Wednesday, 7 April 2010
SUBORDINATE CLAUSES IN CONVERSATIONAL ENGLISH
TASK: In your textbook (p. 273-302) study the peculiarities of different types of subordinate clauses. Find a passage in any literary text (about 2,5 thousand characters long) and define each type of subordinate clause in it. Texts with comments are welcome here!
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Richard Bach - Jonathan Livingston Seagull
ReplyDeleteTo the real Jonathan Seagull,
WHO LIVES WITHIN US ALL (object clause)
Part One
It was morning, and the new sun sparkled gold across the ripples of a gentle sea. A mile from shore a fishing boat chummed the water and the word for Breakfast Flock flashed through the air, TILL A CROWD OF A THOUSAND SEAGULLS CAME TO DODGE AND FIGHT FOR BITS OF FOOD (adverbial clause of time). It was another busy day beginning.
But way off alone, out by himself beyond boat and shore, Jonathan Livingston Seagull was practicing. A hundred feet in the sky he lowered his webbed feet, lifted his beak, and strained to hold a painful hard twisting curve through his wings. The curve meant THAT HE WOULD FLY SLOWLY (object clause), and now he slowed UNTIL THE WIND WAS A WHISPER IN HIS FACE, UNTIL THE OCEAN STOOD STILL BENEATH HIM (adverbial clause of time). He narrowed his eyes in fierce concentration, held his breath, forced one... single... more... inch... of... curve... Then his featliers ruffled, he stalled and fell.
Seagulls, as you know, never falter, never stall. TO STALL IN THE AIR (subject clause) is for them disgrace and it is dishonor.
But Jonathan Livingston Seagull, unashamed, stretching his wings again in that trembling hard curve - slowing, slowing, and stalling once more - was no ordinary bird.
Most gulls don't bother TO LEARN MORE THAN THE SIMPLEST FACTS OF FLIGHT (object clause) - HOW TO GET FROM SHORE TO FOOD AND BACK AGAIN (attributive clause). For most gulls, it is not flying THAT MATTERS (attributive clause), but eating. For this gull, though, it was not eating THAT MATTERED (attributive clause), but flight. More than anything else. Jonathan Livingston Seagull loved TO FLY (object clause).
THIS KIND OF THINKING (subject clause), he found, is not the way TO MAKE ONE'S SELF POPULAR WITH OTHER BIRDS (attributive clause). Even his parents were dismayed AS JONATHAN SPENT WHOLE DAYS ALONE (attributive clause of manner), making hundreds of low-level glides, experimenting.
He didn't know why, for instance, but WHEN HE FLEW AT ALTITUDES LESS THAN HALF HIS WINGSPAN ABOVE THE WATER (clause of time/condition), he could stay in the air longer, with less effort. His glides ended not with the usual feet-down splash into the sea, but with a long flat wake AS HE TOUCHED THE SURFACE WITH HIS
FEET TIGHTLY STREAMLINED AGAINST HIS BODY (attributive clause of manner). WHEN HE BEGAN SLIDING IN TO FEET-UP LANDINGS ON THE BEACH, THEN PACING THE LENGTH OF HIS SLIDE IN THE SAND (attributive clause of time), his parents were very much dismayed indeed.
"Why, Jon, why?" his mother asked. "Why is it so hard to be like the rest of the flock, Jon? Why can't you leave low flying to the pelicans, the alhatross? Why don't you eat? Son, you're bone and feathers!"
"I don't mind being bone and feathers mom. I just want to know WHAT I CAN DO IN THE AIR AND WHAT I CAN'T (object clause), that's all. I just want to know."
"See here Jonathan " said his father not unkindly. "Winter isn't far away. Boats will be few and the surface fish will be swimming deep. IF YOU MUST STUDY (clause of condition), then study food, and HOW TO GET IT (object clause). This flying business is all very well, but you can't eat a glide, you know. Don't you forget that THE REASON YOU FLY (subject clause) is to eat.(object clause)"
Mr. Sherlock Holmes, WHO WAS USUALLY VERY LATE IN THE MORNINGS (attributive clause, non-restrictive), save upon those not infrequent occasions WHEN HE WAS UP ALL NIGHT (attributive restrictive clause), was seated at the breakfast table. I stood upon the hearth-rug and picked up the stick WHICH OUR VISITOR HAD LEFT BEHIND HIM THE NIGHT BEFORE (attributive clause, non-restrictive). It was a fine, thick piece of wood, bulbous-headed, of the sort WHICH IS KNOWN AS A “PENANG LAWYER (attributive restrictive clause).” Just under the head was a broad silver band nearly an inch across. “To James Mortimer, M.R.C.S., from his friends of the C.C.H.,” was engraved upon it, with the date “1884.” It was just SUCH a stick AS THE OLD-FASHIONED FAMILY PRACTITIONER USED TO CARRY (adverbial clause of comparison) - dignified, solid, and reassuring.
ReplyDelete“Well, Watson, what do you make of it?”
Holmes was sitting with his back to me, and I had given him no sign of my occupation.
“How did you know WHAT I WAS DOING (object clause)? I believe YOU HAVE EYES IN THE BACK OF YOUR HEAD (object clause; pronoun THAT is omitted ).”
“I have, at least, a well-polished, silver-plated coffee-pot in front of me,” said he. “But, tell me, Watson, WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF OUR VISITOR'S STICK (object clause)? 1 SINCE WE HAVE BEEN 2 SO unfortunate AS TO MISS HIM AND HAVE NO NOTION OF HIS ERRAND 2 1 , this accidental souvenir becomes of importance (1- adverbial clause of reason, introduced by SINCE; 2- adverbial clause of result; SO…AS TO + INFINITIVE ). Let me hear YOU RECONSTRUCT THE MAN BY AN EXAMINATION OF IT (object clause, HOW is omitted).”
“I think,” said I, following AS FAR AS I COULD (adverbial clause of manner) the methods of my companion, “ 1 THAT DR. MORTIMER IS A SUCCESSFUL, ELDERLY MEDICAL MAN, WELL-ESTEEMED 2 SINCE THOSE 3 WHO KNOW HIM 3 GIVE HIM THIS MARK OF THEIR APPRECIATION 2 1 (1- object clause, introduced by pronoun THAT; 2 – adverbial clause of reason, introduced by SINCE: 3 – attributive restrictive clause, introduced by WHO). ”
“Good!” said Holmes. “Excellent!”
“I think also 1 THAT THE PROBABILITY IS IN FAVOUR OF 2 HIS BEING A COUNTRY PRACTITIONER 3 WHO DOES A GREAT DEAL OF HIS VISITING ON FOOT 3 2 1 .” (1- object clause, introduced by pronoun THAT; 2- attributive clause, represented by the construction OF + -ING; 3 – attributive clause, introduced by WHO)
“Why so?”
“1 BECAUSE THIS STICK, 2 THOUGH ORIGINALLY A VERY HANDSOME 2 ONE HAS BEEN 3 SO KNOCKED ABOUT THAT I CAN HARDLY IMAGINE 4 A TOWN PRACTITIONER CARRYING IT 4 3 1(1- adverbial clause of reason, introduced by BECAUSE; 2 – adverbial clause of concession, introduced by THOUGH; 3 – adverbial clause of comparison, introduced by SO…THAT; 4 – object clause, represented by the ING- construction). The thick-iron ferrule is worn down, 1 SO IT IS EVIDENT 2 THAT HE HAS DONE A GREAT AMOUNT OF WALKING WITH IT 2 1.”(1- adverbial clause of reason, introduced by SO; 2- object clause, introduced by THAT)
“Perfectly sound!” said Holmes.