Sentence Structure 4: Non‐finite Clauses
Jan McAllister, Jim Miller · 2013
Some types of non-finite clause are very common in both speech and writing but others are typical of writing and occur frequently in narrative. Non-finite clauses enable speakers and writers, but especially writers, to condense their syntax so that a small chunk of syntax carries a lot of information. This chapter discusses different types of non-finite clause. It focuses on infinitives and gerunds. A simple type of non-finite clause consists of just a verb stem, possibly accompanied by an object, complement or adverbial. The verb is said to be bare, and the clause can be called a bare-verb clause. Reduced adverbial clauses are chunks introduced by subordinating conjunctions but containing either a finite verb or no verb at all. Free participle clauses and reduced relative and adverbial clauses are typical of written English and play a central role in the construction of narrative texts.