ABSTRACT: Phrases combine according to set rules into larger structures known as clauses. There are seven basic clause structures in English. Clauses may be further combined in spoken language into clause complexes.

The Function of Phrases Within Clauses

We know that phrases may combine to construct larger units such as the following:

These larger units are known as clauses.

Phrases function differently in different clauses.There are five functions: (1) Subject, (2) Verb, (3) Object, (4) Adjunct, and (5) Complement.

Subject

The Subject (S) is the thing or person performing the action. So, in the above example of the big boy had hugged the cowering frightened dog the Subject is the big boy, i.e. it is the (big) boy who had performed the action of hugging.

Verb

The Verb (V) describes actions that are instigated by someone or some animate being, events that happen, or the state people or things are in. So, in the big boy had hugged the cowering frightened dog the Verb is represented by the verb phrase had hugged. This consists of the auxiliary verb had and the past tense of the lexical verb hug (i.e. hugged). This, therefore, describes the action performed by the boy.

Object

The Object (O) is the thing undergoing the action. In the big boy had hugged the cowering frightened dog the Object is the cowering frightened dog, i.e. it is the (cowering frightened) dog that undergoes the action of hugging.

Adjunct

The Adjunct (A) provides additional circumstantial information about the time, location, manner, or cause of an action, event or state. Adjuncts are usually optional elements, as their removal does not usually interfere with the essential meaning of the clause. There is no Adjunct in the clause the big boy had hugged the cowering frightened dog. However, if we were to say the big boy had hugged the cowering frightened dog yesterday then the adverb yesterday functions as an Adjunct. In this instance, it provides additional information related to time, i.e. it specifies when the action of hugging the dog took place.

Complement

A Complement (C) fills the same position as an Object in a clause and refers to the same thing as the Subject. To understand this, consider the following utterance:

Here, the Subject refers to one thing (Julie) and the Object refers to another thing (the cat), i.e. they are not the same. In contrast, the Subject and Complement refer to the same thing, e.g.

Now, the Complement (happy) makes reference to the same thing as the Subject (Dawn), i.e. it is Dawn that is happy. Further examples include:

It is apparent in these examples that the Complement refers to the same thing as the Subject, i.e. Brian is mad, the book is terrible, the mother is sad.

Clause Structure

The various functions of phrases can, therefore, be combined to create the larger clauses. Again, however, there are sequencing rules which govern how they may be combined. In English, seven basic clause structures are identifiable. These are shown in Table 1, with examples.

Table 1. Clause Structure of English

These structures represent the major clause types in English. Nevertheless, because language is so flexible, we do find variations of these clauses.

Rank Order

We have seen that each higher order unit of organisation in language is constituted from elements of the immediately lower unit of organisation. We see that morphemes combine into words, that words combine into phrases and that phrases combine into clauses. There is, therefore, a rank order to the organisation of clauses:

Table 2. Rank Order in English Clauses

Beyond the Clause

It should be apparent that clauses may also combine into larger units. There are several ways to do this but a simple method is to use a so-called conjunction to conjoin clauses. For example one could lengthen utterances with and as follows:

When two or more clauses combine to form a longer utterance, we refer to the new combination as a clause complex. Note that we are not referring to sentences here, as we are concerned with spoken language (i.e. spoken utterances): sentences are a phenomenon of written and not spoken language.