Proposal (grammar)

In school Grammar, a proposal is a Syntagme articulated around a Verbe. This notion is especially used in the training of the languages.

Types of proposals

One distinguishes the independent clauses of the couple main clause/subordinate clause.

Independent

The independent clauses function in autonomy and are connected the ones to the others, if necessary, by Coordination (by means of coordinating conjuctions) or Juxtaposition (by means of the Virgule or of the Deux-points generally). In the absence of such bonds, one says that they are in a paratactic structure if they are connected by an implicit logical report/ratio. The number of verbs in a sentence enables us to know how much there is proposal.

Principal and subordinate

In the couple principal/subordinated, one of the proposals (its verb, in fact) is subordinate to the first, which means that it is dependant on this first. Its nature is determined by the term which is used to connect the two proposals (or “word introducer”):

Subordinating conjunction → it is a conjunctive subordinate clause ( I think que I will come );
Relative pronoun → relative Subordinate clause ( I know the man qui saw the man );
no word introducer → there exist several cases of figure whose principal ones are:

the infinitive Proposal ( I hear snow fall ),
the participial Proposition ( Cicéron having been consul , it does not have any council to receive to you ),
the indirect interrogative Subordinate clause partial ( I do not know which will bring the Saint-Nectaire cheese ; which , in the subordinate clause, is not a word introducer: it is an interrogative pronoun which is preserved in the direct version: Which will bring the Saint-Nectaire cheese? the word if , in interrogative the indirect total ones, is as for him well a word introducer ─ a interrogative Adverbe ─ which disappears in the direct question: I if it will come → Viendra it does not know? ).

The verb of principal imposes the mode and the times wanted by the Sequence of tenses and the modal Concordance on its subordinate clause.

The type of subordinate clause is specified according to its function compared to the principal one and its type of construction:

completive : she generally plays part of a Complément of object of the verb of principal or of a prone , but she can also be a complement of a noun or an adjective of this principal; the interrogative indirect ones are completive; the completive one is essential, cannot be moved nor removed;
circumstantial : it is a circumstantial Complément of this verb. She is not in this case not essential and can generally be removed, which ensures the virtual autonomy of principal;
the relative (introduced by a relative pronoun): elle the Antécédent relative pronoun “supplements”. The Subordinate clause relative is treated more in details to share.

To note that this classification is fast and imperfect: as it is often the case with school grammar, the definitions easily do not suffer the analysis from detail.

Examples

In the following examples, the proposals are framed by right hooks, the coordinating conjuctions by arrows, the words subordinating by rafters and the verbs are underlined.

peux to enter ← because → es too young person: two independent coordinates. One could replace because by a punctuation, which guarantees the autonomy of the proposals:

peux to enter, es too jeune (juxtaposition of independent),
peux to enter: es too young person (idem),
peux to enter. es too young person (parataxis).

veux ← and → of the excuses: two independent coordinates. It is noted that the Direct object of the excuses is put in common factor. In fact, want does not have all its autonomy because it misses a Actant necessary to him to be saturated.

I suis sure] [ you comprends: you include/understand is subordinated to am sure and introduced by . It is thus a conjunctive subordinate clause. It is also an essential complement of the sure Adjectif : it is completive. am sure is the principal one; it is however not autonomous, the valence of the verb not being saturated. The subordinate clause is not as for it not either autonomous: that you include/understand is not a valid statement.

I suis not sûr] [ you comprennes: even analyzes. One notes moreover than the verb of the subordinate clause is now with the Subjonctif because of the modal agreement.

I suis sûr] of [comprendre: here '' constitutes an infinitive noun clause which is enchased in a prepositional Syntagme introduces by the Préposition of ; indeed it is this syntagm (and not directly the proposal) which is the complement of the principal verb ( to be sure ) because one can the pronominaliser with in : am sure. One should not confuse this prepositional construction with the following one:

I him ai demandé] [ venir: the proposal venir is the direct object of the principal verb; one can the pronominaliser with the : '' the '' asked him. It is thus completive infinitive, in which of is not a preposition, but a subordinating term (he plays the part of the for the infinitive ones).

viendrai tomorrow, God the veut: the subordinate clause is introduced by . It is thus conjunctive whose function is to be circumstantial of condition of the principal verb of coming . It can thus be cut off, like the majority of the circumstantial complements; the principal one is consequently autonomous: will come tomorrow is a valid statement.

C'est the sauerkraut] [ j'ai achetée yesterday: the subordinate clause is introduced by a Relative pronoun, which has for Antécédent (term which a relative pronoun replaces in the subordinate clause) sauerkraut , located in the principal one. It is thus a relative subordinate clause. Its function is “to supplement” sauerkraut . None of the two proposals, in this case of figure, is autonomous (the sauerkraut is valid grammatically but not for the direction. One would wait, in an isolated way: it is sauerkraut Morrocan woman ).

aime well châtie not: it is a particular case here. Relative the likes does not have indeed an antecedent and takes the function of subject of the verb of principal.