Embedded
Finite Clauses in Spanish
1.
Subject and Complement Clauses
An embedded clause (denoted
here, like any other clause, by the letter ‘S’) is a sentence-like unit that is
contained within another sentence.
In the first place, a
(finite) embedded clause can occupy the position of a verb’s subject or its
direct object. In these two cases, the clause is almost always introduced by
the complementizer (i.e.
‘clause-introducing particle’) que. The two possibilities are illustrated by (1) and (2) below:
(1) Me dio pena [S que ella ya no volviera].
‘It made me sad that she
wasn’t coming back.’
(2) Pedro sabe [S que María pertenece al Opus
Dei].
‘Pedro knows that María
belongs to the Opus Dei.’
The bracketed clauses in
these sentences occupy positions that could also be occupied by a subject NP
and a direct object NP respectively. Thus compare [SUBJ Ella] me dio pena ‘I
felt sorry for her’ and Pedro sabe [DO su nombre] ‘Pedro knows his/her name’.
An embedded clause may also
function as the complement of a preposition. In this case too, the clausal
complement is normally introduced by que:
(3) El negocio va
mal [PP desde [S que se fue]].
‘The business has been
going badly since he/she left.’
(4) Fumaba [PP hasta [S que
se quedó embarazada]].
‘She smoked until she
became pregnant.’
(5) No pueden cargar
su batería [PP sin [S que enciendas tu motor]].
‘They can’t charge their
battery without you switching on your engine.’
(6) Aquí tienes un
bocadillo [PP para [S que no tengas hambre]].
‘Here’s a sandwich so that
you don’t get hungry.’
With por, the complementizer is orthographically attached to the
preposition, yielding porque
‘because’. And según, in contrast to
the prepositions shown above, takes a complementizerless clause:
(7) Bailaba muy mal,
[PP según [S dijo María]].
‘He danced vey badly,
according to what María said.’
The PP that contains the
embedded clause may itself be the complement of another constituent, such as a
verb (as in (8) to (10)), an adjective (as in (9)), or a noun (as in (12):
(8) Daba poca
importancia [PP a [S que protestasen]].
‘He/She attached little
importance to the fact they protested.’
(9) Sueña [PP con [S que
le nombren miembro de la Academia]].
‘He/She dreams of being
made a member of the Academy.’
(10) Se empeña [PP en [S que
no vamos a llegar a tiempo]].
‘He/She insists we aren’t
going to arrive in time.’
(11) Estoy seguro [PP de [S que
ellos son los culpables]].
‘I’m sure they are the
guilty ones.’
(12) Me molesta [NP su insistencia [PP en [S que
van a ganar]]].
‘I don’t like his
insistence that they are going to win.’
Thus the verbs dar, soñar and empeñarse are subcategorized
for PPs introduced respectively by a,
con and en, while the adjective seguro
and the noun insistencia are subcategorized for PPs introduced by de and en.
Finally, an embedded clause may function as the complement
of one of a handful of adverbs:
(13) Siempre [S que te veo] me dices lo mismo.
‘Whever I see you you tell
me the same thing.’
With ya ‘already’,
the embedding of a clause as the adverb’s complement involves a shift in the
adverb’s meaning. Compare, for example, the use of ya in (14) with the
use illustrated by (15):
(14) Se han ido ya.
‘They
have already left.’
(15) Pongámonos en lo peor, ya [S que
no dan señales de tener prisa].
‘Let’s prepare for the
worst, as they don’t give the impression of being in a hurry.’
2.
(Restrictive) Relative Clauses
A relative clause differs
from the clauses just considered in that one of its constituents is missing –
or, as we shall say, extracted – and
a qu-word stands in its place, as in
the sentence below:
(16) Ésta es la chica
[S de quien hemos hablado].
‘This is the girl of whom
we spoke.’
Notice that the bracketed
clause here is identical to a complete sentence of the form Hemos hablado de NP, except that (i) the
constituent in the NP position has been extracted and then replaced by quien and (ii) the containing PP (i.e. de quien) has been promoted to preverbal
position. As a unit the clause performs a modifying role vis-à-vis the
preceding noun chica and so the whole
sequence la chica de quien hemos hablado
forms an NP. The major constituents of (16) are therefore as follows:
[NP Ésta] [VP es [NP la chica [S [PP de quien]
hemos hablado]]].
The qu-word in a relative clause is called a relativizer. Each relativizing qu-word
is constrained in terms of (i) the syntactic function of the extracted
constituent it replaces and/or (ii) whether the item modified by the relative
clause (chica in the above example)
has human or non-human reference. Thus quien(es) is used
(in restrictive relative clauses) only when the extracted constituent is the
complement of a preposition and the item modified is human, as in (16). Que, on the other hand, is used when the
extracted constituent is a subject NP or a direct object NP, and it is not
constrained by the human/non-human variable:
(17) la chica [S que canta]
‘the girl who
sings’
(18) el libro [S que compramos]
‘the
book that we bought’
Que can also be used when the extracted constituent is
the complement of a preposition but, in this case, an appropriate form of the
definite article (excluding ‘neuter’ lo)
usually precedes it:
(19) la casa [S [PP en (la) que] vivimos]
‘the
house in which we live’
Cual(-es), obligatorily preceded by
a form of the definite article, is also used when the extracted constituent is
a prepositional complement. This item, like que,
is unconstrained by the human/non-human variable:
(20) unos amigos [S [PP en los cuales] confiaba]
‘some
friends in whom I/he/she trusted’
Cuyo(s)/-a(s) is used when the extracted constituent is the
possessive determiner su(s) ‘his/her/its/their’. This item too is
unaffected by the human/non-human variable. It does, however, agree in gender
and number with the noun it modifies:
(21) una medida [S [NP cuyos
efectos] no son previsibles]
‘a
measure the effects of which are not foreseeable’
Donde is used when the extracted constituent is a locative
PP or adverb (i.e. one designating a spatial location):
(22) el lugar [S donde lo metimos]
‘the
place where we left it’
Informal speech often
prefers a complementizer construction (i.e. with que functioning as a
complementizer and not as a relativizer) in place of a relative clause. Thus a common alternative to (23) would be (24):
(23) Es un chico [S con quien nunca sabes si puedes contar].
‘He’s a boy on whom you
never know whether you can rely.’
(24) Es un chico [S que nunca sabes si puedes contar con él].
‘He’s a boy that you never
know whether you can rely on him.’
The sequence nunca sabes si puedes contar con él in (24)
is a complete sentence, and so que
cannot be thought of as replacing an extracted constituent, as quien in (23) can be. Accordingly que in (24) is a complementizer (a
general purpose ‘clause-introducer’) rather than a proper relativizer. We shall
use the term complementizer relative
clause to refer to the type of clause illustrated by (24)’s que nunca sabes si puedes contar con él.
The use of complementizer
relative clauses is particularly frequent as an alternative to possessive cuyo, which can sound rather formal. Thus (25) below would be a routine
alternative to the prescriptively more ‘correct’ (26):
(25) Éste es el
muchacho que su padre es un ministro en
el gobierno.
(26) Éste es el
muchacho cuyo padre es un ministro en el
gobierno.
‘This is the boy whose
father is a government minister.’
3.
Non-Restrictive Relatives
A relative clause may be
restrictive, as in (27), or non-restrictive, as in (28):
(27) Me gustan [NP
las casas [S que
tienen vistas al mar]].
‘I like houses that have a
view of the sea.’
(28) Me gustan las
casas, [S que tienen
vistas al mar].
‘I like the houses, which
have a view of the sea.’
The relative clause que tienen vistas al mar limits the containing
NP’s reference in (27) while in (28) it indicates an incidental property of the
houses. Thus while the subject in (28) likes all the houses (which incidentally
have a view of the sea), all that is asserted in (27) is that the subject likes
a subset of the houses (viz. those that have a view of the sea). The semantic
difference between restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses is thus
comparable to the difference between the restrictive and non-restrictive uses
of adjectives.
Non-restrictive relative
clauses are formed in the same way as their restrictive counterparts, except
for the following facts. Quien can be
used in a non-restrictive relative clause if the extracted constituent is a
subject NP (although it cannot be so used in a restrictive relative clause):
(29) El hombre, quien estaba de mal humor, se fue a
dormir.
‘The man, who was in a bad
mood, went off to bed.’
But not, for example, *El hombre quien ha asesinado a Pedro está loco ‘The man who murdered Pedro is
insane’, where quien ha asesinado a Pedro
is a would-be restrictive relative clause.
Secondly
cuando ‘when’, which cannot (in
standardized Peninsular usage, at least) be used at all in restrictive relative
clauses, can be used in non-restrictive relative clauses:
(30) Estaba
allí a las 9, cuando hemos llegado.
‘He/She/It was there at
But
not *Sólo puedo salir los días cuando no
trabajo ‘I can only go out on the days when I’m not working’, where cuando no trabajo is a would-be
restrictive relative clause.
Thirdly,
the ‘neuter’ form of the article is used quite frequently with cual in non-restrictive relative clauses,
but hardly ever in restrictive relatives. The result of combining lo and
cual is a pronoun-like expression that refers back to an idea or event described
in the preceding clause:
(31) Llegué
tarde, por lo cual/que tuve que
estar de pie.
‘I arrived late, as
consequence of which I had to stand.’