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The Many Uses of That

He should know that you care
He should know you care

Relative clauses are certainly not the only kind of clause or clause-like structure that can serve such noun functions as subject and object--what we've been calling nominal functions. One important kind is the that-clause, where the word that functions as a complementizer heading the kind of CP (complementizer phrase) within which we placed our relative clauses when we drew phrase-structure trees. Nominals of this sort can also be called noun clauses, because they are full clauses acting in place of a noun or noun phrase. That- clauses are also called complement clauses, and some verbs regularly take such clauses as direct objects:

(1) He should know that you care.
(2) She believes that mice are in her basement.
(3) George asked that they give him a week.
(4) They hope that he will resign.
(5) Edward would prefer that the aliens take over.

That-clauses can also serve as complements of nouns, as in sentence (6), and as of adjectives, as in sentence (7). Still, the term "complement clause" may be misleading, since such that-clauses can also serve as subjects, as in sentence (8):

(6) The idea that I would come to your party is laughable.
(7) My aunt, afraid that robbers will break into her house, recently purchased an AK-47.
(8) That you would do this disappoints me seriously.

Our PS-tree for that-clauses as complements is relatively straight-forward:

That-DELETION with Complementizers. The complementizer that adds no meaning. It is only there as a marker, to help us understand that what follows is only part of the main sentence. One really needs that marker in a sentence like (8), where the that-clause is at the beginning of the sentence. That-deletion, a process we saw operating on restrictive relative clauses, can often apply, however, to that-clauses used as complements.

(9) He should know you care.
(10) The idea I would come to your party is laughable.
(11) My aunt, afraid robbers will break into her house, recently purchased an AK-47.
The underlined portions of the sentences above remains a complete clause after that-DELETION, and could stand by themselves as sentences:
(12) You care.
(13) I would come to your party.
(14) Robbers will break into her house.
In diagramming such sentences, the C portion of the CP clause is null. Otherwise the diagram will look just like that of the equivalent sentence without That-DELETION.

Recognizing When That is a Complementizer. The word that is one of those hard-working English words. In particular, students often have trouble distinguishing between the use of that as a complementizer and its use as a relative pronoun. What happens under that-DELETION can help in some cases. As we have seen, the complementizer that is simply a marker; the clause it introduces is an independent clause even without the that. The relative pronoun that, on the other hand, is part of the clause it stands in front of. Take it away and what's left of the clause. When we apply that-DELETION to (15), the main sentence in (16) still makes sense, but its underlined portion (7) has lost its subject and is not an acceptable sentence.

(15) The girl that I danced with laughed and laughed.
(16) The girl I danced with laughed and laughed.
(17) *I danced with.

Another way of distinguishing between that as a relative pronoun and that as a complementizer is that you can substitute who, whom, or whichfor the relative pronoun that (18) but not for the complementizer (19).

(18) (a) The girl that I danced with laughed and laughed.
(b) The girl whom I danced with laughed and laughed.
(19)(a) The belief that dancing is evil used to be widespread.
(b) *The belief which dancing is evil used to be widespread.

Substitution can also help one distinguish the complementizer that from the demonstrative that, either in the determiner position or as a stand-alone pronoun. In such cases, the that or the noun phrase for which it is a determiner can usually be replaced by some kind of personal pronoun:

(20)(a) I love that girl very much.
(b) I love her very much.
(21) (a) I was afraid of that.
(b) I was afraid of it.

Exercise 1: Varieties of That

Say whether the that in the following unpunctuated sentences is (A) a complementizer, (B) a demonstrative acting as a determiner, (C) a demonstrative acting as a stand-alone pronoun, or (D) a relative pronoun:
1.01 I promised Harriet that I would never tell a soul.
1.02 Alas, the promise that I gave Harriet turned out to be worthless.
1.03 Her promise that she would remain faithful was equally valueless.
1.04 I found that shocking at the time however.
1.05 Our mutual betrayals were my first clue that life was going to be rather complicated.
1.06 In kissing Harriet I had already betrayed a vow that I had made to be faithful to Marcia until she got around to noticing me.
1.07 That vow I had made only to myself but it still seemed important.
1.08 To be fair though that she ever would recognize my existence seemed increasingly.
1.09 Under the circumstances I could feel justified in not maintaining a fidelity that was known and valued only by myself.
1.10 That was my rationale for kissing Harriet.
1.11 Now the thought that I was ever quite so stupid is chastening.

How Much of This Will be on the Test?
We have concentrated on the multiple uses of that because they make it hard for some of us to recognize when that is being used as a complementizer introducing a CP (for complementizer phrase). These are nominals and they can serve as subjects and as complements (objects) of adjectives, nouns, prepositions, and verbs. The that-clause is one kind of noun clause serving such functions. Learn to recognize such clauses and the sentence functions they serve and to distinguish them from other uses of that. The application of that-DELETION to these clauses makes recognizing them all the harder.