TWO WAYS OF DESCRIBING CLAUSES IN ENGLISH ARE DISCUSSED IN THIS PAPER. THE FIRST, TERMED THE "FEW-IC'S" APPROACH, IS A SEGMENTATION OF THE CLAUSE INTO A SMALL NUMBER OF IMMEDIATE CONSTITUENTS WHICH REQUIRE A LARGE NUMBER OF FURTHER SEGMENTATIONS BEFORE THE ULTIMATE CONSTITUENTS ARE REACHED. THE SECOND, "MANY-IC'S" APPROACH, IS A SEGMENTATION INTO A LARGE NUMBER OF IMMEDIATE CONSTITUENTS, EACH OF WHICH THEN REQUIRES A SMALL NUMBER OF SEGMENTATIONS BEFORE THE ULTIMATE CONSTITUENTS ARE REACHED. THE AIM OF THIS PAPER IS TO POINT OUT SOME DISADVANTAGES OF DESCRIBING THE ENGLISH CLAUSE ON THE BASIS OF A FEW-IC'S APPROACH (THE EXTRA STRUCTURE BEING NOT NECESSARY, OR SUFFICIENT). ON THE OTHER HAND, IN ADOPTING THE SIMPLER, MANY-IC'S ANALYSIS, THESE SYNTAGMATIC RELATIONS MUST BE SHOWN AS AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE DESCRIPTION OF THE WHOLE LANGUAGE. THE DISCUSSION FALLS INTO SIX SECTIONS--(1) THE NATURE OF THE RELATIONS AMONG THE CONSTITUENTS OF A CLAUSE, (2) THE USE OF A FEW-IC'S ANALYSIS TO DESCRIBE THESE RELATIONS, (3) THE DEFINITION OF "GRAMMATICAL FUNCTION," (4) A FRAGMENT OF A SYSTEMIC DESCRIPTION OF THE ENGLISH CLAUSE, (5) THE DEFINITION OF "DEPENDENCE" IN VIEW OF (4) AND THE POSSIBLE METHODS OF SHOWING THE DEPENDENCE OF ONE CONSTITUENT ON ANOTHER, AND (6) THE ROLE OF LAYERING IN A SYSTEMIC GRAMMAR. THIS PAPER APPEARS IN "LINGUA," VOL. 18, NO. 3, 1967. (AM)