Clausal

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Pertaining to the part of a sentence that expresses a complete thought and often includes a subject and verb, thus serving a specific grammatical role in conveying meaning
2. Relating to the structural components of a sentence that contain a subject-verb relationship, functioning within a larger context to convey ideas
3. Relating to the segments of a sentence that express an idea through a combination of a subject and verb, thereby fulfilling a grammatical function in conveying meaning

Etymology: "Clausal" is a plain English formation: the noun "clause" with the adjective-forming suffix "-al" added to it, meaning "of or relating to a clause." The noun "clause" came into English from Old French, which had taken it from Medieval Latin "clausula," a diminutive of Latin "claudere," "to close" or "to shut." A clause, in other words, is literally a little closed-off unit of thought, a self-contained stretch of language with its own subject and verb. The suffix "-al" has a longer pedigree. It comes from Latin "-alis," which was used to make adjectives from nouns, and it passed through Old French "-al" and "-el" into Middle English before settling into the form English speakers use today. Hundreds of English adjectives, from "national" to "musical," were built the same way, so "clausal" follows a very ordinary pattern.