Beth,
I like the biology analogy. It does seem appropriate here. Language is a complex adaptive system, as many have said.
I use the term "content clause" rather than nominal clause, which can get you off the hook a bit.
For structures like "I am pleased to meet you" or "I am pleased that you are here," you could make the case for passive. The active version would be "To meet you pleases me" and "That you are here pleases me." That analysis gets harder when you put an adjective in place of "pleased" (past participle of verb). "I am happy to meet you." "I am happy that you are here." The paraphrase would have to be something like "To meet you makes me happy" or "That you are here makes me happy." At any rate, in all cases the structure seems to highlight the cause of the emotional change and it also puts it into clause ending emphasis. ("To meet you pleases me" seems awkward because "me" is given information.)
You can also think of these as schematic structures. They show up over and over again because we find them useful. "I am X to Y." "I am X that Y." X denotes an emotional state and Y highlights its cause.
Sometimes we also get clauses of extent that I think are best understood as adjective complements.
"I am so lonesome [that} I could cry."
"I am so sad that you left" would tell us the cause. "[that} I could cry" tells us the extent.
If you think of grammar as growing quite often from the ground up, it shouldn't surprise us to find these lower level constructions, which generally have a few open slots.
As I said in my last post, for me it makes more sense to focus on what motivates these structures. We see the kinds of meanings they allow us to produce. They are not just a classification problem or even a problem in describing the rules for their formal generation. We have a need to articulate the causes for our emotions and the extent of those emotions. The structures come out of use and are sustained by use. It should not surprise us that they are somewhat unique. Because they are highly productive and have open slots, it doesn't seem appropriate just to call them idioms.
It's a very thoughtful question.
Craig
________________________________________
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Beth Young <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, August 17, 2015 1:35 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: linking with infinitive question
I do what Bill does with S link-V SC sentences for the types that Scott mentioned. A similar kind of sentence that my students get tangled up with:
"He seemed angry that I entered so quickly."
"She seemed happy that we were friends."
I teach from Martha Kolln's _Understanding English Grammar_ which doesn't cover those sentences. Students want to call them nominal clauses. I tell students that they are "a kind of complement that we don't study in this class", and that the clauses can be distinguished from nominals because they can't be replaced with "something":
*He seemed angry something.
*She seemed happy something.
Does anyone teach about this kind of sentence? How do you approach it?
The great thing about discussing the complications is that it gets students away from viewing syntax as a set of straightforward rules that apply to every utterance (like math) and more towards viewing it as an attempt to explain/understand a pre-existing very complex system (like biology).
Beth
Dr. Beth Rapp Young
Associate Professor, English
[log in to unmask]
University of Central Florida
"Reach for the Stars"
________________________________________
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Spruiell, William C [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, August 17, 2015 12:17 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: linking with infinitive question
Scott,
With undergraduates, I just call the infinitive phrases in those examples subject complements, parallel to the adjectival subject complements in “He appeared upset” or “He seemed happy.” That hammers the sentences into the nice, familiar “S link-V SC” mold. I tell the students that that’s a labeling dodge, though — it’s a cost-benefit tradeoff between simplicity and accuracy.
— Bill Spruiell
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on behalf of Scott Woods <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Reply-To: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Date: Monday, August 17, 2015 at 1:28 AM
To: "[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Subject: linking with infinitive question
Dear List,
How would you characterize the verbs in the following sentences?
He appeared to demand my speedy entrance.
He seemed to think that we were friends.
Thanks,
Scott Woods
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