You must have heard both terms, sentences and clauses. Are they the same? If not, how do they differ from each other? If someone (say your future students) asks you to tell the differences between them, here is what you can tell them.

A sentence

• (1) expresses a complete idea/thought (semantic definition),

• (2) begins with a capital letter and ends with a punctuation mark (., ?, or !) (orthographic definition), and

• (3) can be broken down into its constituent clause(s). (syntactic definition)

A clause

(1) may or may not express a complete idea

• an independent clause (IC) expresses a complete idea,

• a dependent clause (DC) doesn't express a complete idea and must be attached to an IC to form a complete sentence.

(2) must contain

• a subject: a nominal structure (often an NP and sometimes a nominal phrase or clause; can be omitted sometimes)

• a predicate: a long verb phrase/LVP (VP and everything else that follows)

➜ Thus, generally speaking, a sentence is the largest meaningful unit. A sentence contains at least a single IC, as illustrated in the examples below:

A subject (topic)

• tells what the clause is about

• is often realized by a noun phrase (as illustrated in the examples above)

• can also be performed by finite and nonfinite clauses (will be discussed in upcoming lessons)

Examples:

1. {That she didn't recognize me} | was a shock.

that-clause (finite - past tense): Subj.| LVP

2. {To tell the truth} | is harder than telling a lie.

to-infinitive clause (nonfinite - no tense): Subj. | LVP

*Subjects can be simple or compound.

3. {Traveling to a foreign country} | opened her eyes.

present participle clause (nonfinite - no tense): Subj. | LVP

A predicate (comment)

• gives information about the subject (e.g., what it is, how it is, and what it does, is/was doing, has/had done, has/had been doing, will/is going to do, can/could/must do, etc.)

• is realized through an LVP (long verb phrase), which includes a VP and its following constituents.

Note: "The analysis of sentences by division into sequential phrases can be traced back to a group of thirteenth century grammarians known as Modists who based their work on Aristotle. While the Modists analysed a sentence into a subject and a predicate, their analyses did not result in deep hierarchical structures.

This type of analysis was influential enough to survive until the rise of the linguistic school known as Structuralism in the 1920s. According to the structuralist Leonard Bloomfield, sentences need to be exhaustively analysed, meaning that they are split up into subparts all the way down to their smallest meaningful components, known as morphemes.

The ‘depth’ of a structuralist sentence analysis became especially manifest when Noam Chomsky, in his Generative Grammar framework, used tree diagrams to represent hierarchical structures." (Frank et al., 2012, p. 4522)

A clause can be independent or dependent

• An independent clause (IC) can stand alone,

• a dependent clause (DC) cannot. It must be attached to an IC to form a complete sentence.

For example:

1) By Form:

A sentence can contain one or more clauses. Depending on the number and type of clauses a sentence contains, it can be

1. A simple sentence = {a single IC}

e.g., {Joe | waited for the train}.

2. A compound sentence = {two coordinated ICs}

e.g., {It |was a sunny spring afternoon}, and {my sister and I |were having a tea party in the backyard}.

3. A complex sentence = {one IC + one or more DCs}

e.g., {He | bought a new car} {because his old VW |has stopped running}.

4. A compound-complex sentence = {two coordinated IDs + one or more DCs}

e.g., {He |bought a new car}, but {he |likes his old car better} {as it |is more gas-efficient}.

Notes: { } marks a clause; | parses the clause into subject and predicate; and/but are coordinators; because/as are subordinators.

2) By Function:

Sentences can also be classified according to their functions. There are four types of sentences:

1. Declarative: states a fact, truth, an idea etc.

e.g., The cat is sitting on the mat.

2. Imperative: gives a command or an order.

e.g., Don't move. Stay there.

3. Interrogative: asks a question

e.g., Is the cat sitting on the mat? Who is sitting on the mat?

4. Exclamatory: shows strong emotions such as surprise

e.g., The cat is sitting on the mat!