What are 'small clauses'?

[Jill Moor]

i am quite aware that we use only nouns and adjectives to complement the subject in this pattern (S-V-SC). if that is so, how do we explain this sentence?

"She is there"
She = subject is = verb there = adverb

"She entered her room crying."
She = subject entered = verb her room = direct object
crying = adverb or adjective?

Some of my friends say it is an adjective modifying the subject "she" others say it is an adverb modifying the verb "entered" which answers the question, how did she enter her room?

If it modifies the subject, which pattern does it follow? I don't think it follows the S-V-O-OC pattern either.

I would appreciate it if you can help me out with this.

thank you and best regards

[Alan]

Hi,

I'm fascinated at the suggestion that crying in your example modifies the verb. How does anyone enter crying? Let's take this even further: She entered the room crying, dabbing her eyes, mopping up the tears in a handkerchief and screaming blue murder And all that modifies entered!

Alan
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English as a Second Language
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[Jamie (K)]

In traditional grammar, "crying" here is probably a present participle used as an adverb to modify the verb "entered".

I think it can be argued that "crying" is the main verb of a clause that has been truncated. "She entered the room [when she was] crying."

It can also be argued that "crying" is the verb in a "Small Clause" that has a null or "covert" subject. For more information on Small Clauses, check this website: http://www.cogsci.ed.ac.uk/~roberto/layers/sc.html

A Small Clause has a subject and some other element, but if it has a verb, the verb has no tense. The bracketed parts of the following sentences are Small Clauses:

"I can't sleep with [you snoring]."
"They saw [the thief go into the garage].

It could be argued in modern-day analysis that in your sentence you've got a structure like this:

"She entered the room [[she] crying]."

The "she" in brackets would be the "covert subject" and would not be spoken.

[Alan]

Hi,

You write:

In traditional grammar, "crying" here is probably a present participle used as an adverb to modify the verb "entered".

How can you justify this?

Alan
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English as a Foreign Language
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[Mister Micawber]

The nonfinite clause, crying, can be considered an adverbial of manner; Leech & Svartvick certainly consider it so. Their example is:

He marched in on them, grinning broadly.
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[Alan]

[Jamie (K)]

It adds a description of the manner in which they were marching, or the manner in which she entered the room.

She entered the room crying.
= She entered the room in tears.

"In tears" here is obviously used as an adverbial to describe the manner in which the woman entered the room. While, of course, you could say, "The crying woman entered the room," you can't say, "The in tears woman entered the room." "In tears" modifies the verb, and "crying" serves the same purpose.

A lot of this can be clarified by plotting out a tree diagram of the sentence. The VP note that dominates "crying" has to be connected to the VP that contains "entered", and it can't be connected to the subject of the sentence.

[Alan]

I feel the point I'm making is being missed. I am talking about meaning. Can you march in a grinning manner or can you enter in a crying manner? You can march and grin - you can enter and cry.

Alan
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English as a Foreign Language
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[Mister Micawber]

.
How did she enter the room?
She entered the room crying.

This is the traditional test for an adverb of manner. I understand what you are getting at practically, Alan, but I don't see how we can make crying into an adjective of she in parsing this sentence grammatically.

Would you settle for a sentence adverbial? In line with with Jamie's 'truncation', She entered the room [while she was] crying: the nonfinite subordinate clause modifies the whole main clause.
.
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Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's

[Alan]

Hi,

I like it! I'd had fond ideas of talking zeugma but then that, as they say, is another kettle of fish.

Alan
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Adverbs