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 Finding Clauses
Practice Exercise # 11

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 little boy was in a relative's wedding. As he was coming down the aisle, he would take two steps, stop, and turn to the crowd. While facing the crowd, he would put his hands up like claws and roar. So it went, step, step, ROAR, step, step, ROAR, all the way down the aisle. As you can imagine, the crowd was near tears from laughing so hard by the time he reached the pulpit. The little boy, however, was getting more and more distressed from all the laughing, and was also near tears by the time he reached the pulpit. When asked what he was doing, the child sniffed and said, "I was being the Ring Bear."
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 little boywas(in a relative's wedding).
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 little boywas(in a relative's wedding)./

Sentence # 2

The second sentence is:
As hewas coming (down the aisle), hewould take two steps(DO), stop, and turn(to the crowd).
Review Prepositional Phrases Review S/V/C patterns.

With more than one S/V/C pattern, we usually start at the end and work backward, but we also need to keep an eye open for subordinate conjunctions. "As" is one, so we have a clause beginning with "As." "Down the aisle" goes with this clause because it tells where he "was coming." But the next word, "he," is the subject in a different pattern. Thus we have a clause that begins with "As" and ends with "aisle."
     Is it subordinate or main? To answer that, we need to see if it chunks to something outside itself. In this case the "as" means that "he was coming" at the same time that "he would take two steps." The "As" thus chunks this subordinate clause to "would take."
[Adv. to "would take" As hewas coming (down the aisle),]hewould take two steps(DO), stop, and turn(to the crowd).
Because "would take," "stop," and "turn" all share the same subject, they are all part of the same pattern. Thus, down to one unanalyzed pattern, all we need to do is to put a vertical line at the end of the sentence. We are finished with it.
[Remember that, because a clause is an S/V/C pattern and all the words that chunk to it, the main clause begins with "As" and ends with "crowds."]
[Adv. to "would take" As hewas coming (down the aisle),]hewould take two steps(DO), stop, and turn (to the crowd)./

Sentence # 3

The third sentence is:
While facing the crowd, hewould put his hands(DO)up (like claws) and roar.
Review Prepositional Phrases Review S/V/C patterns.

I'll expect some of you to have problems with this one. It appears to have only one S/V/C pattern, but at the beginning of this sentence we find "While facing the crowd, . . ." "While" is a subordinate conjunction, and "facing" is a verb. What we have here is a "semi-reduced" clause -- the "he was" has been ellipsed.  It counts as a clause, but in this course I will expect you to have some troubles with them. The "while" indicates a time relationship with "would put up" and "roar," so the semi-reduced clause chunks to these two verbs. [Hume's "extension"]
[Adv. to "would put up" and "roar" While facing the crowd], hewould put his hands(DO)up(like claws) and roar.
Since there is only one S/V/C pattern left (again with a compound finite verb), it has to be a main clause. Put a vertical line at the end of the sentence. We are finished with it.
[Adv. to "would put up" and "roar" While facing the crowd], hewould put his hands(DO)up(like claws) and roar./

Sentence # 4

The fourth sentence is:
So itwent, step, step, ROAR, step, step, ROAR, all the way (down the aisle).
Review Prepositional Phrases Review S/V/C patterns.

With only one S/V/C pattern, we can simply put a line at the end of the sentence. 
So itwent, step, step, ROAR, step, step, ROAR, all the way (down the aisle)./

Sentence # 5

The fifth sentence is:
As youcan imagine, the crowdwas(near tears) (from laughing so hard) (by the time) hereached the pulpit(DO). 
Review Prepositional Phrases Review S/V/C patterns.

That "As" at the beginning of the sentence is rather obvious as the beginning of a subordinate clause. That subordinate clause ends with the word "imagine," since "the" clearly goes to "crowd," a subject in a different pattern. We need to look at what this clause chunks to. Traditional grammars would say that it is adverbial to "was," but I would also accept an interpretation which considers it as an interjection. [In this clause, the writer is commenting to the reader about the nature of the "crowd was" statement; he is not "modifying" the way in which the crowd "was."]
[Adverb to "was" or Interjection As youcan imagine,] the crowdwas(near tears) (from laughing so hard) (by the time) hereached the pulpit(DO). 
We still have two unanalyzed patterns, so we begin at the end, with "he reached." This clause obviously ends with "pulpit."  To find the first word in this clause, we need to look at the word before the subject "he." The word "time" is in the prepositional phrase, "by the time," that they phrase tells when the crowd was near tears." Thus the phrase chunks to "was." Thus the first word in the last clause is "he."
     Is this clause subordinate or main? Does it chunk to something outside itself? This clause tells us what "time" the writer was talking about, so the clause chunks to "time."
[Adverb to "was" or Interjection As youcan imagine,] the crowdwas(near tears) (from laughing so hard) (by the time)[Adjective to "time" hereached the pulpit(DO). ]
We are now down to one unanalyzed S/V/C pattern ("crowd was"), so we can put a line at the end of the sentence. We are finished with it. [Note: The interjection is "thrown in" to the sentence, and counts as part of the main clause, and, since a clause is an S/V/C pattern and all the words that chunk to it, the "he reached" clause is also part of the main clause.]
[Adverb to "was" or Interjection As youcan imagine,] the crowdwas (near tears) (from laughing so hard) (by the time)[Adjective to "time" hereached the pulpit(DO). ]/

Sentence # 6

The sixth sentence is:
The little boy, however, was getting more and more distressed(from all the laughing), and was also (near tears) (by the time)hereached the pulpit(DO).
Review Prepositional Phrases Review S/V/C patterns.

In this sentence, we find the same "he reached the pulpit" clause modifying "time."
The little boy, however, was getting more and more distressed(from all the laughing), and was also (near tears) (by the time)[Adjective to "time"hereached the pulpit(DO).]
The verbs "was getting distressed" and "was" share the same subject ("boy"), and are thus part of the same pattern. Since that is the only pattern left, all we need to do is to put a vertical line at the end of the sentence.
The little boy, however, was getting more and more distressed(from all the laughing), and was also (near tears) (by the time)[Adjective to "time"hereached the pulpit(DO).]/

Sentence # 7

The seventh and last sentence is:
When asked what(DO of "was doing")hewas doing, the childsniffed and said, "Iwas being the Ring Bear(PN)."
Review Prepositional Phrases Review S/V/C patterns.

With more than one S/V/C pattern, begin at the end and work backward. The last pattern obviously ends with "Bear."  The first word in this pattern has to be the "I," because "said" is a finite verb in a different pattern. Thus we have a clause that begins with "I" and ends with "Bear."
     Is it subordinate or main? Does it chunk to a word in the sentence outside itself? The first word to look at is always the word right in front of it. In this case that word is "said," and it shouldn't be very difficult to realize that the clause answers the question "said what?" Thus the clause is the complement (DO) of "said."
When asked what(DO of "was doing")hewas doing, the childsniffed and said, [DO of "said""Iwas being the Ring Bear(PN)."]
Now things get a bit tricky, and I expect most students in this course to have problems with the rest of this sentence. 
     If we continue working backward, the next pattern is based on "child sniffed and said." Because we just figured out that the "I was being" clause is the complement of "said," we know that the "child sniffed and said" clause ends with the word "Bear." But where does it begin? The word "the" before "child" obviously goes with "child." The "was doing" in front of it clearly is part of another S/V/C pattern. Rather than trying to figure out what the "was doing" goes to, let's not forget our other tool, subordinate conjunctions.
     The "When" at the beginning of the sentence can function as a subordinate conjunction, and "When asked" here means "When *he was* asked . . ."  Thus we are dealing with a semi-reduced clause.  The verb in this clause is "was asked," and the subject is the understood "he." The first word is obviously the "When," but what is the last word? Is there a complement of "asked"? If we ask "When he was asked what?", the answer is "what he was doing." Thus "what he was doing is the complement of "asked." Technically, it is a retained direct object, after the passive verb "was asked," but since we do not study passive verbs in this course, I would expect you, if you were able to get this far, to call it simply a direct object. We thus have a clause that begins at "When" and ends at "doing."
   Is this clause subordinate or main? The subordinate conjunction ("When") indicates that it is subordinate. What does it chunk to? "When" indicates a temporal relationship (Hume's "extension"), between his being asked and "sniffed and said." Thus the clause functions as an adverb to "sniffed and said."
[Adverbial to "sniffed and said" When *hewas* askedwhat(DO of "was doing") hewas doing,] the childsniffed and said, [DO of "said""Iwas being the Ring Bear(PN)."]
We still have a problem, however, because we have two S/V/C patterns ("he was asked" and "he was doing") within the set of brackets. But since we have already noted that "what he was doing" is the complement of "was asked," and since "what he was doing" is itself a clause, we can conclude that it is a subordinate clause, functioning, as I noted, as a (retained) direct object.
[Adverbial to "sniffed and said" When *hewas* asked[(Retained) DO of "was asked"what(DO of "was doing") hewas doing,]] the childsniffed and said, [DO of "said""Iwas being the Ring Bear(PN)."]
We are now down to one unanalyzed pattern ("child sniffed and said ..."), so we can put a vertical line at the end of the sentence.
[Adverbial to "sniffed and said" When *hewas* asked[(Retained) DO of "was asked"what(DO of "was doing") hewas doing,]] the childsniffed and said, [DO of "said""Iwas being the Ring Bear(PN)."] /
If the preceding explanation still seems confusing, don't worry about it. As I said, in this course I would not expect you to get all of it. In effect, this sentence, with four clauses, is comparable to bench-pressing 400 pounds. No weight lifter can do that without first having pressed, hundreds of times, lighter weights. When you become accustomed to analyzing the clause structure of less complex sentences, sentences like this one will fall into place.