clause

a structure containing a (visible or invisible) subject and a predicate.

complementiser

a constituent introducing a sentential complement. The complementisers in English are that, if ,and for. They occupy the head position of CP and have selectional restrictions on the force and finiteness of the clause. Feature composition: [+F, –N, –V]

inflection

(a) a morpheme added to the end of words of a given category in sentence structure as required by the given structure, e.g. s in Peter like s his dog or er in Peter is clever er than Tony.

(b) the head of an Inflectional Phrase. It can be realised as a modal auxiliary or a zero agreement morpheme. Information about tense can be found in a separate vP directly under IP.

interrogative clause

a structure mainly used to ask for information, either in the form of a yes–no question or a wh-question.

syntax

the study of sentence structure

verb phrase (VP)

a phrase headed by a verb. It is in the VP together with the vp(s) that the basic argument structure of the clause is formed, thus, theta-role assignment takes place here. The specifier position of the VP is occupied by the constituent bearing the theme/patient theta role. In passive structures this constituent has to move from the specifier position of the verb to the specifier position of IP in order to get Case. A VP can have different types of complements such as a DP, CP, IP, PP.

6.5 Conclusion

In this chapter we have discussed the basic architecture of the clause, claiming that this is headed by the inflectional element. This analysis provides positions for both the subject and the VP as well as the inflectional element itself. However, there are aspects of the syntax of the clause that we have not yet touched upon. We have yet to discuss the position of the complementiser, for example. Furthermore, there are types of clauses that we have not discussed: interrogatives, for example. These will be discussed in the next chapters.