different between clause vs argument

English

Etymology

From Middle English clause, claus, borrowed from Old French clause, from Medieval Latin clausa (Latin diminutive clausula (“close, end; a clause, close of a period”)), from Latin clausus, past participle of claudere (“to shut, close”). See close.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kl??z/
• Rhymes: -??z
• Homophone: claws

Noun

clause (plural clauses)

1. (grammar) A verb, its necessary grammatical arguments, and any adjuncts affecting them.
2. (grammar) A verb along with its subject and their modifiers. If a clause provides a complete thought on its own, then it is an independent (superordinate) clause; otherwise, it is (subordinate) dependent.

   • However, Coordination facts seem to undermine this hasty conclusion: thus, consider the following:
     (43)      [Your sister could go to College], but [would she get a degree?]
     The second (italicised) conjunct is a Clause containing an inverted Auxiliary, would. Given our earlier assumptions that inverted Auxiliaries are in C, and that C is a constituent of S-bar, it follows that the italicised Clause in (43) must be an S-bar. But our familiar constraint on Coordination tells us that only constituents belonging to the same Category can be conjoined. Since the second Clause in (43) is clearly an S-bar, then it follows that the first Clause must also be an S-bar — one in which the C(omplementiser) position has been left empty.

3. (law) A separate part of a contract, a will or another legal document.

Usage notes

In “When it got dark, they went back into the house”, “When it got dark” is a dependent clause within the complete sentence. The independent clause “they went back into the house” could stand alone as a sentence, whereas the dependent clause could not.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

• close

Translations

Verb

clause (third-person singular simple present clauses, present participle clausing, simple past and past participle claused)

1. (transitive, shipping) To amend (a bill of lading or similar document).

Further reading

• clause in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• clause in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Caelus, secula

French

Etymology

From Old French clause, from Medieval Latin clausa.

Noun

clause f (plural clauses)

1. clause

Latin

Participle

clause

1. vocative masculine singular of clausus

Middle English

Alternative forms

• clawse, claus

Etymology

From Old French clause, from Medieval Latin clausa.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?klau?z(?)/

Noun

clause (plural clauses)

1. sentence, clause
2. statement, line (of a text)
3. writing, text, document, letter
4. A section or portion of a text; a part of a series of quotes
5. (law) A clause, term, or consideration; a section in a legal document.

Descendants

• English: clause

References

• “clause, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-23.

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /????j?m?nt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /????j?m?nt/, /-?ju-/, /-?j?-/
• Hyphenation: ar?gu?ment

Etymology 1

From Middle English argument, from Anglo-Norman and Old French arguement, from Latin arg?mentum (“argument (for a position); evidence, proof; point, theme; thesis, topic; plot (in theatre)”), from arguere + -mentum (suffix indicating the instrument, medium, or result of something). Arguere is the present active infinitive of argu? (“to argue, assert, declare; to make clear, prove, show; to accuse, charge with, reprove; to blame, censure; to denounce as false”), either ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h?er?- (“silver, white; glittering”), or from Hittite [script needed] (arkuw?(i)-, “to make a plea, state one’s case”). The English word is analysable as argue +? -ment.

Noun

argument (countable and uncountable, plural arguments)

1. (countable, also figuratively) A fact or statement used to support a proposition; a reason.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:argument

   1. (logic, philosophy) A series of propositions organized so that the final proposition is a conclusion which is intended to follow logically from the preceding propositions, which function as premises.
2. (countable) A process of reasoning; argumentation.
3. (countable) An abstract or summary, as of the contents of a book, chapter, or poem; (figuratively) the contents themselves.
4. (countable) A verbal dispute; a quarrel.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:dispute
6. (countable, linguistics) Any of the phrases that bears a syntactic connection to the verb of a clause.
7. (countable, mathematics)
   1. The independent variable of a function.
   2. The phase of a complex number.
   3. (also astronomy) A quantity on which the calculation of another quantity depends.

8. (countable, programming)
   1. A value, or a reference to a value, passed to a function.

      Synonyms: actual argument, passed parameter

   2. A parameter at a function call; an actual parameter, as opposed to a formal parameter.
9. (countable, obsolete)
   1. A matter in question; a business in hand.
   2. The subject matter of an artistic representation, discourse, or writing; a theme or topic.
10. (uncountable, archaic) Evidence, proof; (countable) an item of such evidence or proof.

Usage notes

• Adjectives often used with argument: valid, invalid, correct, incorrect, right, wrong, strong, weak, convincing, unconvincing, conclusive, inconclusive, fallacious, simple, straightforward, inductive, deductive, logical, illogical, absurd, specious, flawed.
• (parameter at a function call): some authors regard the use of argument to mean “formal parameter” to be imprecise, preferring that argument be used to refer only to the value that is used to instantiate the parameter at runtime, while parameter refers only to the name in the function definition that will be instantiated.

Alternative forms

• arguement (obsolete)

Meronyms

• (logic): conclusion, premise, proposition

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Etymology 2

The obsolete senses are derived from Middle English argumenten (“to argue, discuss; to consider, reflect”), from Old French argumenter (“to argue”), from Latin arg?ment?r?, the present active infinitive of arg?mentor (“to adduce arguments or proof, prove, reason; to adduce (something) as argument or proof; to conclude”), from arg?mentum (“argument (for a position); evidence, proof; point, theme; thesis, topic; plot (in theatre)”) (see further at etymology 1) +? -or (the first-person singular present passive indicative of -? (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs)).

The current sense is derived from the noun.

Verb

argument (third-person singular simple present arguments, present participle argumenting, simple past and past participle argumented)

1. (intransitive, obsolete, now nonstandard, non-native speakers' English) To put forward as an argument; to argue.
2. (intransitive, obsolete) To adduce evidence, to provide proof.

Conjugation

References

Further reading

• argument on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• argument of a function on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• argument (literature) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• argument (linguistics) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• argument (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• argument in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• argument in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin arg?mentum.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic) IPA^(key): /??.?u?ment/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /?r.?u?men/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /a?.?u?ment/

Noun

argument m (plural arguments)

1. argument (reason)
2. (computing) argument
3. plot, storyline
4. (mathematics) argument
5. (grammar) argument

Related terms

• argumentar

Further reading

• “argument” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “argument” in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana.
• “argument” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “argument” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?ar?um?nt]

Noun

argument m

1. argument (fact or statement used to support a proposition)

Declension

Derived terms

• pseudoargument
• protiargument

Related terms

• argumentace

See also

• parametr m

Further reading

• argument in P?íru?ní slovník jazyka ?eského, 1935–1957
• argument in Slovník spisovného jazyka ?eského, 1960–1971, 1989

Danish

Noun

argument n (singular definite argumentet, plural indefinite argumenter)

1. argument

Declension

Related terms

• argumentere

References

• “argument” in Den Danske Ordbog

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin arg?mentum, from argu? (“prove, argue”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a?.?y.m??/

Noun

argument m (plural arguments)

1. argument

2. (grammar) argument of a verb, phrase syntactically connected to a verb (object and subject)

Derived terms

• argumentaire
• argumenter
  • argumentation

Related terms

• arguer

See also

• (grammar): valence

Further reading

• “argument” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Latin argumentum

Noun

argument n (definite singular argumentet, indefinite plural argument or argumenter, definite plural argumenta or argumentene)

1. argument

Related terms

• argumentere
• argumentasjon

References

• “argument” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Latin argumentum

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?r???m?nt/

Noun

argument n (definite singular argumentet, indefinite plural argument, definite plural argumenta)

1. argument

Related terms

• argumentasjon

References

• “argument” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Polish

Etymology

From Latin arg?mentum

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ar??u.m?nt/

Noun

argument m inan

1. point, argument (fact or statement used to support a proposition)
2. (philosophy, logic, mathematics, programming) argument

Declension

Synonyms

• uzasadnienie, racja, pod?o?e, podstawa, przes?anka, powód,
• dowód, operand, parametr

Related terms

• argumentacja

Further reading

• argument in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Romanian

Etymology

From French argument, from Latin argumentum.

Noun

argument n (plural argumente)

1. argument

Declension

Serbo-Croatian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ar??ment/
• Hyphenation: ar?gu?ment

Noun

argùment m (Cyrillic spelling ?????????)

1. argument (fact or statement used to support a proposition)
2. (philosophy, logic, mathematics, programming) argument

Declension

Swedish

Pronunciation

Noun

argument n

1. an argument supporting a stance
2. (mathematics) an argument; an independent variable passed to a function
3. (programming) an argument; a variable passed to a function

Declension