Timeline for Are these clauses independent or dependent?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
6 events
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| Mar 28, 2021 at 13:16 | comment | added | BillJ | This may also help: "Is so thick (that) you can cut it with a knife" is a VP consisting of two constituents: the predicator (verb) "is" and its complement, the AdjP "so thick (that) you can cut it with a knife". | |
| Mar 28, 2021 at 10:27 | comment | added | BillJ | The point is that the expression "this fog is so thick" is not a constituent, so it can't be an independent (main) clause. The content clause "(that) you can cut it with a knife" is dependent (subordinate) and embedded within the larger matrix clause (the sentence as a whole) and is thus part of it. | |
| Mar 28, 2021 at 10:16 | comment | added | James K | I confess that in this case I don't follow your analysis. What part of "This fog is so thick." makes it part of a clause. It is complete with subject, verb, complement. How are we to distinguish between two unrelated sentences "This fog is so thick. You can eat jelly witha spoon" and the quoted sentence. The only way that we can find depencency is based on the meaning of the parts, not on the structure. We have to infor dependency from meaning, not the other way round. | |
| Mar 28, 2021 at 10:05 | comment | added | BillJ | In both cases, the only independent clause is the whole sentence. "This fog is so thick" is not a constituent, not a clause, but just part of one. In both cases, "(that) you can cut it with a knife" is a dependent (subordinate clause) functioning as complement of "thick" but licensed by "so".. | |
| Mar 28, 2021 at 0:26 | vote | accept | Joshua | ||
| Mar 27, 2021 at 22:45 | history | answered | James K | CC BY-SA 4.0 |