A final clause in linguistics is a dependent adverbial clause expressing purpose. For this reason it is also referred to as a purposive clause or a clause of purpose.
In English, final clauses are relatively rare. A final clause is a reply to a question containing the question word wherefore or what for (sometimes also why). The prescription for their construction is rather complicated:
A final clause is introduced by the following linking words (conjunctions):
that (sometimes preceded by in order or so, or, in literary language, to the end)
lest (equivalent to that not, sometimes with the meaning for fear that, both of these naturally belonging to the that category)
Depending on the conjunction used, two forms of final clause exist:
if that is used, the final clause takes may in the present and future, and might in the past, sometimes also shall because of the Latin subjunctive
Wherefore do you play the violin? – I play the violin that I may enjoy myself.
What did you hit me for? – I hit you so that they might not become suspicious of us.
Why did you go to the city? – I went to the city in order that I might buy some new clothes in the shopping centre.
I grabbed the rope that I mightnot fall.
if lest is used, the final clause takes should or may (the latter being obsolescent, and used only for the present and the future), or the subjunctive.
I grabbed the rope lest I should fall.
I play the violin lest I should (or may) be bored.
He does what he is told lest he be sacked. (subjunctive)
He used the subjunctive lest they thought him uncouth. (past subjunctive, which appears the same in UK English as the past)
Final clauses that refer to the same subject as the main clause of the sentence can be expressed with to, in order to, so as to, for fear of, et cetera. This short form of the final clause is much more common than the final clause itself.
She reads that she may be wise. = She reads to be wise.
You cried for fear that you might not have impressed the examiners. = You cried for fear of not impressing the examiners.
I paint in order that I may be happy. = I paint to be happy.
Karsten Schmidtke-Bode examined final clauses, in the context of purpose clauses, as intended to bring about a specific matrix clause situation in a complex sentence construction. There are recurring trends of grammatical coding across many languages. It is common for languages to have purpose clauses expressed in different strategies. Purpose clause topological mapping aims to explain the universal conceptual characteristics of morphosyntactic coding in the communicative functions, as well as the cognitive-psychological mechanisms involved in the use. Purpose clauses differ from typical adverbial relations, and are a special case which, is closely related to complement clauses and some relative clauses.[1]
Purpose, as a simple grammatical infinitive, follows verbs that express or imply motion in English, according to Hubert Gibson Sharin.[2]
Notes
↑ Schmidtke-Bode, Karsten (2009). A Typology of Purpose Clauses (Typological Studies in Language). John Benjamins Publishing Company. p.229. ISBN978-90-272-0669-5.
↑ Sharin, Hubert Gibson (1903). The expression of purpose in Old English prose. Henry Holy and Company. p.9.
Further reading
Morwood, James (1999). A Latin Grammar. Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19-860199-9.
In grammar, tense is a category that expresses time reference. Tenses are usually manifested by the use of specific forms of verbs, particularly in their conjugation patterns.
Infinitive is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all languages. The name is derived from Late Latin [modus] infinitivus, a derivative of infinitus meaning "unlimited".
English grammar is the set of structural rules of the English language. This includes the structure of words, phrases, clauses, sentences, and whole texts.
French grammar is the set of rules by which the French language creates statements, questions and commands. In many respects, it is quite similar to that of the other Romance languages.
In linguistics, a gerund is any of various nonfinite verb forms in various languages; most often, but not exclusively, one that functions as a noun. In English, it has the properties of both verb and noun, such as being modifiable by an adverb and being able to take a direct object. The term "-ing form" is often used in English to refer to the gerund specifically. Traditional grammar makes a distinction within -ing forms between present participles and gerunds, a distinction that is not observed in such modern grammars as A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language and The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language.
The subjunctive is a grammatical mood, a feature of the utterance that indicates the speaker's attitude towards it. Subjunctive forms of verbs are typically used to express various states of unreality such as: wish, emotion, possibility, judgment, opinion, obligation, or action that has not yet occurred; the precise situations in which they are used vary from language to language. The subjunctive is one of the irrealis moods, which refer to what is not necessarily real. It is often contrasted with the indicative, a realis mood which is used principally to indicate that something is a statement of fact.
In grammar, a future tense is a verb form that generally marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet, but expected to happen in the future. An example of a future tense form is the French aimera, meaning "will love", derived from the verb aimer ("love"). The "future" expressed by the future tense usually means the future relative to the moment of speaking, although in contexts where relative tense is used it may mean the future relative to some other point in time under consideration.
The present tense is a grammatical tense whose principal function is to locate a situation or event in the present time. The present tense is used for actions which are happening now. In order to explain and understand present tense, it is useful to imagine time as a line on which the past tense, the present and the future tense are positioned. The term present tense is usually used in descriptions of specific languages to refer to a particular grammatical form or set of forms; these may have a variety of uses, not all of which will necessarily refer to present time. For example, in the English sentence "My train leaves tomorrow morning", the verb form leaves is said to be in the present tense, even though in this particular context it refers to an event in future time. Similarly, in the historical present, the present tense is used to narrate events that occurred in the past.
Conditional sentences are natural language sentences that express that one thing is contingent on something else, e.g. "If it rains, the picnic will be cancelled." They are so called because the impact of the main clause of the sentence is conditional on the dependent clause. A full conditional thus contains two clauses: a dependent clause called the antecedent, which expresses the condition, and a main clause called the consequent expressing the result.
In Portuguese grammar, nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and articles are moderately inflected: there are two genders and two numbers. The case system of the ancestor language, Latin, has been lost, but personal pronouns are still declined with three main types of forms: subject, object of verb, and object of preposition. Most nouns and many adjectives can take diminutive or augmentative derivational suffixes, and most adjectives can take a so-called "superlative" derivational suffix. Adjectives usually follow their respective nouns.
Traditionally, a finite verb is the form "to which number and person appertain", in other words, those inflected for number and person. Verbs were originally said to be finite if their form limited the possible person and number of the subject.
In linguistics, irrealis moods are the main set of grammatical moods that indicate that a certain situation or action is not known to have happened at the moment the speaker is talking. This contrasts with the realis moods.
The sequence of tenses is a set of grammatical rules of a particular language, governing the agreement between the tenses of verbs in related clauses or sentences.
The conditional mood is a grammatical mood used in conditional sentences to express a proposition whose validity is dependent on some condition, possibly counterfactual.
In Latin grammar, a verb of fearing is one that pertains to fear or concern. This set of verbs is grammatically notable because it inverts the sense of a following purposive clause, at least relative to the intuition of speakers of many non-Latin languages.
While the English language lacks distinct inflections for mood, an English subjunctive is recognized in most grammars. Definition and scope of the concept vary widely across the literature, but it is generally associated with the description of something other than apparent reality. Traditionally, the term is applied loosely to cases in which one might expect a subjunctive form in related languages, especially Old English and Latin. This includes conditional clauses, wishes and reported speech. Modern descriptive grammars limit the term to cases in which some grammatical marking can be observed, nevertheless coming to varying definitions.
In linguistics, indirect speech is a grammatical mechanism for reporting the content of another utterance without directly quoting it. For example, the English sentence Jill said she was coming is indirect discourse while Jill said "I'm coming" would be direct discourse. In fiction, the "utterance" might amount to an unvoiced thought that passes through a stream of consciousness, as reported by an omniscient narrator.
In linguistics, grammatical mood is a grammatical feature of verbs, used for signaling modality. That is, it is the use of verbal inflections that allow speakers to express their attitude toward what they are saying. The term is also used more broadly to describe the syntactic expression of modality – that is, the use of verb phrases that do not involve inflection of the verb itself.
The optative mood is a grammatical mood of the Ancient Greek verb, named for its use as a way to express wishes.
The subjunctive mood along with the indicative, optative, and imperative, is one of the four moods of the Ancient Greek verb. It can be used both in the meaning "should" and in the meaning "may".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
