Clauses and Sentences

Abstract

This chapter analyzes structures of clause and sentence in Prinmi. These include simplex and complex sentences as well as the clause-chaining sentence, one of the most common types of complex sentence in the language. Prinmi has three types of special clause: dependent clauses, nominal clauses, and verbless clauses. In principle, two types of clause can be recognized in Prinmi: dependent clauses and independent clauses, according to whether or not a clause may function independently as a sentence. A dependent clause always occurs as part of a complex sentence and is characterized with reduced structure, incapable of taking any adjunct. Nominal clauses only occur in sentences involving situations relevant to the moment of utterance. The description of syntactic structure concerns primarily simple clauses. At sentence level, a simplex sentence is precisely composed of a clause, but a complex sentence consists of several clauses.Keywords: complex sentences; dependent clauses; nominal clauses; Prinmi; verbless clauses