Finite and Nonfinite Verbs

What are finite and nonfinite verbs?

Finite verbs are (or can serve as) the root of a sentence/clause.

Example 1 - Finite Verb

In the below example, "painted" is the finite verb because it serves as the root of the sentence.

Grammar Parsing Links

• CMU - Parse a sentence
• CMU - Phrase Parser explanation
• The Penn Treebank - An Overview (PDF)
• Linguistics Online - Utrecht University

NOTE: transferred from old blog, dated October 2015.

Relative and Subordinate Clauses and Complementizers

In this post I am going to explain the difference between relative and subordinate clauses.

Relative Clause

A relative clause is introduced by a relative pronoun:

• who
• whom
• whose
• when
• where
• that
• which

Examples

`who is clever` is the relative clause. It is introduced by the relative pronoun `who`.

`which is a pain to maintain` is the relative clause.

Relative Adverb Clause

A relative clause introduced by a relative adverb:

• when
• where
• why

`why John ate` is the relative adverb clause.

A simpler example:

`when we first met` is the relative adverb clause.

Subordinate/dependent clause

A subordinate, or dependent clause is a way of joining a subordinate clause to the main clause. The subordinate clause can come before or after the main clause. It is introduced by a conjunction or relative pronoun.

In the above `After` is the conjunction and `After he ate` is the subordinate clause.

`because` is the conjunction and `because he was bored` is the subordinate clause.

Complementizer

A complementizer is a word used to turn a clause into a subject or object.

`it is raining` is a clause, and using `that` turns it into the object of `believes`. (If not already obvious, `that` is the complementizer in this sentence).

http://grammar.about.com/od/rs/g/relativeadverbterm.htm http://www.edufind.com/english-grammar/relative-adverbs/