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Unit 1: Functional Grammar: Phrase, Clause

“Complex,” which is phrase-level, is often confused with “compound”, which is word-level. Notes
However, there are certain phenomena that formally seem to be phrases but semantically are
more like compounds, such as “women’s magazines,” which has the form of a possessive
noun phrase, but which refers (just like a compound) to one specific lexeme (i.e. a magazine
for women and not a magazine owned by a woman).

Task Differentiate phrase and clause with suitable examples.

1.2 Clause

In grammar, a clause is the smallest grammatical unit that can express a complete proposition[1].
In some languages it may be a pair or group of words that consists of a subject and a predicate,
although in other languages in certain clauses the subject may not appear explicitly as a noun
phrase, being instead marked on the verb (this is especially common in null subject languages).
The most basic kind of sentence consists of a single (independent) clause. More complex
sentences may contain multiple clauses, including clauses contained within clauses. Clauses
may be independent or dependent. Independent clauses are those that could stand as a sentence
by themselves, although they may be used connected with other clauses in a longer sentence.
Dependent clauses are those that would be awkward or nonsensical if used alone, and must
be used in a sentence also containing an independent clause.
Clauses are often contrasted with phrases. Traditionally, a clause was said to have both a
finite verb and its subject, whereas a phrase either contained a finite verb but not its subject
(in which case it is a verb phrase) or did not contain a finite verb. Hence, in the sentence “I
didn’t know that the dog ran through the yard,” “that the dog ran through the yard” is a
clause, as is the sentence as a whole, while “the yard,” “through the yard,” “ran through the
yard,” and “the dog” are all phrases. However, modern linguists do not draw the same distinction,
as they accept the idea of a non-finite clause, a clause that is organized around a non-finite
verb.

What is a Clause?

A clause is a part of a sentence. There are two main types: independent (main clauses),
dependent (subordinate clauses).

1. Independent clauses

An independent clause is a complete sentence; it contains a subject and verb and expresses a
complete thought in both context and meaning.

For example: The door opened.
Independent clauses can be joined by a coordinating conjunction to form complex or compound
sentences.

Co-ordinating Conjunctions
and but for
or nor so
yet

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