Finite and non finite clauses

What is the structure of the following sentence?

Deterred by the lack of future job prospects,

many Nigerian secondary school students avoid science subjects.

The sentence contains two clauses, and what follows the comma is the main clause. But what about the clause preceding the comma, ‘Deterred… prospects’? The explanation requires some understanding of the difference between finite and non-finite clauses.

So far you have only learned about finite clauses. A finite clause is one that contains a finite verb form, which in turn means one that can function as the predicate of a sentence.

For example:

She wrote a message

She was writing a message.

Here wrote and was writing are finite verb forms and they appear in meaningful sentences. Non-finite verb forms are ones that can not, just by themselves function as predicates. For the verb write the non-finite forms are infinitives (to write, to have written) and the participles writing and written. When we say that they cannot function as predicates, we mean that, for example, She to write or She writing or She written a message is not acceptable as a sentence, and really has no meaning.

However, non-finite forms CAN appear in dependent clauses. In addition to one example that is given at the beginning of this section, look at the following:

To speak many languages is a great asset

They accused him of having stolen it

Delivered by the Vice-principal, the welcome address was much appreciated.

In the first sentence, ‘To speak many languages‘ is a non-finite noun clause, functioning as the subject of ‘is‘, in the second sentence, ‘having stolen it‘ is a non-finite clause, functioning as the object (or complement) of the preposition ‘of ‘, in the third sentence, ‘Delivered by the Vice-principal’ is a non-finite adjectival clause that describes or qualifies ‘the welcome speech’ in the main clause.

Let us look at another example more carefully:

Seeing the bus in front of him, Samuel applied the brakes

The non-finite clause is ‘Seeing …. him’. What type of clause is it? It surely gives the reason why Samuel applied the brakes; hence it is an adverbial clause of reason.

Analysing non-finite clauses is harder than analysing finite clauses because a finite clause has a word at the beginning that serves as a clue to the type it is: e.g. who indicates an adjectival clause of condition. Seeing, however, could indicate an adverbial clause of reason, as here; but sometimes it can indicate an adverbial clause of time. How will you know? You have to exercise your own judgement.

Infinitive Forms

One of the non-finite is ‘ the infinitive’. An infinitive form sometimes begin with to, sometimes without it.

Various forms of infinitives can be used as follows

1. After certain other verbs (usually with to) and some nouns and adjectives:

Human beings like to understand the world around them

The dust laden air made me to cough

The technology of today makes books easy to produce

It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

2. After modal verbs:

We will go

They must have gone

He may have been calling you

3. As a subject:

To err is human, to forgive is divine

Formation of INFINITIVES and PARTICIPLES

Skill Focus: Avoiding Common errors

There are many common errors that you need to be aware of and avoid if possible, both in speech and writing.

Here are a few of them:

Of recent. The right expression is ‘of late‘, or ‘lately‘, or ‘recently‘.

No any. You can only say ‘no‘ or ‘not any‘, e.g. ‘I have no money‘, ‘I haven’t any money‘, NOT ‘I have no any money‘.

Wrong use of of -d or -ed. ‘Did he arrived late?’ is wrong : Arrive does not need -d after it because it has the auxiliary did before it.

Omission of -d or -ed. For example: ‘The road is close for repairs‘ or ‘Their plans have reached an advance stage‘. The right verb (participial) forms here are closed and advanced.

More better, more superior. The words ‘better‘ and ‘superior‘ cannot be used with ‘more‘ because they already mean ‘more than …‘

Occassion. Only one ‘s‘ is correct not double ‘ss‘.

Try to read the book common errors in English by David Jowitt and Silas Nnamonu.

Exercise

1. What do you understand by a finite clause?
2. Instruction: Join the following pairs of sentences together making one of them a non-finite clause. Some words will need altering but make minimal changes. (a) say what type of non-finite dependent clause you have used in each sentence. b) say what the function of that clause is.
3. I needed more money. I went to the bank.
4. She started with a capital of €50,000. Now she has a turn over of millions
5. The man was overwhelmed by numerous debts. He shot himself
6. The dog heard voices. It began barking
7. Abuja is situated in a very central position. It is accessible from all parts of Nigeria
8. Fill in the empty spaces using options from the words listed in the box below-

Genetics is a biological (1) ___ that is concerned with the study of heredity and variation. The law of (2) ___ states that it is the (3) ___ of the offspring to possess (4) ___ similar to either or both its parents. This is because the (5) ____ organism (6) ____ itself in the offspring by causing the latter to organise in the same definite way. It is because of heredity that individuals related by (7) ___ resemble one another. The law of variation states that there is a tendency for the (8) ___ to be different from their ancestors and from one another. It is because of variation that differences exist between members of the same family and individuals of the same (9) ___. These (10) ___ and variations can be transmitted from one (11) ___ to another. Genetics is the study of the nature of these similarities and variations, what causes them and what (12) ___ from them.