Michael Kischner:
 
"It was that that caused his resignation."
 
>How do members describe the that-clause?  I want to call it a noun clause
>functioning as the delayed subject...
 
My solution:
We can distinguish between 'regular' sentences and pronoun
sentences. Pronoun sentences are sentences where one slot is filled by a
pronoun, which (then) goes to the front.
               S      VP        A(direction)    A(manner)
Ex.        The horse came to the American West in this way
                                                  HOW
      HOW  the horse came to the American West
(the title some Reader's Digest story, if I can trust my memory)
 
In this ex. it is the Adverbial-of-manner-slot which is filled by the
wh-pronoun 'how'. I call this sentence type a wh-sentence.
 
Another type of pronoun sentences are  'that'-sentences (to be
distinguished from 'that'-clauses [noun clauses]). In Michael Kirschner's
example:
                      S      VP         O
                  something caused his resignation
                     THAT
             THAT           caused his resignation
 
The pronoun 'that' here fills the subject slot. Of course, it doesn't
have to move to get to the front  of the sentence, it's already there.
 
There are also pronoun sentences with 'as'.
 
Pronoun sentences can do all sorts of things. Wh-sentences (as
statements) can be headlines, subjects, objects etc, can fill conclusion
slots in paragraphs, can function as noun attributes (like adjectives) -
they are then called 'defining relative clauses' (or some such), they
can be appositives to nouns ('non-defining relative clauses').
 
The function of
            that caused his resignation
Attribute to the demonstrative pronoun 'that'.
 
In
          It is a pity that we missed each other
we have a that-CLAUSE, which is an apposite of IT, therefore it can be
'turned around'.
 
  Burkhard Leuschner
  Paedagogische Hochschule,  Schwaebisch Gmuend,  Germany
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