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What is the structure of the following sentence?

The chancellor repeatedly described the crisis as the worst the EU has ever known, a hint she was open to more drastic steps.

In particular, what do "a hint" and "she was open to more drastic steps" do here?

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    The main clause is "The chancellor repeatedly described the crisis as the worst the EU has ever known". The expression "a hint (that) she was open to more drastic steps" is a a supplementary ascriptive NP. The declarative content clause "she was open to more drastic steps" is complement of "hint".
    – BillJ
    Commented Dec 10, 2020 at 8:19

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All that the writer has done here is deliberately omit that (Conjunction Reduction) from the sentence, which is acceptable though informal. Thus, after a slight rephrasing the sentence reads—

The chancellor repeatedly described the crisis as the worst the EU has ever known, a hint [that] she was open to more drastic steps.

Grammatically, the Clause The chancellor repeatedly described the crisis as the worst the EU has ever known stands in apposition to the NP [a hint]. Further, that acts as a subordinator here connecting the appositive clause with the Clause she was open to more drastic steps.

ALTERNATIVELY, one might rephrase the sentence as—

That the chancellor repeatedly described the crisis as the worst the EU has ever known, is/was a hint that she was open to more drastic steps.

In this case, the Noun Clause [That the chancellor...] acts as the Subject of the sentence; [a hint that she was...] acts as the Subject Complement— that is, it describes the Subject.

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    Thanks. It makes sense.
    – Yufei
    Commented Dec 10, 2020 at 7:27
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    Eh? Only noun phrases, never clauses, can be appositives. "A hint that she was open to more drastic steps" is a supplementary NP. The term 'noun clause" is best avoided. The classification of finite subordinate clauses should be based on their internal form rather than spurious analogies with the parts of speech.
    – BillJ
    Commented Dec 10, 2020 at 8:13
  • Thank you, @BillJ! I was answering from the standpoint of traditional grammar. I am not well-versed with the modern approach.
    – user405662
    Commented Dec 10, 2020 at 9:03
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    May I suggest a brilliant up-to-date grammar book by the world's best grammarian?
    – BillJ
    Commented Dec 10, 2020 at 13:44
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    A Student's Introduction to English Grammar by Huddleston & Pullum link
    – BillJ
    Commented Dec 10, 2020 at 13:57

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