1.3.5.4 Complementisers
The final word category we will consider in this section is the complementiser. This category is used to introduce clauses of one type or another. For now, we can take a clause as a coherent part of an expression that contains an inflection, though this will be made more precise later in the book. Examples of complementisers are:
| (179) | a | I know [that I am right] |
| b | I was hoping [for you to phone] | |
| c | I wonder [if you would lend me the money] |
The remaining set of categorial features that has not been assigned to a category is [+F, –N, –V], that is ‘functional prepositions’. One argument for treating complementisers as functional prepositions is the fact that at least one of them, for, has certain prepositional properties (it is sometimes called the prepositional complementiser). Note that prepositions take nominal complements that are always in the accusative Case, and never in the nominative:
| (180) | a | to/with/for/by/etc. him |
| b | *to/with/for/by/etc he |
Although the complement of complementisers (the part of the expression that follows it) seems to be clausal rather than nominal, the nominal element that follows the complementiser for is always accusative and indeed seems to depend on the complementiser to its presence in that if the complementiser is absent, then so must the nominal be:
| (181) | a | [for him to stay] would be unwise |
| b | *[for he to stay] would be unwise | |
| c | [to stay] would be unwise | |
| d | *[him to stay] would be unwise |
We will be examining these observations in more detail later on in the book, but for now we can take the observations as support for the categorisation of complementisers as types of preposition. Indeed, we may even take this as evidence that complementisers should be [–N] elements as it is this feature that is responsible for the accusative nature of the following nominal, as discussed above.
Another argument in favour of categorising complementisers as functional prepositions is that both prepositional elements and clauses introduced by a complementiser undergo a syntactic process known as post-posing, where they appear to be moved to the end of the main clause:
| (182) | a | lies [about Larry] were circulated → |
| lies were circulated [about Larry] | ||
| b | a book [that no one had read] was awarded first prise → | |
| a book was awarded first prise [that no one had read] |
We saw above how inflectional elements determine the finiteness of the clause, with modal auxiliaries and tense appearing in finite clauses and the non-finite to appearing in non-finite clauses. Complementisers are also sensitive to finiteness. That and if always introduce finite clauses, while for always introduces non-finite clauses:
| (183) | a | that he may speak | *that him to speak |
| b | if she is staying | *if she to stay | |
| c | for you to know | *for you must know |
A second property of complementisers concerns what might be termed the force of the clause that they introduce. This concerns the interpretation of the clause as either a statement or a question:
| (184) | a | I said [that I have the money] |
| b | I asked [if you are free at the weekend] |
The complementisers that and for introduce declarative clauses, i.e. ones that make statements, while if introduces interrogative clauses, ones that ask questions. We can view this in terms of a set of non-categorial features which distinguish between the complementisers. These features are [±Wh] for the force of the clause and [±Fin] for the finiteness of the clause. The [+Wh] feature (pronounced ‘double u aitch’) indicates interrogative, based on the fact that interrogative pronouns such as who, what, where, etc. are written with an initial ‘wh’ and the [–Wh] feature indicates declarative. [+Fin] stands for finite and [–Fin] for non-finite. Thus, we have the following classification of complementisers:
| (185) | Wh | ||||
| + | – | ||||
| Fin | + | if | that | ||
| – | for | ||||
Obviously, there is one missing complementiser, the [+Wh, –Fin] one. We will put this apparent gap in the system to one side until we are in a better position to deal with it.
The lexical entries for complementisers can be given as follows:
| (186) | that | category: | [+F, –N, –V] | |
| subcat: | [clausal] | |||
| features: | [–Wh, +Fin] | |||
| for | category: | [+F, –N, –V] | ||
| subcat: | [clausal] | |||
| features: | [–Wh, –Fin] | |||
| if | category: | [+F, –N, –V] | ||
| subcat: | [clausal] | |||
| features: | [+Wh, +Fin] |