complementizer
1
9.9
- noun
- /ˈkɒmplɪmɛnˌtaɪzər/
- Specialized
- So the abbreviation for complementizer is C, and the phrase is the sister of verbs like think and wonder is a complementizer phrase, a CP.
Examples
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In the sentence 'I believe that she is coming,' the word that acts as a complementizer introducing the complement clause.
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WHICH and O would be ungrammatical here, and so would WHEN, but the meaning of THAT is much closer to that of WHEN, which is a complementizer, than to that of the relative pronouns.
Blog text (7) -
Suppose that in the Romance languages, the sentence-final over element is identified with the complementizer que.
Academic text (2006) -
Which brings us back to 1c, where the focus is a duration adjunct, and where SINCE is a complementizer (which accounts for the preposition FOR not being found in the split construction, since it fulfills a parallel semantic function in the adjunct in 1a).
Blog text (7) -
The sentence 'If you finish your homework, we can go out' demonstrates the use of if as a complementizer to introduce the condition.
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In English grammar, a complementizer often appears before clauses to clarify the relationship between ideas, such as in 'I knew that it was true.'
Synonyms
1
5.6
A word that introduces a clause that cannot stand alone, like because or although
Surface Forms
Morphology
complementizer = complement (opaque) = complement + izer
The term is a technical grammatical label formed from 'complement' + '-izer'; a typical learner will not be able to infer the precise linguistic meaning ('word that introduces a complement clause') from the components.
Etymology
The word complementizer comes from complement, which means 'something that completes' or 'fills out'. So a complementizer is a small word like 'that' or 'if' that introduces a part of a sentence that completes the meaning.