Nominal and adverbial clauses in Maltese

Abstract

The article considers two types of subordinate sentences: nominal (complement) clauses and adverbial clauses. It touches upon the difference between a nominal clause with an explicit verb and a clause lacking an explicit verb (a predicate/copular sentence, also known as a nominal (non-verbal) sentence), before going on to explore declarative and question-word interrogative nominal clauses, yes-no interrogative and alternative interrogative nominal clauses as well as headless relative clauses. Adverbial clauses are next considered, starting with a look at simple and compound adverbial conjunctions. Various types of clauses are discussed: adverbial clauses of time, manner, purpose, result and cause/reason. The study goes on to look at conditional adverbial clauses, concessive clauses, alternative concessive adverbial clauses, comparative and equative adverbial clauses. The article concludes with a look at adverbial clauses which are rendered non-finite through nominalisation.