Sunday, August 14, 2016

grammar - If an independent clause stands on its own, is it still considered a clause?

There are several definitions related to clauses in my textbook that am a little confused about, and I would greatly appreciate some clarification.



Here are the definitions:




  1. Clause. A group of words which contains a subject and a verb but is in itself not a complete sentence, but a part of a complex or compound sentence.



  2. A complex sentence is a sentence which contains at least one dependent and one independent clause.




    While we were away, our house was robbed.



  3. An independent clause is a main clause, one that is not subordinate.




In the example given in definition 2, we have a dependent clause ("While we were away") and an independent clause ("our house was robbed.") It seems to me that the independent clause can stand on its own as a sentence ("Our house was robbed.")




However, it looks like based on definition 1, this would not qualify as a clause, since it is itself a complete sentence and is not part of a complex or compound sentence.



Is it correct to say that when an independent clause stands on its own, it is not considered a clause? If so, is it considered anything besides "a sentence"?



Thanks!

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