A dependent clause that functions as a noun (that is, as a subject, object, or complement) within a sentence. Also known as a nominal clause.
Two common types of noun clause in English are that-clauses and wh-clauses:
- that-clause: I believe that everything happens for a reason.
- wh-clause: How do I know what I think, until I see what I say?
Examples and Observations:
- "When Mrs. Frederick C. Little's second son arrived, everybody noticed that he was not much bigger than a mouse."
(E.B. White, Stuart Little, 1945) - "I know that there are things that never have been funny, and never will be. And I know that ridicule may be a shield, but it is not a weapon."
(Dorothy Parker) - "I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright."
(Henry David Thoreau) - "Whoever was the person behind Stonehenge was one dickens of a motivator, I'll tell you that."
(Bill Bryson, Notes From a Small Island. Doubleday, 1995) - "How we remember, what we remember, and why we remember form the most personal map of our individuality."
(Christina Baldwin) - "This is the story of what a Woman's patience can endure, and of what a Man's resolution can achieve."
(Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White, 1859) - "That dogs, low-comedy confederates of small children and ragged
bachelors, should have turned into an emblem of having made it to the
middle class--like the hibachi, like golf clubs and a second car--seems at the very least incongruous."
(Edward Hoagland, "Dogs, and the Tug of Life") - "All sentences, then, are clauses, but not all clauses are sentences. In the following sentences, for example, the direct object slot contains a clause rather than a noun phrase. These are examples of nominal clauses (sometimes called 'noun clauses'):
- I know that the students studied their assignment.
- I wonder what is making Tracy so unhappy.
(Martha Kolln and Robert Funk, Understanding English Grammar, 5th ed., Allyn and Bacon, 1998) - "I have run,
I have crawled,
I have scaled these city walls,
These city walls
Only to be with you,
Only to be with you.
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for."
(written and performed by U2, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," The Joshua Tree, 1987)
Also Known As: nominal clause
Working With Clauses
- Subordination with Adjective Clauses
- Sentence Building with Adjective Clauses
- Building Sentences with Adverb Clauses
Functions of a Noun
Types of Objects
http://grammar.about.com/od/mo/g/nounclauseterm.htm
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