[Linguists’ Forum] From Dread to Delight: An Insight into Grammatical Names and Functions (8), By Lateef Kugbayi, PhD

By now, regular readers of the weekly posts from the Linguists’ Forum will have shared in the goal of the Forum, which is to help students minimise their effort in identifying grammatical names and their functions in the WASSCE and NECO. One of the ways the Forum is achieving that is by emphasising that any grammatical name given to an expression will carry the traditional name of the part of speech it stands for in a sentence. Hence, the three types of dependent clauses mentioned in last week’s episode are named after specific parts of speech they share the same functions with, as in noun clause for noun, adjective/adjectival clause for adjective and adverbial clause for adverb. Specifically, today’s episode exemplifies this view in a noun clause as a dependent clause.

Noun Clause and its Functions
A noun clause is the type of dependent clause that functions as a noun in a sentence. It answers the question of what, who or why in a sentence. This part of the sentence can be replaced with a noun or pronoun without disrupting the structure of the entire sentence. We shall consider the following examples.
“What he said” exposed “what was in his mind.”

“What he said” can be replaced with a noun (Ojo) or a pronoun (He)
“what was in his mind” can be replaced with a noun (Aisha) or a pronoun (her).

We can then have:
“Ojo” exposed “Aisha” (Nouns)
Or
“He” exposed “her” (Pronouns)
Since “What he said” and “what was in his mind” can be successfully replaced by nouns or pronouns as given above, the clauses are noun clauses.
It, therefore, means that a noun clause performs the same functions that a noun/noun phrase performs in sentences, as demonstrated below.

1. Subject of the Verb
A noun/noun phrase/noun clause usually functions as the subject of the verb when it comes before the main verb of the sentence.
Example: “Tunde” taught me a lesson (noun).
“The young lady in our class” taught me a lesson (noun phrase).
“How the boy behaved” taught me a lesson (noun clause).
“Tunde”/“The young lady in our class”/“How the boy behaved” functions as the subject of the verb “taught”.

2. Object of the Verb
A noun/noun phrase/noun clause functions as the object of the verb when it comes after the verb in a sentence. It receives the action of the main verb in the sentence.
Example: Davido appreciates “John” (noun).
Davido appreciates “his newly wedded wife” (noun phrase).
Davido appreciates “what the dancer did” (noun clause).
“John”/“his newly wedded wife”/”what the dancer did” functions as the object of the verb “appreciates”.

3. Complement of the Subject
A noun/noun phrase/noun clause functions as the complement of the subject when it comes after a linking verb or state-of-being verb. Examples of linking verbs include be, am, is, are, was, were, being, been, seem, become, feel, sound, appear and smell.
Example: My students are “girls” (noun).
My students are “the able-bodied men on the horse” (noun phrase).
My students are “the boys who won the game” (noun clause).
“girls” /“the able-bodied on the horse”/“the boys who won the game” functions as a complement of the subject “My students”.

4. Complement of the Object
This comes after the object.
Example: They call him “Mumu” (noun).
They call him “something funny” (noun phrase).
They call him “something he did not like” (noun clause).
“Mumu”/“something funny”/“something he did not like” functions as a complement of the object, “him”.

5. Object of the Preposition
In this case, the noun/noun phrase/noun clause comes after a preposition in the sentence. Therefore, any noun/noun phrase/noun clause that comes immediately after a preposition is the object of that preposition. Prepositions include to, on, at, with and for.
Example: They looked at “Femi” (noun).
They looked at “one of the men in the group” (noun phrase).
They looked at “what we were doing” (noun clause).
“Femi”/“one of the men in the group”/”what we were doing” functions as the object of the preposition “at”.

6. Apposition to the Subject
This occurs when a noun/noun phrase/noun clause is put next to the subject to explain the subject.
Example: Our class captain, “John”, has gone home (noun).
Our class captain, “the only boy among us,” has gone home (noun phrase).
Our class captain, “the boy that came from Lagos,” has gone home (noun clause).
“John”/“the only boy among us”/“the boy that came from Lagos” functions as apposition to the subject, “Our class captain”.

7. Apposition to the Object
A noun/noun phrase/noun clause functions as an apposition to the object when it is put next to the object to explain the object.
Example: I saw the great actor, “Ogogo” (noun).
I saw the great actor, “the most handsome actor in Nigeria” (noun phrase).
I saw the great actor, “the man who is greatly loved by his fans” (noun clause).
“Ogogo”/“the most handsome actor in Nigeria”/“the man who is greatly loved by his fans” functions as an apposition to the object, “the great actor”.

Lateef Iyanda Kugbayi, PhD
Senior Lecturer
Department of English Language
Zamfara State University
Talata Mafara

[email protected]/+2347032985052