Small Clause - Examples

Examples

The following sentences contain (what some theories of syntax judge to be) small clauses. The actual small clause is in bold in each example:

a. Susan considers Sam a dope.

b. We want you sober.

c. Jim called me a liar.

d. They named him Pedro.

e. Fred wiped the table clean.

f. Larry pounded the nail flat.

In each of these sentences, the underlined expression functions as a predicate over the nominal immediately to its left. The verbs that license small clauses like these are a heterogeneous bunch. So-called raising-to-object or ECM verbs like consider and want license small clauses, and verbs like call and name, which subcategorize for an object NP and a predicative expression, also license small clauses. And verbs like wipe and pound, which allow the appearance of a resultative expression, can also be seen as allowing small clauses. One should note that what does and does not qualify as a small clause varies in the literature. Early discussions of small clauses were limited to the ECM-verbs like consider.

An important trait that all six examples above have in common is that the small clause lacks a verb. Indeed, this has been taken as a defining aspect of small clauses, i.e. to qualify as a small clause, a verb must be absent. If, however, one allows a small clause to contain a verb, then the following sentences can also be interpreted as containing small clauses:

g. We saw Fred leave.

h. Did you hear them arrive?

i. Larry believes that to be folly.

j. Do you judge it to be possible?

The similarity across the sentences a-f and these four sentences g-j is obvious, since the same subject-predicate relationship is present in all ten sentences. Hence if one interprets sentences a-f as containing small clauses, one can also judge sentences g-j as containing small clauses. A defining characteristic of all ten of the small clauses in a-j is that the tense associated with finite clauses, which contain a finite verb, is absent.