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 Finding Clauses
Practice Exercise # 8

Directions:  [Work through the text one sentence at a time.]
1. First place parentheses ( ) around every prepositional phrase.
2. Underline every subject once, every finite verb twice, and label complements (PA, PN, IO or DO). [Reminder: A predicate adjective describes the subject; a predicate noun "equals" the subject; an indirect object is someone or thing "to" or "for" whom (or what) the action of the verb is performed. Any other complement has to be a direct object.]
 

The text is:
      The preacher was wired for sound with a lapel mike, and as he preached, he moved briskly about the platform, jerking the mike cord as he went. Then he moved to one side, getting wound up in the cord and nearly tripping before jerking it again. After several circles and jerks, a little girl in the third pew leaned toward her mother and whispered, "If he gets loose, will he hurt us?"
Note: In creating these pages, I cannot create a double underline. I will therefore underline both subjects and finite verbs once, but subjects will be in green; finite verbs in blue.

Sentence #1

     Work your way through the text one sentence at a time. The first sentence is:
      The preacherwas wired(for sound) (with a lapel mike), and as hepreached, hemoved briskly (about the platform), jerking the mike cord as hewent. 
Review Prepositional Phrases Review S/V/C patterns.

     Because there is more than one S/V/C pattern, we need to keep two things in mind:

1. begin with the last pattern and work backwards
2. look for subordinate conjunctions.
The last pattern in this sentence is simple -- "he went." It is also preceded by the subordinate conjunction "as," which means that it is probably a subordinate clause. To be sure of this, we need to see what it "chunks" to. The "as" here indicates that the "he went" is occurring at the same time as something else in the sentence. That "something else" is "jerking the mike." Thus the clause is adverbial to "jerking." [On paper, you can simply draw an arrow from the "as" to "jerking."]
      The preacherwas wired(for sound) (with a lapel mike), and as hepreached, hemoved briskly (about the platform), jerking the mike cord [Adv. to "jerking" as hewent]. 
 Having finished with the "as" clause, work on the next pattern (going backwards). This one will cause a few problems. 
     The core of this clause (the words in the S/V/C pattern) is "he moved." We need to find the first and last words in this clause. Remember: a clause is an S/V/C pattern and all the words that chunk to it.
A clause is an S/V/C pattern and all the words that chunk to it.
     What is the last word in the "he moved" clause? "Briskly" tells how he moved, and thus chunks to "moved." "About the platform" tells where he moved, and thus also chunks to "moved." That brings us to "jerking the mike cord," which obviously all chunks together as a unit, but what does that troublesome word "jerking" chunk to? When we asked "Who or what is jerking," the answer was "he." This means that "jerking" functions as an adjective to "he," and that "jerking the mike cord" is part of the "he moved" clause. But we also noted that "as he went" chunks to "jerking." This means that it too is part of the "he moved" clause. The "he moved" clause thus ends with the word "went."
     Now we need to find the first word in the "he moved" clause. In front of "he," we find "preached," which is a finite verb in a different pattern. The subject of "preached" is "he," and in front of "he" we find the subordinate conjunction "as." This "as" indicates that "as he preached" is  itself a subordinate clause. The "as" here means that the preaching took place at the same time that something else was happening, and the sentence means that the preaching was going on while he was moving. Thus the "as he preached clause is adverbial and chunks to "moved."
      The preacherwas wired(for sound) (with a lapel mike), and [Adv. to "moved" as hepreached], hemoved briskly (about the platform), jerking the mike cord [Adv. to "jerking" as hewent]. 
The "he moved" clause thus begins with "as he preached" and ends with "went."  In front of the "as," we find an "and," and, on the other side of the "and," we find another clause. The "and" thus joins the first clause {"The preacher . . . mike"} and the "he moved" clause {as he preached . . . went}. Remember that "and," "or," and "but" join equals (subject and subject, verb and verb, clause and clause, etc.).
And, or, and but join equals.
Because one of these clauses must be a main clause, and because the "and" joins equals, they must both be main clauses. Thus we can put a vertical line after "mike" and another at the end of the sentence:
      The preacherwas wired(for sound) (with a lapel mike), / and [Adv. to "moved" as hepreached], hemoved briskly (about the platform), jerking the mike cord [Adv. to "jerking" as hewent]. /
     We have analyzed all the S/V/C patterns, and thus are finished with this sentence.

Sentence #2

The second sentence is:
 Then hemoved(to one side), getting wound up (in the cord) and nearly tripping (before jerking it again). 
Review Prepositional Phrases Review S/V/C patterns.

      Because there is only one  S/V/C pattern, all we have to do is to put a vertical line at the end:
 Then hemoved(to one side), getting wound up (in the cord) and nearly tripping (before jerking it again). /

Sentence #3

The last sentence is:
(After several circles and jerks), a little girl (in the third pew) leaned(toward her mother) and whispered, "If hegetsloose (PA), willhehurtus (DO)?"
Review Prepositional Phrases Review S/V/C patterns.

Again, because there is more than one S/V/C pattern, we need to keep two things in mind:

1. begin with the last pattern and work backwards
2. look for subordinate conjunctions.
The last pattern ("will he hurt us") obviously ends with "us," but where does it begin? In front of "will," we find "loose" which is the predicate adjective in another pattern, but if we look at that pattern, we find that it begins with the subordinate conjunction "if." Thus "If he gets loose" is a subordinate clause which gives the conditions under which he "will hurt" us. The "if" clause is therefore adverbial to "will hurt," and thus part of the "he will hurt us" clause:
(After several circles and jerks), a little girl (in the third pew) leaned(toward her mother) and whispered, "[Adv. to "will hurt" If hegetsloose (PA)], willhehurtus (DO)?"
     We now know that the "will he hurt us" clause begins with "if" and ends with "us," but we need to determine if it is a main or a subordinate clause.  The word before the clause is "whispered." In looking for S/V/C patterns we had a problem finding the complement of "whispered." In terms of meaning, we knew that the answer to the question "Whispered whom or what?" was the entire "If he gets loose, will he hurt us?" But, not having studied clauses, we didn't know what that was. Now we know that it is a clause. Finally, because the clause neither modifies nor equals "girl" (the subject of "whispered"), the clause has to function as a subordinate clause, the direct object of "whispered."
(After several circles and jerks), a little girl (in the third pew) leaned(toward her mother) and whispered, "[DO of  "whispered" [Adv. to "will hurt" If hegetsloose], willhehurtus?"]
     Moving backwards from the end of the sentence, we now have only one S/V/C pattern left -- "girl leaned and whispered . . ." Once we are down to one such pattern, all we need to do is to put a vertical line at the end of the sentence.
(After several circles and jerks), a little girl (in the third pew) leaned(toward her mother) and whispered, "[DO of  "whispered" [Adv. to "will hurt" If hegetsloose], willhehurtus?"]/
     If you want to take the time, you can analyze the rest of the sentence to see that everything chunks to the S/V/C pattern in the main clause: 
     "After several circles and jerks" tells when she "leaned" and "whispered," and thus functions as an adverb to the two finite verbs in the main pattern.
     "[A]" and "little" chunk to the subject "girl," as does the following phrase, "in the third pew."
     The phrase "toward her mother" tells where she "leaned," and thus is adverbial to it.
     And, of course, the clause "If ... us" functions as the direct object of "whispered" and is therefore part of the main S/V/C pattern. As often happens, the main clause is the entire sentence.