Let's look at a picture to have a preliminary taste of recursion. In this portrait, the Mona Lisa who is holding a Mona Lisa portrait who is holding a Mona Lisa portrait who is holding a Mona Lisa portrait (repeat endlessly) is smiling.
The structure of English sentence could be interpreted as recursive as well -- clauses are building blocks of a sentence and clauses themselves are sentences. Clause are building blocks of sentence and clauses themselves are sentences (repeat...)
Let's try a sentence which is trivial in sense but useful in understanding this sentence structure in recursion.
John said Sth_1.
Sth_1 is John said Sth_2
Sth_2 is John said Sth_3
Sth_3 is John said Sth_4
..........
If we put all of them together, the sentence goes like this,
John said (John said) (John said) (John said) .....
The John said in black is the Subject and verb in the original sentence and the rest of the sentence is the object of the original sentence. However, the object is a noun and could be replaced by a noun clause. In the first noun clause, "John said" is the Subject and verb and the rest of the sentence is the object of this noun clause. However, the object is a noun and could be replaced by a noun clause. In the second noun clause, "John said" is the Subject and verb and the rest of the sentence is the object of this noun clause. However, the object is a noun and could be replaced by a noun clause ......
Let's try a meaningful sentence now.
John said that CNN reported that Haiti had a serious earthquake.
This sentence can be broken down into three sub parts.
John said Sth_1
Sth_1 is CNN report Sth_2
Sth_2 is Haiti had a serious earthquake.
It should be clear now that clauses are building blocks of a sentence and clauses themselves are sentences. Clause are building blocks of sentence and clauses themselves are sentences (repeat...)
Besides noun clauses, you can also apply this idea to adjective clauses or adverb clauses. Plus, you can mix all these three clauses together.
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