Representing thinking, perceiving, liking and desiring

Using verb patterns to represent perceptions

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Verb followed by a that clause

The verbs in this category can be followed by a that clause which typically represents the fact which is sensed, noticed, discovered, etc:

The police subsequently discovered that she had had numerous telephone conversations with him and paid him large sums of money under a false name through a Swiss bank account. (Microconcord Corpus A)

Here is a list of verbs which can be followed by a that clause:

discover  learn  perceive  feel note see find notice sense hear observe

Note that the main difference between events and facts is that events are directly perceived while facts are not directly perceived:

Event - (directly perceived)

I saw him turn and point his gun in my direction. (SCMP 11/9/92)

Fact - (not directly perceived)

I saw that he had turned and was now pointing his gun in my direction.

Note also the difference in time, and the need for the past perfect in the second example.

Introduction
Participants associated with perception verbs
Grammatical patterns associated with the phenomenon
Verb followed by a noun group
Verb followed by a that clause
Verb followed by an object and the bare infinitive
Verb followed by an object and the -ing form
Verb followed by a wh-clause
Verb followed by an if/whether clause
Verb followed by an object and an adjective/-ed participle clause
Ellipsis with perception verbs
Present simple v present continuous tense
A note on the order of participants