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306
Our proposal is that you should join in.
Their suggestion was that no one should interfere.
Predicative clauses with comparative meaning are introduced by the comparative conjunctions as, as if, as
though.
It was as though our last meeting was forgotten.
Everything remained as it used to be in this room.
She looks as if she were ill.
Note:
Predicative clauses introduced by the conjunctions as, as if, as though should not be confused with adverbial
clauses of comparison introduced by the same conjunctions. A predicative clause immediately follows the link
verb, which does not express complete predication without the clause. In the case of an adverbial clause, the
preceding verb is that of complete predication and the clause may be distant from the verb it modifies, for
instance:
Mrs Abinger hated to be talked to as if she were a child.
The Frenchman nodded vigorously, as though it were the most reasonable statement in the world.
Predicative clauses may be joined asyndetically. In this case they
are
usually separated by a comma or a
dash.
The result was, his master raised his wages a hundred a month.
As can be seen from the above examples, a predicative clause has a fixed position in the sentence - it always
follows a link verb, with which it forms a compound nominal predicate. The link verbs used with predicative
clauses are far less numerous than those used with the nonclausal predicatives. The most common are to be, to
feel, to look, to seem. Less frequent are to appear, to remain, to become, to sound, to taste.
Types of predicative clauses
§ 153. Predicative clauses may occur as parts of two structurally different kinds of sentences:
I. They may follow the main clause in which the subject is a notional word, although it usually has a very
general meaning (thing, question, problem, news, sensation, evil, rule, trouble, etc.). In this case the predicative
clause discloses the meaning of the subject.
The rule was that they walked down to the cliff path and travelled up in the lift.
The trouble was whether we could manage it ourselves or not.
The problem is not who will go, but who will stay.
II. The predicative clause may follow the main clause in which the subject is expressed by the impersonal
pronoun
it. In this case the predicative clause describes the situation, either directly or by means of
comparison.
It appears he hasn’t been there.
It sounded as if even the spring began by act of Parliament.
Note:
Care should be taken not to confuse this last type of sentence with complex sentences with a subject clause,
which also begins with it. In the latter case the predicate of the main clause is complete, whereas in the case of