Hello.
I would like to ask about the usage of "experience" as a transitive verb.
I understand that some verbs can be followed by that-clauses.
How about "experience"? Let me take the following two examples.
(1) I want you to experience that anyone can be deceived in their long life.
(2) I experienced that I saw something like a ghost yesterday.
Is "experience" used correctly in the above two sentences?
I would appreciate your answers.
There are two types of that clauses:
that-noun clause and
that-adjective clause. A
that-noun clause functions like a noun, meaning that it can represent the direct object of a verb. A
that-adjective clause modifies a noun. The difference between the two is that in a noun clause, the word "that" plays no function; it simply introduces the noun clause (in linguistics, this "that" is called a
complementizer; traditionalg grammar calls it a "conjunction"). In (1), "that" introduces a noun clause/direct object, and "that" plays no role in the noun clause, so everything is fine. The problem with (2) is that it looks as if "that" is the complement of "saw"
inside the clause (
that I saw ~ I saw that), as it would in a
that-adjective clause, but the that-clause in (2) really is a noun clause functioning as a direct object. Here's an adjective clause, with the noun experience:
The experience that I had changed me (
that I had = I had
that = I had
the experience).
In "I experienced what I thought was something like a ghost yesterday,"
what I thought ... is a free relative clause. A relative clause is an adjective clause, but a "
free relative clause" has no antecedent, which means that the free relative clause
becomes a noun clause; that's how "what I thought was something like a ghost yesterday" functions like the direct object of the verb "experienced."
