Glossary of Clause Elements

SUBJECT. The element of a clause or simple sentence which normally comes before the verb phrase
(before the first Mod/Aux). Typical subjects consist of NPs or pronouns (The play ends happily.
Suddenly they could hear footsteps.), but the subject can also be a subordinate clause (“vedlejší věta
podmětná”, e.g., That he confessed to the crime proves nothing.). The subject has concord with the
finite verb and inverts with operators in questions. In active clauses, it typically refers to the agent, a
“doer” of the action (The critics praised the show).

OBJECT follows transitive verbs, depends on them and it is their obligatory complementation
(*Charles is visiting tomorrow. Charles is visiting the Joneses tomorrow.). Objects are usually NPs,
pronouns (in objective case), and subordinate nominal clauses (Everyone knows that mercury is a
metal.). They represent the entities affected by the action, so called “patients” (I lost my keys.), or
the entities that can profit from the action, the “recipients” (I told them hot news.).

ADVERBIALS are the elements which add extra meaning about the verbal events and states—manner,
time, place, purpose, condition, etc. They are normally optional (She left. She left suddenly.) and
there can be an indefinite number of them in a clause. The adverbials contain adverb phrases ( Come
soon!) as well as prepositional phrases (The plane landed at midnight.) and clauses (I would reply if I
knew the answer.).

COMPLEMENTS are added obligatorily to other clause elements to complete their meaning.
– The subject complement follows linking verbs (copulas), including be, become, feel, seem,
etc. It is linked both semantically and syntactically to the subject of the clause because it
describes the features and character of entities which the subject refers to: His ideas are
crazy (← his ideas = crazy ideas); Will is the chief steward (← Will’s job = chief steward).
– The meaning of the object complement is related to the object. It is the obligatory part of
complex transitive structures the meaning of which would otherwise remain incomplete
(*We found the party. We found the party extremely enjoyable.).

MODIFIER is an optional constituent which is added to another word to specify more precisely what it
refers to (amazingly beautiful, quite soon). In noun phrases, the modifiers both precede and follow
the head noun (pre- and post-modifiers); the post-modifiers in the form of finite clauses are the
relative clauses (a guy who I met last time).