ATLAS OF LANGUAGE

AT-NAV-G04-053 · ATLAS 259

Sentence and clause

German Satz can name levels often distinguished in English as sentence and clause.

Part of the subject path Morphology and Word Formation

Why is this entry in the Atlas?

G · Foundational concept R2 · Necessary foundation

Sentence and clause are needed to distinguish utterance-level units from grammatical clauses in the profiles. The English labels require level-specific use rather than being treated as interchangeable.

Colours and admission grounds

The rectangular label identifies the entry function: F – linguistic figure or procedure; A – analytical concept; G – foundational concept; E – selected concrete case. The rounded badge indicates the admission ground: R1 – distinctive contribution; R2 – necessary foundation; R3 – justified illustrative case. This editorial rationale explains the current selection rather than claiming an undocumented original selection history.

Explanation

German Satz can name levels often distinguished in English as sentence and clause. An orthographic sentence may contain several clauses, while an utterance may be a fragment yet communicate a complete response. In the polysynthesis context, word count must not be identified with sentence structure. A complex word may express functions for which another language uses several words. Whether it constitutes a complete sentence or clause in a particular use still depends on grammatical analysis and context. The entry therefore makes its chosen definition explicit.

Movement of thought

1. Specify the analytical level. 2. Examine predication and dependencies. 3. Identify word and clause boundaries separately. 4. Compare punctuation with utterance function. 5. Apply language-specific criteria.

Scientific use case

Typological research can compare morphological complexity separately from clausal organisation.

Example

“Mira reads while Nils cooks” is one orthographic sentence containing more than one clause. “Tomorrow!” may be an intelligible answer without the same syntactic structure.

Counterexample

Many morphemes within one word do not prove that the word forms a complete sentence in every context.

Distinction

Distinguish sentence, clause, utterance, proposition and individual complex word.

Effect on thought and perception

The concept connects segmentation with the question of which unit requires explanation.

Resonance

What a full stop closes on the page may contain several grammatical rooms.

Provenance

Parallel corpus 98f0950771ae4662f291d2f15f5c51b6797f3c20ba458a68615cdb177002ea18; case-bounded source review accepted; human specialist review not claimed.

Cite this entry

Reich, Michael (Hrsg./ed.): „Sentence and clause“. Atlas der Sprache, AT-NAV-G04-053. ATLAS 259, data model 1.6.0. https://atlasoflanguage.com/concept/AT-NAV-G04-053

https://atlasoflanguage.com/concept/AT-NAV-G04-053

The address remains stable; editorial content may evolve. Editorial reading state: 2026-10-15. Include your access date for precise references.