Clause (definition)

A clause is a collection of phrases, such that there is a predicate (typically a verb) and a number of arguments. The simplest kind of clause is a sentence such as I left or I saw Sarah. Clauses can be embedded, as in I thought that Bill ate the pizza. Clauses can be tensed or finite (e.g. John left') or non-finite (e.g. I want John to leave).

See Also

• embedded clause
• non-finite
• finite

External Links

The link below takes you away from the Gaelic Wiki to Wikipedia. Since wikipedia pages can be edited by anyone, they often contain inaccurate information. So be careful!

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clause
• http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsAClause.htm

References

• Crystal, D. (2008) Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. 6th Edition. Wiley-Blackwell.