A Reconsideration of Grammatical Categorization in English: The Dependent Clause
Various models for categorizing grammatical units exist in the literature. Particularly nebulous, however, are terminologies for conceptualizing categories at the level of the clause. For example, the term complement has been used, confusingly sometimes, as both a functional term and, on some occasions, as a structural term. Similarly, the traditional classification of the relative clause can be problematic. The conceptual distinction made between restrictive/defining and non-restrictive/non-defining types is semantically motivated and, therefore, can create some confusion in grammatical analysis.
In this paper, we propose a model of categorization, which keeps functional classification separate from structural classification, in order that concepts used in grammatical analysis can be clearly understood and be applied more easily in text analysis.
Accordingly, we intend to examine some already ‘accepted’ categories of the dependent clause and, in the process, propose a new approach for the analysis of this clause type. We believe our proposed approach will remove
(a) semantic considerations from the analysis of these grammatical units and
(b) the confusion between notional and syntactic description of the units.
This is a reconsideration of some traditional ways of doing grammatical categorization with the hope that it will ease identification of grammatical categories.