1.3.5.1 Inflections

We call sentences with verbs inflected for tense finite clauses and those without, non-finite clauses. In finite clauses, the nominal element that is in front of the verb, if it is expressed as a pronoun, has a certain form, but it has another form in non-finite clauses:

1.3.5.1 Inflections

This distinction is traditionally called a Case distinction, which has to do with the forms that certain nominal arguments appear in. In English there are not many Case distinctions to be seen as it is only the pronouns which have Case forms, but in other languages there can be more such distinctions made (think of Hungarian János, Jánost, Jánosnak, etc.). The he form of the pronoun (similarly, she, I, we, they) is called the nominative case form, while the him form (her, me, us, them) is the accusative case form. Note, finite clauses must have nominative elements in the relevant position, whereas, if the position is filled at all in non-finite clauses, it must be by an accusative element:

1.3.5.1 Inflections

We can also see a difference between the clause types in terms of the word that introduces them, the complementiser. For the finite clause, the complementiser must be that and for this kind of non-finite clause, the complementiser must be for:

1.3.5.1 Inflections

Finally, finite clauses can stand as the main sentence, in which other embedded sentences can appear. A non-finite clause is always an embedded clause:

1.3.5.1 Inflections

Second, the non-finite clause contains an element not found in finite clauses which appears to occupy the same position as the modal in finite clauses:

1.3.5.4 Complementisers

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:

2.2.1 The subject

In (43a) the pronouns are the subject of the finite clause and are in their nominative forms, in (43b) they act as the complement of the verb (a position which we will return to), in (43c), complement of a preposition and in (43d) subject of a non-finite clause containing the infinitive marker to, and they are in their accusative forms.

2.2.1 The subject

The subject of non-finite clauses is a little more complex as there are occasions where they are necessary and hence an expletive must appear if there is no semantic subject, and there are other cases where the position must be left empty, even though there is semantic interpretation for it:

3.2.2.2 S-structure and Case Theory

In (84a) the clause is finite as tense is marked on the auxiliary verb. The subject he is in the nominative form, not the accusative him. However, the object of the verb help, her, is in the accusative not the nominative she. In (84b), while the main clause is finite and has a nominative subject, I, the embedded clause is non-finite. This clause has an accusative subject him. The object of the preposition in this clause is also accusative, us.

3.2.2.2 S-structure and Case Theory

But if there are nominative and accusative case positions, what are we to say about the non-pronominal DPs that sit in these positions as no other DP demonstrates morphological Case distinctions? There are two things that we might say. One is that Case positions are only Case positions when occupied by a pronominal DP. This would be rather difficult to arrange however, as it appears that apart from the fact that Cases are only visible on pronominals, what defines Case positions is fairly general: the subject of a finite clause is nominative, the object position of a verb or preposition is accusative and the subject position of a non-finite clause is accusative. It is not clear how to include the presence of the pronominal into the definition of a case position.

3.2.2.2 S-structure and Case Theory

In (87) we have a series of pronominal subjects of non-finite clauses. In the one grammatical case the subject is accusative, demonstrating that this is an accusative position. The ungrammaticality of the nominative pronoun in (87b) is therefore understandable. That (87c) should be ungrammatical is interesting as here we have an accusative pronoun. In this case the complementiser for is absent, indicating that this element is in some way responsible for the accusative case in (87a) in which it is present. This is understandable as this complementiser is similar to a preposition, and in fact is often called the prepositional complementiser, and as we know, the complement of prepositions is in the accusative. To account for this let us assume that Case is rather like Θ-roles and is assigned by certain elements to certain positions. The prepositional complementiser therefore assigns accusative Case to the subject of the non-finite clause that it introduces:

3.2.2.2 S-structure and Case Theory

In (87) we have a series of pronominal subjects of non-finite clauses. In the one grammatical case the subject is accusative, demonstrating that this is an accusative position. The ungrammaticality of the nominative pronoun in (87b) is therefore understandable. That (87c) should be ungrammatical is interesting as here we have an accusative pronoun. In this case the complementiser for is absent, indicating that this element is in some way responsible for the accusative case in (87a) in which it is present. This is understandable as this complementiser is similar to a preposition, and in fact is often called the prepositional complementiser, and as we know, the complement of prepositions is in the accusative. To account for this let us assume that Case is rather like Θ-roles and is assigned by certain elements to certain positions. The prepositional complementiser therefore assigns accusative Case to the subject of the non-finite clause that it introduces:

3.2.2.2 S-structure and Case Theory

Although this might explain why the subject has accusative Case in (87a) and cannot have nominative Case in (87b), by itself it does not account for why (87c) and (d) are ungrammatical. To understand what is going on here we must attend more closely to the facts. Firstly the element that we have assumed to assign accusative Case to this position is absent and so we might assume that no accusative Case is assigned in these circumstances. Presumably whatever it is that assigns nominative Case is not present in a non-finite clause. Therefore in this situation it seems that neither accusative nor nominative case are assigned to the subject position.

3.2.4 Locality Restrictions on movement

Thus, at first sight it would seem that movement is unrestricted in terms of how far an element can be moved. But on closer inspection this might not be an accurate description of what is going on here. For example, note that in (107b) and (c) all the clauses that the subject is raised out of are non-finite and none of them seem to have subjects.

3.2.4 Locality Restrictions on movement

As we can see, a subject can be raised out of a non-finite clause into the subject position of a finite clause, but it cannot be raised out of a finite clause. Note that the finite clause in (108a) has a subject of its own: it. It is a fact about English finite clauses that they must have subjects and hence the sentence would be ungrammatical if the subject were missing for independent reasons. So this case differs from the grammatical movement in (107c) in two ways: the moved subject is moved out of a finite clause and it is moved out of a clause with a subject.

3.2.4 Locality Restrictions on movement

To control for these variables, let us consider a case where the movement is out of a non-finite clause with a subject:

5.2.8 Verbs with clausal complements

As can be seen from the limited data in (139), there are a wide range of possibilities for clausal complements. Some verbs take finite clause complements (139a), while others take non-finite complements of various kinds (139b–e). Some complements are declarative (139a–e) while others are interrogative (139f). The possibilities are determined by the verb, as we would expect.

5.4.3 Clausal modifiers

Without going too much into the details of clause structure itself, a task we will undertake over the next chapters, certain non-finite clauses appear to have a missing subject:

6.1 The structure of IP

In the previous chapter, we analysed the morphemes in (5b) and (c) as light verbs heading a vP and so the status of the embedded ‘clauses’ in these examples is unclear at the moment: they may be clauses (i.e. IPs) or they may be simple vPs. We will not attempt to deal with this issue here, returning to it in a later chapter. But there are some similarities between these clauses and the infinitival clause in (5a) which are useful to consider. Traditionally, those clauses containing a finite inflection are called finite clauses and those containing a non-finite inflection are non-finite clauses. Thus the relationship between the inflection and the clauses has been long acknowledged. I suspect that the relative semantic unimportance of inflections and the lack of recognition of their syntactic importance have contributed to the fact that traditional grammars have failed to recognise them as heads.

6.1 The structure of IP

In embedded contexts, we see another difference between finite and non-finite clauses in that a finite clause can act as the complement of the complementiser that, while only infinitival clauses can act as the complement of the complementiser for:

6.1 The structure of IP

These data not only suggest that there is a difference between finite and non-finite clauses, but also that the infinitive and the participles have a different status, perhaps indicating that while the infinitive has an IP status, the participles are really vPs. The main point is, however, that different clauses distribute differently and this correlates with which inflectional element they contain. All this adds up to the conclusion that the inflection does behave like a head in that it projects its properties to the whole construction and as we saw in chapter 2 it is heads that do this.

6.1 The structure of IP

Inflections similarly impose Case restrictions on their subjects. For example, when there is a finite inflection, the subject is always nominative though this is not so with non-finite clauses:

6.1 The structure of IP

As we can see in (12) the subject of the non-finite clause appears in the accusative. There is a further possibility with non-finite clauses which is not available with finite clauses and that is to have a missing subject:

6.3 Movement to Spec IP

This must be a Case position as the sentence is grammatical with the subject sitting in it and therefore the Case Filter must be satisfied. If we assume that it is the inflection which is responsible for assigning the Case we account for why this is the landing site for this movement. Moreover, we also account for the difference between the subjects of finite and infinite clauses. Recall that while the subject of the finite clause has nominative Case, the typical Case for the subject of the non-finite clause is accusative:

6.3 Movement to Spec IP

Presumably the agreement element is different in both these cases. For one thing, modal auxiliaries can appear in the agreement position of finite clauses, but not of non-finite clauses. Moreover, finite inflection selects for a finite tense headed phrase as its complement while the one in (63b) clearly selects for a non-finite complement. I will not have anything to say about the accusative Case of the subject of the non-finite clause at present, leaving this for future discussion. Instead, we will concentrate on the finite inflection, which assigns nominative to the subject.

7.1 The structure of CP

The first case in (3) is fairly straightforward. The it replaces the non-finite clause there to be trouble and given that the complementiser precedes the it the pronoun replaces just the IP. The second case needs a little explanation. What is coordinated here are the two IPs there would be trouble and I could be involved. In some clauses the complementiser does not have to appear overtly, however:

7.2 The Clause as CP

Others take non-finite clause complements that never have a complementiser:

7.2 The Clause as CP

One class of verb takes a non-finite clause complement that has an overt subject:

7.3.4 The interaction between wh-movement and inversion

If we were to put the content of this embedded clause into a main clause it would be should I bring some wine, i.e. a yes–no question. Thus, (54) contains an embedded yes–no question. The wh-element whether is quite strange. In many ways it looks like a complementiser, being a word that appears at the front of an interrogative clause, rather like if. However, there are a number of reasons to believe that whether is not a complementiser. For one thing, it can introduce both finite and non-finite clauses:

7.3.4 The interaction between wh-movement and inversion

As we have seen, complementisers generally select for a particular type of CP complement, either finite or non-finite. Moreover, no other complementiser can introduce a non-finite clause with a missing subject:

7.4.2 A comparison between relative and interrogative clauses

We should first counter a myth about that-relatives that prevails from traditional grammars. In these it is common to find that at the beginning of the relative clause referred to as a relative pronoun, thus suggesting that it be given the same treatment as wh-elements. If this is true, then this element originates inside the clause and moves to the specifier of CP, as do wh-elements. But there are many reasons to believe that this word is not a wh-element but is, as appearances predict, a simple complementiser. Firstly, note that as would be predicated on the assumption that it is a complementiser, that is only ever used in finite clauses and although wh-elements can marginally be used in non-finite clauses, that never is:

7.6 Conclusion

With the end of this chapter we come to the end of the clause, so to speak. In the next chapter we will concentrate on the relationship between elements in different clauses and in particular across non-finite clauses which appear to more readily allow such relationships to be established.

Chapter8 The Syntax of Non-Finite Clauses