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 Finding Clauses
Practice Exercise # 7

Directions:  [Work through the text one sentence at a time.]
1. First place parentheses ( ) around every prepositional phrase.
2. Underline every subject once, every finite verb twice, and label complements (PA, PN, IO or DO). [Reminder: A predicate adjective describes the subject; a predicate noun "equals" the subject; an indirect object is someone or thing "to" or "for" whom (or what) the action of the verb is performed. Any other complement has to be a direct object.]
 

The text is:
      Angie and her four-year old brother, Joel, were sitting together in church. Joel giggled, sang and talked out loud. Finally, his big sister had had enough. "You're not supposed to talk out loud in church." "Why? Who's going to stop me?" Joel asked. Angie pointed to the back of the church and said, "See those two men standing by the door? They're hushers."
Note: In creating these pages, I cannot create a double underline. I will therefore underline both subjects and finite verbs once, but subjects will be in green; finite verbs in blue.
Work your way through the text one sentence at a time.

Sentence # 1

The first sentence is:
       Angie and her four-year old brother, Joel, were sitting together (in church).
Review Prepositional Phrases Review S/V/C patterns.

Because there is only one S/V/C pattern, all we need to do is put a line at the end of the sentence. The sentence is the main clause.
       Angie and her four-year old brother, Joel, were sitting together (in church)./

Sentence # 2

The second sentence is:
Joelgiggled, sang and talked out loud.
Review Prepositional Phrases Review S/V/C patterns.

The three finite verbs are all in the sane pattern, so here again there is only one clause.
Joelgiggled, sang and talked out loud./

Sentence # 3

The third sentence is:
Finally, his big sisterhad hadenough(DO).
Review Prepositional Phrases Review S/V/C patterns.

One S/V/C pattern again results in one main clause.
Finally, his big sisterhad hadenough(DO)./

Sentence # 4

The fourth sentence is:
"You're not supposedto talk(DO) out loud (in church)."
Review Prepositional Phrases Review S/V/C patterns.

One S/V/C pattern  results in one main clause.
"You're not supposedto talk(DO) out loud (in church)."/

Sentence # 5

The fifth sentence is:
"Why? Who's going to stopme(DO)?" Joelasked.
Review Prepositional Phrases Review S/V/C patterns.

If you have been doing these exercises in order, you have already seen this in the third sentence of exercise six. [Go there to see an explanation.] KISS allows at least two responses:
[DO of "asked""Why? Who's going to stopme(DO)?"]Joelasked. /
or
"Why? Who's going to stopme(DO)?"[InterjectionJoelasked.] /
Because the question mark is a clause-closing punctuation mark, I would not mark it wrong if someone put a vertical line after the "Why?" [Note that it means "why are you not supposed to talk in church?"]
"Why?/[DO of "asked"Who's going to stop me(DO)?"] Joelasked. /
or
"Why?/Who's going to stopme(DO)?" [InterjectionJoelasked.] /

Sentence # 6

The sixth sentence is:
Angiepointed(to the back) (of the church) and said, "See those two men(DO) standing (by the door)? They'rehushers(PN)."
Review Prepositional Phrases Review S/V/C patterns.

I have counted this as a "sentence" for a specific reason.  Inside the quotation marks, we have two main clauses:
"See those two men(DO) standing (by the door)?/ They're hushers (PN)."/
The quoted sentences, however, both chunk as direct objects to "said." Thus we could consider them both as subordinate clauses, and mark this:
Angiepointed(to the back) (of the church) and said, "[DO of "said"See those two men(DO) standing (by the door)?][DO of "said" They're hushers(PN).]" /
Theoretically, however, we could have a quotation of a hundred sentences, all chunking back to a word like "said." Although I can not consider the previous analysis as incorrect, I prefer to consider the second "main" clause in the quoted material as a separate main clause:
Angiepointed(to the back) (of the church) and said, "[DO of "said"See those two men(DO) standing (by the door)?]/ They're hushers (PN)." /
I have, by the way, never seen a grammar textbook deal with a problem like this. But then I don't spend much time reading grammar textbooks. :)