# Verbless clause
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{{Short description|Generative grammar}}
'''Verbless clauses''' are comprised, semantically, of a [predicand](/source/predicand), expressed or not, and a verbless predicate. For example, the underlined string in [''With the children so sick,''] ''we've been at home a lot'' means the same thing as the clause ''the children are so sick''. It attributes the predicate "so sick" to the predicand "the children". In most contexts, *''the children so sick'' would be ungrammatical.
== History of the concept ==
In the early days of [generative grammar](/source/generative_grammar), new conceptions of the clause were emerging. [Paul Postal](/source/Paul_Postal) and [Noam Chomsky](/source/Noam_Chomsky) argued that every [verb phrase](/source/verb_phrase) had a subject, even if none was expressed, (though [Joan Bresnan](/source/Joan_Bresnan) and [Michael Brame](/source/Michael_Brame) disagreed).[{{Cite book|last=Pullum|first=Geoffrey K.|title=Proceedings of the Western Conference on Linguistics, Volume 2: 1989|publisher=Department of Linguistics, California State University|year=1989|editor-last=Brengelman|editor-first=Frederick H.|location=Fresno, CA|chapter=Prospects for generative grammar in the 1990s|editor-last2=Samiian|editor-first2=Vida|editor-last3=Wilkins|editor-first3=Wendy}}] As a result, every VP was thought to [head](/source/Head_(linguistics)) a clause.
The idea of verbless clauses was perhaps introduced by [James McCawley](/source/James_D._McCawley) in the early 1980s with examples like the underlined part of ''with John in jail''... meaning "John is in jail".[{{Cite journal|last=McCawley|first=James D.|date=1983|title=What's with with?|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/413575|journal=Language|volume=59|issue=2 |pages=271–287|doi=10.2307/413575 |jstor=413575 |url-access=subscription}}]
== Examples ==
=== English ===
In [Modern English](/source/Modern_English), verbless clauses are common as the [complement](/source/Complement_(linguistics)) of ''with'' or ''without''.[{{Cite book|last1=Huddleston|first1=Rodney|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/9781316423530/type/book|title=The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language|last2=Pullum|first2=Geoffrey K.|date=2002-04-15|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-43146-0|edition=1|doi=10.1017/9781316423530}}]{{Rp|1267}}
Other [prepositions](/source/Preposition_and_postposition) such as ''although'', ''once'', ''when'', and ''while'' also take verbless clause complements, such as ''Although no longer a student, she still dreamed of the school,[{{Cite book|title=A comprehensive grammar of the English language|publisher=Longman|year=1985}}]{{Rp|1068}} nor''[The Cambridge grammar of the English language](/source/The_Cambridge_Grammar_of_the_English_Language)'' offer any speculations about the structure(s) of such clauses. The latter says, without hedging, "the head of a clause (the predicate) is realised by a VP."{{Rp|50}} It's not clear how such a statement could be compatible with the existence of verbless clauses.
{| class="wikitable"
|+Verbless clauses in English
!Independent
!Dependent
|-
|''What a great thing to do!''[These clauses each include a verb, but the verb is part of a subordinate clause.]
''How odd that nobody noticed![Meakins, 2012b]}}
Existential clauses contain a subject with locative phrase.
{{Interlinear|dat warlaku im andanith jiya-ngka|the dog 3SG underneath chair-LOC|"The dog is underneath the chair."[Meakins, 2012b]}}
Possessive constructions consist of a nominal acting as a predicates, taking another nominal argument. In these clauses the head is marked dative. Inalienable nominals (body parts and kinship) are only optionally marked dative.[Meakins and O'Shannessy 2005]
{{Interlinear|wartarra yu bin kirt dat ngakparn-ku hawuj|hey 2SG PST break the frog-DAT house|"Hey you broke the frog's home (the bottle)."[Meakins 2011c: 157]}}
=== Jingulu language ===
In [Jingulu language](/source/Jingulu_language), predicates in verbless clauses can be adjectives or nouns, possessors, adpositionals, or adverbs.
'''Verbless clause example:'''{{interlinear|Miringmi bardakurrumi.|gum good(v)|'Gum is good.'[{{Cite book|last=Pensalfini|first=Robert|title=A Grammar of Jingulu: An Aboriginal language of the Northern Territory|publisher=Pacific Linguistics|year=2003|isbn=0858835584|location=Canberra, Australia}}]{{Rp|87}}|lang=jig}}
=== Merei-Tiale language ===
In [Merei-Tiale language](/source/Merei-Tiale_language), there are verbless equative clauses.
{| class="wikitable"
|''I''
|''nau''
|''motei''
|''na''
|''tasale''
|-
|A:P
|1
|IRR.3.NEG
|A:C
|white-man
|-
| colspan="5" |'I am not a white-man'[{{Cite book|last=Chung, Ying Shing Anthony.|title=Descriptive grammar of Merei (Vanuatu)|date=2005|publisher=Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University|others=Australian National University. Pacific Linguistics.|isbn=0858835606|location=Canberra|oclc=70282773}}]{{Rp|37}}
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|''I''
|''nie''
|''motei''
|''na''
|''tija''
|-
|A:P
|3
|IRR.3.NEG
|A:C
|teacher
|-
| colspan="5" |'He is not a teacher'