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In linguistics, a small clause is a frequently occurring construction that has the semantic subject-predicate characteristics of a clause, but that lacks the tense of a finite clause and appears to lack the status of a constituent. The structural analyses of small clauses vary in part based upon whether a flat or layered analysis is pursued. The small clause is closely related to the phenomena of raising-to-object, exceptional case-marking, accusativus cum infinitivo, and even object control. ==Examples== The following sentences contain (what some theories of syntax judge to be) small clauses.〔For a general discussion of small clauses, see Haegeman (1994:123ff.).〕 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.〔For instance, Chomsky (1981:107), Ouhalla (1994:109ff), and Wardbaugh, R. (2003:85) take the absence of a verb to be a distinguishing characteristic of small clauses.〕 If, however, one allows a small clause to contain a verb, then the following sentences can also be interpreted as containing small clauses:〔See Haegeman and Guéron (1999:111f.) for an account that acknowledges small clauses that contain verbs.〕 ::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. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「small clause」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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