Clause in sentence
John found it surprising that Wayne played the tuba.
That Wayne played the tuba is the clause, but what kind is it? I am completely stuck on this and can't figure it out.
This sentence has been done things to.
There are actually three clauses here, with 3 predicates: find, (be) surprising, and play.
Find takes an infinitive object complement, and (be) surprising takes a tensed subject that-clause.
John found [[that Wayne played the tuba] to be surprising]
==> Extraposition
John found [it to be surprising [that Wayne played the tuba]]
==> to be-Deletion
John found it surprising [that Wayne played the tuba].
That Wayne played the tuba is the subject complement clause of to be surprising.
The dummy subject it gets inserted by Extraposition, and then to be-Deletion does the rest.
To answer the question, that Wayne played the tuba is all of the following:
- a subordinate clause (since it's not the main clause)
- a subject clause (since it's the subject of (be) surprising)
- a noun clause (since it's a subject, it acts as a noun)
- a tensed clause (since it has a tensed main verb played)
- a that-clause (since it uses the tensed clause complementizer that)
- an extraposed clause (since it was moved by Extraposition)
It is not, however, an adverbial clause of any kind.