Can it be 不倫の原因で家庭が崩壊したり？ What's the main clause and what is a subordinate
clause?
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2011-08-05T07:06:48.560
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2011-08-05T14:03:30.873
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question
grammar clause-pattern
What is the subject of this following sentence:実際問題として、不倫が原因で家庭が崩壊したり、離婚に至る例も少なくないです。
The subject is

> 不倫が原因で家庭が崩壊したり、離婚に至る例(も)

The main clause is your whole citation.

The subordinate clause is:

> 不倫が原因で家庭が崩壊したり、離婚に至る

which is an object/complement of `例`.

> 不倫が原因で

is further a subordinate clause of this clause.
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2011-08-05T07:26:06.910
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2011-08-05T07:32:59.183
2011-08-05T07:32:59.183
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answer
I break it down like this:

> 実際問題として、不倫が原因で家庭が崩壊したり、離婚に至る例も少なくないです。

  * Clause: 実際問題として

This is just setting the scene.

  * Topic phrase: 不倫が原因で家庭が崩壊したり、離婚に至る例も

    * The head of the noun phrase is 例. (Technically も is the head of the topic phrase, but we will ignore that to simplify matters.)

    * Complement clause: 不倫が原因で家庭が崩壊したり、離婚に至る

      * Clause: 不倫が原因で

      * Clause: 家庭が崩壊したり

      * Main verb phrase: 離婚に至る

  * Main predicate: 少なくないです

I think this is a nice example of a quintessentially Japanese pattern of
sentence construction: the bulk of the sentence is a large topic phrase
containing a complex relative clause modifying a noun, and the actual comment
is just a simple verb.
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2011-08-05T07:31:01.073
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2011-08-05T14:03:30.873
2011-08-05T14:03:30.873
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answer