Christine,

If your book calls /wonder/ a transitive verb, then it's analyzing the
when-clause as a direct object.
That's a traditional assumption, but I think it's wrong.

Calling the subordinate clause a NP-substitute is a bit problematic,
since /wonder/, like many other verbs, doesn't actually take a NP
complement.

Some verbs (e.g., /said/) can take either a direct object or a clause as
a complement, and that's the reason for the analysis that your book
uses, but clauses that are internal complements of verbs actually don't
behave all that much like NPs, so I think it's better to consider
/wonder/ intransitive.

Regards,

Karl

Karl Hagen
Department of English
Mount St. Mary's College

Christine Gray wrote:

>We are working on identifying phrases in my grammar class.
>
>This sentence is from an exercise in the textbook:
>
>"I wonder when the notice will arrive."
>
>The instructor's manual, with the answers, identifies the constituents of
>this sentence as
>
>Noun phrase             verb phrase             noun phrase
>        I               wonder  when the notice will arrive
>
>I've always thought of "wonder" as an intransitive verb.
>
>My questions:
>1. Is wonder a transitive verb?
>2. What kind of phrase is "when the notice will arrive."
>
>(I know it's actually a clause. But for the purpose of this exercise, we are
>identifying it as a type of phrase.)
>
>Christine in Baltimore
>
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