main clause
1
3.2
- noun
- /meɪn klɔːz/
- Specialized
:
oración principal
- When writing a compound sentence, you connect two main clauses with a conjunction.
- main clause and subordinate
- subject of the main clause
Examples
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Mean length of terminable units in words (MLTU). A terminable unit (T-Unit) is a main clause plus its subordinated clauses (Hunt, 1965).
Academic text (2012) -
A T-unit consists of a main clause (MC) and any subordinate clauses (SCs) that are attached to it (Hunt, 1970).
Academic text (2012) -
Further differences come to light when, on the syntactic level of sentences about limited states of knowledge, the subject of the main clause is introduced.
Academic text (2004) -
Past perfect tense in the main clause, OK, no in the if clause, past perfectness in the in the if clause.
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A strictly formal linguistic analysis would not be able to recognize the second main clause of this line as metaphorical.
Academic text (2002) -
Its strength is achieved by deferring the last main clause for several lines and then placing its powerful main verb last of all in the sequence.
Academic text (2003) -
These sentence modifiers often follow the main clause and can be referred to as right-branching (Nash) or trailing (Leech and Short).
Academic text (2005) -
Essentially, a coordinating conjunction can join main clauses by a comma, whereas conjunctive adverbs can't.
Blog text (19) -
The language samples were segmented in T-units, which are main clauses with their subordinate clauses (Hunt, 1965).
Academic text (2012) -
The sentence starts with a dependent clause and ends with a complete main clause.
Synonyms
1
4.0
A part of a sentence that can stand alone and give a complete idea
How Nested
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a clause that is primary and can stand alone' is directly and transparently composed from 'main' (primary, chief) + 'clause' (a unit with subject and predicate). This adjectival + noun grammatical labeling is cross-linguistically common and follows standard English compounding, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should understand the term.
Etymology
The term main clause comes from seeing a sentence as a house: the main room is the most important part that can stand by itself, while other parts are like smaller rooms. A clause is a group of words with a subject and verb, so a main clause is the part that can 'stand alone' as a 'complete sentence'.