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 Finding Clauses
Practice Exercise # 9

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:
      A ten-year-old, under the tutelage of her grandmother, was becoming quite knowledgeable about the Bible. Then one day she floored her grandmother by asking, "Which virgin was the mother of Jesus? The virgin Mary or the King James virgin?"
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.
Work your way through the text one sentence at a time.

Sentence # 1

The first sentence is:
     A ten-year-old, (under the tutelage) (of her grandmother), was becoming quite knowledgeable (PA) (about the Bible).
Review Prepositional Phrases Review S/V/C patterns.

Because there is only one S/V/C pattern, all we need to do is put a line at the end of the sentence. The sentence is the main clause.
     A ten-year-old, (under the tutelage) (of her grandmother), was becoming quite knowledgeable (PA) (about the Bible)./

Sentence # 2

The second sentence is:
Then one day shefloored her grandmother (DO)(by asking), "Which virginwas the mother (PN) (of Jesus)?
Review Prepositional Phrases Review S/V/C patterns.

We have more than one pattern in this sentence, so begin with the last S/V/C pattern and work backward. Since "of Jesus" chunks to the PN "mother," the last word in the "virgin was mother" pattern is "Jesus." To find the first word, we need to look at the word in front of "mother." Both the quotation marks and your common sense should tell you that "Which" chunks to "virgin." The word in front of "Which" is "asking," by "by asking" explains how "she floored her grandmother," so it goes to a different pattern. Thus the word we are looking for is "Which" -- we have found a clause that begins with "Which" and ends with "Jesus."
     Is the clause subordinate or main? To answer that we need to see if it chunks to a word outside itself. Right in front of the clause we find "asking," and this clause answers the question "Asking what?" Thus this clause is subordinate because it functions as the complement of "asking." Although "asking" is not a finite verb, we need to find its subject in order to determine the type of the complement. We can do this by asking "Who or what was asking?" This leads us to "she." To determine the type of the complement:

1. Is it a predicate adjective? The subordinate clause does not describe the subject ("she"), so it cannot be a predicate adjective.
2. Is it a predicate noun? The subordinate clause  and the subject ("she") do not refer to the same thing, they are not "equal," so the complement cannot be a predicate noun.
3. Is it an indirect object? The sentence does not mean she was asking "to" or "for" which virgin was the mother of Jesus, so it cannot be an indirect object.
4. Thus this complement has to be a direct object, the only option left.
Then one day shefloored her grandmother (DO)(by asking), [DO of "asking" "Which virginwas the mother (PN) (of Jesus)?]
Down to one unanalyzed pattern (which must be the core of the main clause), all we need to do is to put a vertical line at the end of the sentence. Note that the main clause includes the subordinate clause because
A clause is an S/V/C pattern and all the words that chunk to it.
The "Which" clause chunks to "asking," and "by asking" chunks to "floored."
Then one day shefloored her grandmother (DO)(by asking), [DO of "asking" "Which virginwas the mother (PN) (of Jesus)?] /

Sentence # 3

The third sentence is:
*Wasit* the virgin Mary (PN) or the King James virgin (PN)?
Review the S/V/C patterns for an explanation of the "*Was it*."
Review Prepositional Phrases Review S/V/C patterns.

Since there is only one S/V/C pattern, it has to be a main clause. Put a vertical line at the end of the sentence.
The virgin Mary (PN) or the King James virgin (PN)?/
Note that in the statistical analysis of your own writing, fragments count as main clauses, and the ellipsed words are not counted.