3.3.2. Object clauses
An object clause (or completive, or complement clause) is a clause carrying the syntactic function of an object. Object clauses (within brackets) can be declarative clauses (e.g. ‘Piero knows [that Gianni signed the lease]’), free relative clauses (e.g. ‘Paolo bought [what is necessary]’) (SYNTAX 3.4) or interrogative clauses (e.g. ‘Paolo asked me [who took the exam]’) (SYNTAX 1.2.3). In the following, however, we will only treat simple declarative clauses, referring to the relevant sections for the other two types.
Depending on the matrix verb, object clauses can correspond to at least two types of structures: i) finite object clauses and ii) non-finite object clauses. Finite object clauses can have a lexical subject, tense and aspectual markings. The subject of the object clause does not need to refer to the arguments in the main clause. The sentence ‘Gianni said that Piero will sign the contract’ contains a finite object clause, as shown by the presence of an auxiliary (‘will’) and of a lexical subject (‘Piero’). On the other hand, non-finite object clauses cannot have a lexical subject or tense and aspectual markings. The subject of the object clause is interpretatively dependent on an argument in the main clause. The sentences ‘Gianni forgot to sign the contract’ and ‘The cook forced Maria to eat meat’ contain a non-finite object clause. The null subject of the object clause depends in its interpretation on the main clause subject(‘Gianni’), in the first sentence, and on the main clause object, (‘Maria’), in the second sentence.
