NOUN COMPLEMENT CLAUSES
FEATURES OF THE THAT-COMPLEMENT CLAUSE
Although they look superficially similar to relative clauses, complement clauses are in fact quite different. The that-clause which complements the noun is a content clause, not a relative clause. That is not normally omitted from complement clauses. Compare:
The news that the President had fled the country was expected. (complement clause)
The news (that) we received was worse than expected. (relative clause, admits zero)
While relative clauses can modify all types of nouns, complement clauses are dependent on a relatively small number of abstract nouns, such as fact, belief, suggestion, hope, idea, expectation, wish. They can be used non-definingly following a relative clause that post-modifies the same noun:
The rumor that was circulating, that the Chancellor was about to resign, proved to be false.
The content clause expresses the whole content of the head noun, as in: the news that the President had fled the country, his belief that he was always right.
The nominal groups taking noun complements tend to be definite and singular, as illustrated in the present examples
Head nouns that take complement clauses are mainly nominalizations which have corresponding verbs or adjectives, though a few are simple. Here is a sample:
With a corresponding verb: knowledge, belief, assumption,
claim, thought, report, hope, reply,
wish, proof, expectation, suggestion, hypothesis
With a corresponding adjective: awareness, confidence, probability,
eagerness, possibility, likelihood
simple: fact, story, idea, news, notion, rumor
The notion that the earth is flat was discredited centuries ago.
The fact that inflation is going down is a sign that our economy is improving.
The possibility that they might be beaten never crossed their minds.
The function of the that-complement clause is to report a proposition (that the earth is flat, that they might be beaten) derived from the previous discourse. The head noun conveys different types of stance, depending on the type used:
nouns of cognition and reasoning: knowledge, belief, idea, assumption, hypothesis, conclusion;
speech-act nouns, such as suggestion, proposal, claim;
personal assessment: possibility, doubt, fact, fear, hope, chance, or
the source of knowledge (evidence, rumor)
Stance in complement clauses is much less direct than in that-clauses following a verb, such as ‘he believes that . . . etc.’. Furthermore, as the head noun often takes the form of a nominalization and is typically definite, it presents the following proposition as Given information and therefore beyond dispute. These factors make the complement clause a useful tool in argumentation.
Noun complement clauses occur mainly in formal written and spoken English. They are less common in conversation. They are undoubtedly related to nominalization and grammatical metaphor in discourse and are less common in conversation.
