I read Van Valin books "Exploring the Syntax-Semantic Interface" and "An Introduction to Syntax."
In these two books, I can not find clear definition about Sentence and Clause. Or maybe I did not read the whole pages.
Kindly, could you please explain to me about definition of Sentence and Clause according to its structure?
Off course, the easy explanation is about period punctuation. There is period in sentence and there is no period or maybe other punctuation for clause.
Thank you very much.
Sentences, clauses, and phrases are all different types of word groups.
These two readings from Oxford Dictionaries might help:
a) Sentences: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/sentences
b) Clauses: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/clauses
c) Phrases: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/phrases
This is also interesting and easy:
http://katherinewikoff.com/2012/10/18/whats-the-difference-between-grammar-punctuation-and-mechanics/
For Van Valin, as he has explained in various of his works, the Sentence is the highest projection (or layer) of grammar, including elements that are left-detached and right-detached, e.g. "Bill, come and wash the dishes, you lazy so-and-so." The Clause is the projection one lower than the Sentence; in other words, it equals the Sentence without the left- and right-detached elements, i.e. "Come and wash the dishes" in the preceding example. The Clause can contain a so-called pre-Core element, like wh-words in English, cf. "Why did you not close the refrigerator?". The Core is the next projection down, covering the nucleus (typically the verb in English) and its arguments (usually expressed as Subject and Object); so the Core in the last example would contain "close" (Nucleus), "you" (Argument) and "the refrigerator" (another Argument). Each projection has its own operators: Tense applies to the clause, Modality to the Core, and Aspect to the Nucleus.
All sentences are clauses, but not all clauses are sentences. A true sentence cannot be the object of an operator such as tense, mood, modality, voice, and so forth. Sentences can be conjoined.
A sentence would have SUBJECT, VERB and it must have clear meaning/idea whereas a CLAUSE also has a SUBJECT and VERB but the Idea or clear meaning can be skipped.
e.g. Bob goes to university daily.
BOB= Subject
Goes=Verb
and the sentence can stand alone, the idea is clear.so we can call it a sentence and also Independent clause,
e,g. HE IS.
HE=Subject
Is= Verb
But here the meaning is not clear or we can say there is no idea so we can not call it sentence rather we would be calling it Clause.
hence we can say that A clause can also be a sentence if it gives full sense, if not it would be simply called as clause.
I don't know if there is a marker that differentiates clauses from sentences. There us an intonational marked at the end of a sentence. Clauses don't have that. The sentence is theone that cannot be an argument of anything. There are various kinds of clauses: those with tense and all the operators retired of a simple sentential clause: John knows that Mary likes llamas. The embedded clause has these properties but it is a clause only since it is the argument of 'know'. "Johns knows that..." is a sentence as it is not an operator. Other clauses may lack a subject argument in the sentence, though it is understood: John seems to be happy. The subject argument is not inside the infinitival clause. Without that, the clause cannot be a sentence. If any operator is constrained within a clause, that clause cannot be a sentence. Hence, infinitival clauses are never sentences in English.
Re Alam Zeb, an idea must be defined, which you have not done here. You are on the right track here, But I suggest that you should avoid using semantics to make this distinction.
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