1-2. clause constituent verb complement

1-2-1. verb + that-complement clause

  1. Descriptions
    • Post-predicate that-clauses controlled by verbs are categorized into three domains (see p. 661):
      • Mental verbs: Pertaining to cognition and often including emotive/affective content (e.g., hope, believe, feel, find, guess, know, see, think, assume, conclude).
      • Speech act verbs: Specifically denote speech activities (e.g., say, admit, agree, announce, argue, bet, insist).
      • Other communication verbs: May not directly involve speech (e.g., show, suggest, ensure, indicate, prove).
    • Note: There is an absence of an intermediary NP or to-NP between the verb and the that-clause.
  2. Tag
    • thatcls+vcomp (indicating a ZERO complementizer) is tagged to the main verb within the that-complement clause.
  3. Examples
    • I didn't agree that he should be compelled to do singing. (p. 661)
    • I suggested that she sit down on the chair and wait. (p. 662)
    • I would hope that we can have more control over them. (From Kris' table)
    • I propose that Mary should be invited. (Haegeman & Guéron, 1998, p.441)

1-2-2. verb + wh-complement clause

  1. Descriptions
    • wh-clauses can be either dependent (1) interrogative clauses or (2) nominal relative clauses (p. 683).
    • Common wh-words: what, who, where, when, why, ‘how', and whether
    • Types:
      • Interrogative clauses: Used with verbs like ask and wonder to present indirect questions.
        • e.g., I wonder what that could be about.
      • Nominal relative clauses: Can be paraphrased by a general head noun modified by the wh-clause (e.g., Whoever solves this problem will be successful. → The person who solves this problem will be successful.)
        • e.g., What baffles me is how few of them can spell.
  2. Tag
    • whcls+vcomp is tagged on the main verb of the wh-complement clause.
  3. Examples
    • I don't know how they do it.
    • She showed me where we should plant the tree.
    • He described what he saw at the event.
    • No one knows how long the journey will take.
    • "What I don't understand," she said, "is why they don't let me know anything." (p.193)
    • that's how I did it. (dataset)

Complements

Complements are often required to form a grammatically complete and meaningful sentence. Consider the following examples, where grammatically incorrect sentences are indicated (Haegeman & Guéron, 1998, pp. 21-22):

  • a. He abandoned the project.
  • b. *He abandoned.
  • c. *He abandoned after the project.
  • d. He abandoned the book.
  • e. He abandoned the project, then the book.

From these examples, it is clear that the verb abandon must be followed by a noun phrase (NP) such as the project. If the verb abandon is not paired with an NP, the resulting sentence is ungrammatical (b, c). Therefore, to construct a grammatical sentence with the verb abandon, it must include a complement of the NP category.

Verb complement clauses

Verb complement clauses are dependent clauses that serve to complete the meaning of a verb in a main clause (e.g., I think that this doc looks good; that-clause functions a complement to the verb think). These clauses are also called nominal clauses because they frequently occupy a noun phrase slot in the sentence, acting as subjects, objects, or predicatives. Depending on the controlling predicate, they can be found in both pre-predicate (subject) and post-predicate (e.g., direct object) positions (For more information, see Chapter 9).

However, complement clauses can also complete the meaning of an adjectival predicate rather than a verb in the main clause (e.g., I've gotta be careful that I don't sound too formal). Here, the term predicate refers to both lexical verbs and copula+adjective combinations capable of governing a complement clause. This aspect will be further explored in the section on other phrase constituent: adjective complement.

There are four types of verb complement clauses: (1) that-clause, (2) wh-clause, (3) to-infinitive clause, and (4) ing-clause. In this section, types (1) and (2) will be highlighted as complexity features because they are finite clauses, while types (3) and (4) will be discussed in the section on non-finite clause constituent verb complements.