Understanding Subordinate Clauses: Concessive, Conditional, Consecutive, and Comparative

Concessive Subordinate Clauses

Subordinate adverbial concessive clauses express an objection or difficulty to the action of the verb in the main clause, but do not prevent its fulfillment. They are introduced by conjunctions and conjunctive phrases such as *even though*, *although*, etc. These clauses may have fixed structures like *whatever*, *whatever I say*, *whatever I do*.

Verb Forms

A subordinate concessive clause can be constructed with the verb in the indicative or subjunctive mood.

Features

• Complement of Circumstance (CC): The subordinate adverbial concessive clause indicates a difficulty in fulfilling the predicate expressed by the main clause.
• Complement of the Sentence (CO): It expresses an objection to the statement in the main clause.

Conditional Subordinate Clauses

Subordinate adverbial conditional clauses express a necessary condition for the fulfillment of what is stated in the main clause. The subordinate clause, introduced by a conditional link, is called the *protasis*, and the main clause is called the *apodosis*. The links that introduce these clauses are conjunctions like *if*, *when*, and *how*, and conjunctive phrases such as *in the case that*, *in the event that*, *as long as*, etc.

Roles

• CC: It is a necessary condition to ensure compliance with the predicate expressed in the main clause.
• CO: It indicates a condition that justifies the statement in the main clause.

Consecutive Subordinate Clauses

Subordinate adverbial consecutive clauses express the consequence or inference derived from the intensity of what is stated in the main clause. The link that introduces this kind of clause is the conjunction *that*, which complements an intensifier. This intensifier can be adverbs like *so* and *such*, and determiners like *such a* and each of its morphological variants.

Intensive and Non-Intensive Consecutive Clauses

• Subject: The subordinate adverbial consecutive clause, also called *intensive*, refers to an intensification of the main clause.
• Coordinated: This type of clause, also called *non-intensive*, is introduced by links like *so*, *then*, *with that*, *therefore*, etc. It is not subordinate to a main clause.

Comparative Subordinate Clauses

A subordinate adverbial comparative clause establishes a comparison between terms to express equality, inferiority, or superiority. Like consecutive clauses, they cannot be commuted by any other phrase.

Links and Structure

The links that introduce these clauses are composed of two elements:

• First element: An enhancer located in the main clause. Its functions are: updater, CC, and CADV (adverbial complement).
• Second term of comparison: Located in the subordinate clause. Depending on the level of comparison, the most used links are:
  • Equality: *So... that*
  • Superiority: *More... than*
  • Inferiority: *Less... than*