress can be followed by Tag Exclamations
putting Weak Stress on the Pro-Verb (cf. IV.51).
[1366] ‘!Mar·vel·lous, ¡isn’t he!’ ‘He certainly spoke well.’ (Maggie)
[1367] That’s the sew·er rats. !Aw·ful, ¡isn’t
it! (conversation)BNC
Framing
Tags can occur as Exclamations too:
[1368]
Wonderful weather, Lady Deverill! !Per·fect,
¡I’d say! (In Sunshine)
[1369]
Did you see the hands of your boy? !Wom·an’s ¡hands,
I ¡tell you!
(Deliria)
100.
Non-Clause Commands lack only the Finite Verb needed for the status of a
Clause, no Subject being required. Also lacking most functions of Statements,
Questions, and Exclamations as Non-Clauses, they are less abundant. On the
Affirmative side, lone Adverbs or Adverbials may be Enactive Commands to move
somewhere [1370-71], or Dispositives to move something or someone [1373].
Emphatic Strong Stress can be signalled in writing with Exclamation Marks.
[1370] ‘¡Up·!stairs.
I will not have you two
bickering.’ ‘But I wasn’t —’ ‘Up·!stairs!’ (On the Edge)
[1372] ‘Have you a passport?’ asked
the rat. ‘Out with your passport!’ (Blue
Fairy)
[1373] Maggie Thatcher rules! ¡Down
with the !poor! ¡Up
with the !rich! (conversation)BNC
101.
Negative Commands can be formed with Participle or a Noun Phrase following
‘no’ [1374-75], or, in a few Colligations ‘not’ [1376] or ‘none’
[1377].
[1374]
Now shut yer eyes. No peeking!
(Twist of Fate)
[1375]
Shamlou’s smile vanished. ‘No questions!’
(Sons of Heaven)
[1376]
‘Not a word, boy!’ he pursued in a
whisper (Copperfield)
[1377] None
of that nonsense! (Wuthering)
102.
The status of Minor Non-Clauses is unclear. They would plausibly be
introduced by a Dependent Conjunction but lack either a Subject or a Verb needed
for Minor Clauses. I find just a few like [1378-79] actually marked off as
separate units; apparently, the Conjunctions discourage separation.
[1378] If he does lean on Graham again after tomorrow,
then I’ll stand up and be counted. After tomorrow. If
necessary. (Meddlers)
[1379]
She searched the attic, and found a hammer lying between a sewing machine and a
stuffed bird. As if in readiness. (Dark
Dance)
In
exchange, I find many integrated units where a Process is expressed by a Present or Past Participle
sharing its Subject with the Major Clause it depends on (VI.28), e.g., for one
Action or Event setting the Background
for another (cf. IV.75)
[1380] When
dressed, I sat a long time by the window looking out (Eyre)
[1381] If
asked, she would have said that Charlotte was her special friend (Barchester)
[1382] While speaking, Mrs Plornish shook her head, and
wiped her eyes (Little Dorrit)
[1383] Although despairing,
I could not give over. (Backward)
I
find similar units without a Conjunction — just a Participle sharing the
Subject.
[1384] Finding her
advance thus baffled, Glinda bent her brows in deep thought (Oz)
[1385] Arriving in the river Tiber, the serpent glided from the vessel (Golden Age of
Myth)
[1386] Caught red-handed, Bad
Eye made a full confession. (Circus Boys)
[1387] Released, and set at
ease, up she rose (Professor)
When the Subject of the Major Clause
cannot logically be shared with the Minor Non-Clause, grammarians are prone to
censure a ‘dangling modifier’,22 even though the intended sense
is rarely in doubt.
[1388] One leg was shorter than the rest,
but a shell put under restored the level. When fixed, she rubbed the
table down with sweet-smelling herbs. (Golden Age of Myth)
[1389] While in hospital, my
company made me redundant. (She)
103.
A Minor Non-Clause may have no Verb but a potential Subject that relates to the
Subject of the Major Clause, e.g., as a body part [1390-91]; or a Subject with
an Adverbial, also relating in some such way [1392-93].
[1390] She was sitting with her
‘partner’ at the end of the barn, her eyes wide, her
thoughts, no doubt, elsewhere. (Octopus)
[1391] But Li Yuan held on, his teeth
gritted, his face determined. (Chung Kuo)
[1392] General Tilney was pacing the
drawing-room, his watch in his hand (Northanger)
[1393] Emmeline would sit and brood over
the child, a troubled expression on her
face and a far-away look in her eyes. (Blue Lagoon)
Describing
these Patterns as Minor Non-Clauses seems to me preferable to calling them
‘subjectless Clauses’ or ‘verbless Clauses’, which sounds contradictory,
like a ‘wordless phrase’; or dramatically bloating the concept of
‘ellipsis’ as a mechanism which has ‘omitted’
or ‘deleted’ some ‘implied’ Items which ‘we’ — ordinary hearers or
grammarians? —’postulate’, ‘recover’, or ‘understand’ (IV.81).23
104.
For my part, I have essayed to offer some plausible grounds for recognising the
category of Non-Clauses in the Prosody and Grammar of English. They are amply
attested in authentic data, and are often better adapted to their discursive
functions than full Clauses would be (cf. IV.89). And while they are typical of
spoken English, written English provides frequent examples, which should remind
us that Prosody is an essential factor in both media.
Notes to Ch. IV
1 The
alternative term ‘intonation’ roughly corresponds to
‘prosody’, which has a handy Modifier ‘prosodic’ (as compared to the
stodgy ‘intonational’). Compare
K.L. Pike, The
Intonation of American English (Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1945); Michael Halliday, Intonation and
Grammar in British English (The Hague: Mouton, 1967); David Crystal, Prosodic
Systems and Intonation in English (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1969); Dwight
Bolinger, Intonation and Its Uses: Melody and Grammar in Discourse (Palo
Alto: Stanford UP, 1989);
Paul Tench, The Roles of Intonation in English
Discourse (Bern: Peter Lang, 1990). A useful
comparison of admittedly diverse models is in the revised edition of Alan
Cruttenden, Intonation (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1997).
2
Quirk et al., Comprehensive Grammar
of the English Language (London: Longman, 1985, p. 150) warn that ‘the
meaning attached by linguists to “prosodic” is based on the use of this term
in traditional rhetoric but with considerable difference in emphasis and
specialization’.
3 Welcome
exceptions include David Brazil, Malcolm Coulthard, and Catherine Johns, Discourse
Intonation and Language Teaching (London: Longman, 1980); Barbara
Seidlhofer and Christiane Dalton, Pronunciation (Oxford: OUP, 1994) Ch. 7; and
Dorothy M. Chun, Discourse Intonation: From Theory and Research to Practice
(Amsterdam: Benjamins, 2002).
4 The
decisive impetus may have come from the challenge of describing ‘tone languages’ like Mazatec (Pike). Chinese (Halliday), or Hausa (Tench),
then reflected back onto English.
5
Quirk et al. Note 2, pp. 1591ff,
similarly recognise ‘pitch’ and ‘stress’; my ‘Volume’ would be their
‘loudness’ (an unbalanced term), whilst my ‘Pace’ would be their
‘duration’; their ‘rhythm’ doubles for Stress and Pace. Compare also
Seidlhofer and Dalton, Note 3, pp. 33f, who cite D.B. Fry, ‘Experiments in the
Perception of Stress’, Language and Speech 1, 1958, 126-52.
6 Quirk et al., Note 2, pp. 1590ff, distinguish between
‘primary’ and ‘secondary stress’, but limit the latter to being ‘often
relevant’ whereas I find the distinction omnipresent.
7 See now especially Halliday, Note 105 to Ch. II, pp. 295ff.
8 Halliday’s corresponding term ‘tone’ seems
to me unduly compressed; he also intro-duces ‘key’ as ‘the system of tone
choice’ (Note 105 to Ch. II, p. 302)
9 Halliday
calculated that each added syllable increases the timing by only 1/5 of the pace
of the stressed syllable (Note 105 to Ch. II, p, 293).
10 In one
British ‘corpus of conversation’, Quirk et al. (Note 2, p. 1602) report
falling Pitch in 51% of the Tone Groups and rising in 20.8%.
11 The
most perceptive treatment of Bush Jr’s dysfunctional English is Mark Miller, The Bush Dyslexicon: Observations on a National Disorder (NY: Norton, 2002).
12
Welcome exceptions are Halliday (1967) (Note 1) and Quirk et al. (Note
2). Compare Douglas Biber, Stig Johansson, Geoffrey Leech, Susan Conrad, and
Edward Finegan, The Longman Grammar of Spoken
and Written English (London: Longman, 1999), which claims to ‘closely
follow’ Quirk et al. (Note 2, p. 7), yet just mentions intonation and Prosody in passing as
‘information lacking in the transcriptions’ of its data corpus; we are
reassured that ‘for many purposes of grammatical research, the absence of
prosodic information may make comparatively little difference’; and are
offered the recourse of calling it ‘semantic or pragmatic’ instead of
‘grammatical’ (pp. 1041-42).
13
The confusion between clause and
sentence is still hedged by Quirk et al., who distinguish these paired sets of
terms as the ‘grammatical categories’ for ‘types of clause or simple
sentence’, versus the ‘logical or semantic status of an utterance’ (Note
2, p. 78). Yet a footnote to this remark describes ‘utterance’ as a
‘pragmatic and communicative function’. The Longman Grammar finally
resolves the issue with its brisk account of ‘Major Types of Independent
Clauses’ (Biber et
al., Note 12, Section 3.13).
14 See Jan Firbas, ‘On the concept of communicative dynamism in the theory
of functional sentence perspective’, in Sborník
prací Filosofické Fakulty Brněnské Univerzity, A 19, 1971, 135-44.
15
Though Quirk et al. overlook them, the Longman
Grammar briefly recognises them as ‘declarative Tags’ (Biber et al.
Note 12, pp.139f), whereas my term refers to function (Statement)
rather than form. Some even have what might superficially seem to be
Interrogative form, such as [1021-22].
16
Quirk et al., Note 2, pp. 804, in
fact use the term ‘declarative question’.
17 E.g.,
Quirk et al., Note 2, pp. 777-82, 810-14.
18
Data from the Corpus of
South African English were kindly sent by Linda Williams.
19
Quirk et al., who do not recognise Non-Clauses at all, allow for the
Non-Finites to be ‘with or without a subject’ (Note
2, p. 993), which I find incompatible with the basic definition of the
clause (IV.103).
20
As a notable exception, the
data-based Longman Grammar (Biber et al., Note 12, pp. 1101f) recognises ‘non-clausal units’ and their
parallel functions to the Major Clauses, though under inconsistent labels, e.g.,
‘assertive’ versus ‘declarative’, or ‘directive’ versus
‘imperative’.
21 Biber et al., Note 12, p. 1071. Non-Clauses made up 38.6%, and Clauses 61.4%. But for Non-Clauses, the average length was 1.95 words compared to 7.52 words in Clauses.
22 For Quirk et al. (Note 2, pp. 1121ff), this is simply an ‘error’
or ‘infringement’ that may ‘suggest an absurd interpretation’, but I
find their invented examples rather skewed.
23 Quirk et al. (Note 2, pp. 883f, 996). They propose no less than seven variants of ‘ellipsis’ with steadily
diminishing assurance — ‘strict’, ‘standard’, ‘situational’,
‘structural’, ‘weak’, ‘virtual’, and ‘quasi-‘ (889f).