embeddedclause

An embedded clause, often called a subordinate clause, is a clause that occurs inside another clause and functions as a single unit within the larger sentence. Embedded clauses expand the sentence by providing content, modification, or circumstance.

Embedded clauses can be finite or non-finite. Finite embedded clauses include complement clauses (that-clauses and wh-clauses) such as “She said that she would come” and “I know what you did,” as well as conditional or content clauses like “Whether it rains, we’ll stay inside.” Non-finite embedded clauses include to-infinitives (“to leave”), -ing participial clauses (“meeting the team”), and bare infinitives in some languages.

Relative clauses are a major type of embedded clause that modify a noun: “the book that you lent me.” Embedded clauses often involve syntactic operations such as movement or control. For example, in “John said that he would leave,” the subject of the embedded verb is controlled by the matrix subject; in wh- questions like “I know who you met,” the wh-element originates in the embedded clause.

In syntax, embedded clauses are typically analyzed as existing inside the larger clause, with a complementizer marking the boundary (in English, that is often optional). English also shows extraction constraints and phenomena like the that-trace effect. Across languages, embedded clauses are encoded with a variety of markers and word orders, reflecting differences in how languages package content, modification, and circumstance within larger sentences.