Small clause

In linguistics, a small clause is a frequently occurring construction that has the semantic subject-predicate characteristics of a clause, but that lacks the tense of a finite clause and appears to lack the status of a constituent. The structural analyses of small clauses vary in part based upon whether a flat or layered analysis is pursued. The small clause is closely related to the phenomena of raising-to-object, exceptional case-marking, accusativus cum infinitivo, and even object control.

The following sentences contain (what some theories of syntax judge to be) small clauses. The actual small clause is in bold in each example:

In each of these sentences, the underlined expression functions as a predicate over the nominal immediately to its left. The verbs that license small clauses like these are a heterogeneous bunch. So-called raising-to-object or ECM verbs like consider and want license small clauses, and verbs like call and name, which subcategorize for an object NP and a predicative expression, also license small clauses. And verbs like wipe and pound, which allow the appearance of a resultative expression, can also be seen as allowing small clauses. One should note that what does and does not qualify as a small clause varies in the literature. Early discussions of small clauses were limited to the ECM-verbs like consider.

An important trait that all six examples above have in common is that the small clause lacks a verb. Indeed, this has been taken as a defining aspect of small clauses, i.e. to qualify as a small clause, a verb must be absent. If, however, one allows a small clause to contain a verb, then the following sentences can also be interpreted as containing small clauses:

The similarity across the sentences a-f and these four sentences g-j is obvious, since the same subject-predicate relationship is present in all ten sentences. Hence if one interprets sentences a-f as containing small clauses, one can also judge sentences g-j as containing small clauses. A defining characteristic of all ten of the small clauses in a-j is that the tense associated with finite clauses, which contain a finite verb, is absent.

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