All English sentences can be classified as canonical and non-canonical clauses. Canonical clauses are the most basic sentences we can construct. They are also the most common. Here are examples of canonical and non-canonical clauses:
Canonical: Oliver has finished his report.
Non-Canonical: Oliver hasn't finished his report.
Canonical: Alexandra is coming for lunch.
Non-Canonical: Is Alexandra coming for lunch?
Canonical: The workers knew the truth.
Non-Canonical: He said that the workers knew the truth.
Canonical: She missed her last bus.
Non-Canonical: Either she missed her last bus or it was late.
Canonical: The maid stole the vase.
Non-Canonical: The vase was stolen by the maid.
From the examples, we see that canonical clauses are affirmative. Negatives clauses are non-canonical.
Canonical clauses are declarative. Interrogatives are non-canonical. This is also true of imperatives (Please come now!) and exclamatives (What a beautiful day!).
Main clauses are canonical. If we add a subordinate clause (that the workers knew the truth), we have a non-canonical clause.
Canonical clauses are simple sentences. If we have a compound sentence with a correlative conjunction such as either or, we have a non-canonical clause.
Canonical clauses are in active voice. If we use passive voice, we have a non-canonical clause.
Canonical clauses are the most elementary of English syntax. They are in active voice and are main clauses, simple clauses, affirmatives and declaratives. Other types of clauses are classified as non-canonical.
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10 comments:
that's a great post! the explanations are very clear
Thank you very much. Your explanation is very clear and conscise.
Hi! just found this post and was hoping you could help me understand a sentence from Ray Bradbury that is along these lines...
After talking with Clarisse, Montag “wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask and there was no way of going to knock on her door and ask for it back.”
I am trying to explain why this sentence feels like it follows a young child's speech pattern. I would say that there are three clauses linked by repeated conjunctions. The first two appear (to me- and I am an engineer trying to explain grammar, so I fully expect to be wrong here...) to be canonical and the third has its own conjunction and is thus non-canonical.
Appreciate your, clearly more knowledgeable, thoughts!
Amazing write up . This article excites me even though my first time of reading it . Very Inspirational . It somehow give me energy to go further. Love to have a revision on Simple Sentences when there's a great information . Wish you successful.
I want to answer the question from bee. The sentence that begins "wore his happiness like a mask" is a very long sentence. Though it's grammatical, it's not so easy to follow, so it would be much better to separate it into at least two sentences.
Let me add a little more information. The entire sentence is non-canonical. However, if we
look at just one simple sentence that forms part of the entire sentence, we can say that the simple sentence if expressed in isolation is canonical. I hope this is clear.
thanks for sharing
You're welcome!
Thank you very much.
You're welcome.
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