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What is the funcition of "that" in this sentence?

The paper notes that conditions in the last warm period in the Atlantic are broadly similar to those observed now.
— BBC News, October 7, 2012.

RegDwigнt
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Camila
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2 Answers2

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That is usually considered a conjunction when it doesn't refer back to a specific word (like relative pronouns) but introduces indirect/reported speech.

Cerberus - Reinstate Monica
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    It's a complementizer, which is a marker to introduce and identify a particular type of subject or object clause. Unlike conjunctions, complementizers only link clauses, and have no meaning, not even "and"; they're strictly part of the grammatical machinery, like dummy it and passive be. – John Lawler Jun 02 '13 at 19:45
  • @JohnLawler: Right, I have no objection to distinguishing between "that" on the one hand and "if" and "or" on the other, as long as you're not suggesting there's anything wrong with calling "that" a conjunction, as most people do. – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica Jun 03 '13 at 01:13
  • It just suggests that they behave like other conjunctions, which isn't true. People can remember more than 8 soccer teams or bones in the human body; people are really smart, actually. They can even remember more than 8 parts of speech. If someone isn't careful to keep them from finding out about them. – John Lawler Jun 03 '13 at 02:15
  • @JohnLawler: What is that supposed to mean? // (And doesn't behave the same way as or, nor does it behave the same as nor or since. One can make various distinctions between these words, at different levels, but that doesn't change the fact that that is commonly called a conjunction. Just as we can have nouns, common nouns, and proper nouns. One doesn't have to exclude the other.) – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica Jun 03 '13 at 03:12
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    And and or behave exactly the same syntactically, and nor is just a contraction. Since is subordinating, not coordinating; that's a different category completely. So are complementizers. What they are "commonly called" is really irrelevant. If children are taught to call evolution "a tool of the devil", does that obligate us somehow? – John Lawler Jun 03 '13 at 03:22
  • @JohnLawler And and or may be similar, but they don't always behave the same way. An example: you can say Peter or John has killed the mayor, but not *Peter and John has killed the mayor. My point is that the name of a part of speech can be broader than only words that behave exactly the same way in every respect (if such a pair can be found at all). So that and and can be different and still both conjunctions. As to since, yes, it is different from and, but a subordinating conjunction is still a conjunction, isn't it? That was exactly my point, how different they are. – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica Jun 03 '13 at 05:08
  • @JohnLawler: And "a tool of the devil" is not a neutral name, but a an uncommon, judgemental, and long name. Are you saying that calling that a conjunction is somehow absurd? Why? It conjoins clauses, so the name is not extremely counter-intuitive or anything (which might indeed have been a reason to try and change the language in this regard). Why can't a complementizer simply be a kind of conjunction? That would seem to be the easiest solution: the proper distinction can be made, but without confusing people by trying to change what the word normally means. – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica Jun 03 '13 at 05:08
  • I'm saying calling it a conjunction is misleading, and the definition is too vague to be useful. Calling it a conjunction is like calling a prime number odd. True, it is odd, but that's not nearly as important as the fact that it's prime; and it's not going to help you understand number theory if you never come across the concept of primes. Likewise, it's not going to help anyone understand English syntax is they never come across the concept of complementizers. Grammar needs to get past the second-grade level. And now, lest I be accused of extendedly discussing, farewell. – John Lawler Jun 03 '13 at 13:47
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Thanks to an function called restrictive relative clauses. The word "that" is used to modify an adjective, noun, and pronoun. Like i said in a example.

An example found was the early 90s song "Nuthin But a "G" Thang"

Death Row is a label that pays me.

In this theory and the lyrics part, Snoop Dogg gave the part of the lyrics, while Dr. Dre formed Death Row Records.

Back to our question The match word "that" is English, and "that" an Old Norse word came from the Norse people

user289640
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