content clause

content clause (plural content clauses)

1. (grammar) A subordinate clause that expresses a full sentence's worth of meaning by itself^[1] and often functions like a noun phrase within a main clause (for example, often like a subject or object, but not always).

   Hypernyms: subordinate clause, dependent clause, embedded clause < clause

   Coordinate terms: adverbial clause, relative clause

   Near-synonyms: nominal clause, noun clause

   • 2024, Geoffrey K. Pullum, The Truth About English Grammar, Polity Press, →ISBN, page 91:

     The bracketed parts [of the examples given] are like main clauses in some ways, but not in every way: that vaccines work would not be allowed as a main clause; nor would I ever saw it. I’ll call them content clauses from now on, because they express full sentence-like content of their own. […] Traditional grammars tend to call content clauses “noun clauses” because of a feeling that content clauses can serve as subjects and objects of verbs, just like nouns (by which they mean NPs [noun phrases]). It’s not a good parallel (verbs like Think and Inquire take content-clause complements but not NP complements), and I won’t be using the term “noun clause” in this book.