Abstract
This study aims to explain the basic structure of Riau Malay clauses using a linguistic typology approach. Data obtained from oral and written data. The method used is Sudaryanto (2005). The discussion is based on the opinion of Jufrizal (2012). The results showed that the basic clauses of BMR were in the form of (1) non-verbal basic clauses whose predicates are nouns (pronouns), adjectives, numerals, and prepositions which are located one argument before the predicate (2) verbal clauses in the form of transitive and intransitive forms. Verbs that occupy the predicate position in the two clauses are marked morphologically with affixes and some can stand alone without affixes. The BMR intransitive clause has one argument that comes before the predicate (verb). There are transitive clauses that have two or three arguments.