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why the decision on the suggested innovation is still delayed. The 
difficulty seems how we shall get in touch with the chief before the 
conference. After all those years of travelling abroad, John has be-
come what you would call a man of will and experience. 
Besides the conjunctive substitutes, the predicative clause, the 
same as other nominal clauses, can be introduced by some con-
junctions (that, whether, as if, as though). The predicative clause 
introduced by the conjunctions as if, as though has an adverbial 
force, which is easily shown by contrast: She looks as though she 
has never met him. → She behaves as though she has never met 
him. 
While considering subordinate clauses relating to the finite be in 
the principal clause, care should be taken to strictly discriminate 
between the linking and non-linking (notional) representations of 
the verb. Indeed, the linking be is naturally followed by a predica-
tive clause, while the notional be, featuring verbal semantics of ex-
istence, cannot join a predicative. Cf.: 
It's because he's weak that he needs me. This was because, he had 
just arrived. 
The cited sentences have been shown by B. A. Ilyish as examples 
of predicative clauses having a non-conventional 

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nominal-clause conjunction (Ilyish, 276-2771. However, the analy-
sis suggested by the scholar is hardly acceptable, since the intro-
ducing be in both examples does not belong to the class of links. 
The predicative clause in a minimal complex sentence regularly 
expresses its rheme. Therefore there is an essential informative dif-
ference between the two functional uses of a categorially similar 
nominal clause: that of the predicative and that of the subject. Cf.: 
The impression is that he is quite competent. That he is quite 
competent is the impression. 
The second sentence (of an occasional status, with a sentence-
stress on the link-verb), as different from the first, suggests an im-
plication of a situational antithesis: the impression may be called in 
question, or it may be contrasted against another trait of the person 
not so agreeable as the one mentioned, etc. 
The same holds true of complex sentences featuring subordinate 
clauses in both subject and predicative positions. Cf.: 
How she gets there is what's troubling me (→ I am troubled). 
What's troubling me is how she gets there (→ How is she to get 
there?). 
The peculiar structure of this type of sentence, where two nominal 
clauses are connected by a short link making up all the outer com-
position of the principal clause, suggests the scheme of a balance. 
For the sake of convenient terminological discrimination, the sen-
tence may be so called — a "complex balance". 
The third type of clauses considered under the heading of clauses 
of primary nominal positions are object clauses. 
The object clause denotes an object-situation of the process ex-
pressed by the verbal constituent of the principal clause. 
The object position is a strong substantive position in the sentence. 
In terms of clausal relations it means that the substantivising force 
of the genuine object-clause derivation is a strongly pronounced 
nominal clause-type derivation. This is revealed, in particular, by 
the fact that object clauses can be introduced not only non-
prepositionally, but also, if not so freely, prepositionally. Cf.; 

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They will accept with grace whatever he may offer. She stared at 
what seemed a faded photo of Uncle Jo taken half a century before. 
I am simply puzzled by what you are telling me about the Car 
fairs. 
On the other hand, the semantic content of the object clause dis-
criminates three types of backgrounds: first, an immediately sub-
stantive background; second, an adverbial background; third, an 
uncharacterised background of general event. This differentiation 
depends on the functional status of the clause-connector, that is on 
the sentence-part role it performs in the clause. Cf.: 
We couldn't decide whom we should address. The friends couldn't 
decide where they should spend their vacation. 
The object clause in the first of the cited sentences is of a substan-
tive background (We should address — whom), whereas the object 
clause in the second sentence is of adverbial-local background 
(They should spend their vacation — where). 
The plot of the novel centred on what might be called a far-
fetched, artificial situation. The conversation centred on why that 
clearly formulated provision of international law had been vio-
lated. 
The first object clause in the above two sentences is of substantive 
background, while the second one is of an adverbial-causal back-
ground. 
Object clauses of general event background are introduced by con-
junctions: Now he could prove that the many years he had spent 
away from home had not been in vain. 
The considered background features of subordinate clauses, cer-
tainly, refer to their inner status and therefore concern all the 
nominal clauses, not only object ones. But with object clauses they 
are of especial contrastive prominence, which is due to immediate 
dependence of the object clause on the valency of the introducing 
(subordinating) verb. 
An extremely important set of clause-types usually included into 
the vast system of object clauses is formed by clauses presenting 
chunks of speech and mental-activity processes. These clauses are 
introduced by the verbs of speech and mental activity (Lat. "verba 
sentiendi et declarandi"), whose contextual content they actually 
expose. Cf.: 

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Who says the yacht hasn't been properly prepared for the voyage? 
She wondered why on earth she was worrying so much, when ob-
viously the time had come to end the incident and put it out of 
mind. 
The two sentences render by their subordinate clauses speech of 
the non-author (non-agent) plane: in the first one actual words of 
some third person are cited, in the second one a stream of thought 
is presented which is another form of the existence of speech (i. e. 
inner speech). The chunk of talk rendered by this kind of presenta-
tion may not necessarily be actually pronounced or mentally pro-
duced by a denoted person; it may only be suggested or imagined 
by the speaker; still, even in the latter case we are faced by lin-
gually (grammatically) the same kind of non-author speech-
featuring complex construction. Cf.: Do you mean to say that the 
story has a moral? 
Not all the clauses introduced by the verbs in question belong to 
this type. In principle, these clauses are divided into the ones ex-
posing the content of a mental action (as shown above) and the 
ones describing the content of a mental action, such as the follow-
ing: You may tell me whatever you like. Will you tell me what the 
matter is? 
The object clauses in the cited sentences, as different from the 
foregoing examples, describe the information allowed by the 
speaker-author (the first sentence) or wanted by the speaker-author 
(the second sentence), thereby not differing much from non-
speech-rendering clauses. As for the speech-rendering object 
clauses, they are quite special, and it is by right that, as a rule, they 
are treated in grammar books under the separate heading of "rules 
of reported speech". Due to their semantic nature, they may be re-
ferred to as "reportive" clauses, and the same term will helpfully 
apply to the corresponding sentences as wholes. Indeed, it is in re-
portive sentences that the principal clause is more often than not 
reduced to an introductory phrase akin to a parenthesis of addition-
ally specifying semantics, so that the formally subordinate clause 
practically absorbs all the essential information rendered by the 
sentence. Cf.: 
Wainright said that Eastin would periodically report to him. → Pe-
riodically, Wainright said, Eastin would report to him (A. Hailey), 

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