ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the main criteria that are relevant for the classification of catenatives and complex clauses. It deals with the identity of the subject of the main clause and, in particular, whether it can be identified with the subject or object of the main cause, or neither, which involves also the status of any intervening noun phrase. The classification of the catenatives specifically takes into account the fact that one verb may occur with more than one construction or with more than one non-finite form. Verbs of attitude are at one extreme end of the catenatives, with most object-like subordinate clauses. There are some sequences that are superficially exactly like catenative constructions, but are not to be treated as complex phrases at all. There is a traditional classification of the non-finite forms into verbal nouns and verbal adjectives, a result of the view that all words must belong to one of the parts of speech.
