Languages & Linguistics
Compound Complex Sentences
Compound complex sentences are a combination of two types of sentence structures: compound and complex. They contain two or more independent clauses and at least one dependent clause. This allows for the expression of complex relationships and ideas within a single sentence. These sentences are commonly used in both spoken and written language to convey more nuanced and detailed information.
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8 Key excerpts on "Compound Complex Sentences"
- Dave Kemper, Verne Meyer, John Van Rys, Patrick Sebranek(Authors)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Cengage Learning EMEA(Publisher)
Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 14.5 Complex Sentences A complex sentence joins an independent clause to one or more dependent clauses. The independent clause can stand alone as a sentence, but a dependent clause cannot. (Remember that a clause is a group of words with a subject and verb. See Section 13.7 .) � Using a Subordinating Conjunction You can create a complex sentence by placing a subordinating conjunction before the clause that is less important. Table 14.1 shows common subordinating conjunctions: The subordinating conjunction shows that one clause depends on the other to make sense. Two Simple Sentences: We played flawless offense. We won the football game. Complex Sentence: Because we played flawless offense , we won the football game. We won the football game because we played flawless offense. NOTE: The subordinating conjunction goes at the beginning of the less important clause, but the two clauses could go in either order. When the dependent clause comes first, it is set off by a comma. � Compound-Complex Sentences You can create a compound-complex sentence by placing a subordinating conjunction before a simple sentence and connecting it to a compound sentence. Simple Sentence: I threw two touchdowns. Compound Sentence: Jake kicked the extra points, and we took the lead. Compound-Complex: After I threw two touchdowns , Jake kicked the extra points, and we took the lead.
eBook - ePubA Grammar of Nama
A Papuan Language of Southern New Guinea
- Jeff Siegel(Author)
- 2023(Publication Date)
- De Gruyter Mouton(Publisher)
7 Compound and complex sentencesThis chapter describes compound and complex sentences in Nama, which are both made up of more than one clause, and by definition (see chapter 6), have more than one verb phrase. Compound sentences are comprised of more than one independent clause, while complex sentences have an independent clause and one or more dependent (or subordinate) clauses. The first section covers compound sentences, and the following sections deal with the various types of complex sentences classified by type of subordinate clause: adverbial clause, relative clause, complement clause and focus marking clause.7.1 Compound sentences
As already mentioned, compound sentences consist of two or more independent clauses. They can be joined by one of the coordinating conjunctions introduced in section 6.1.2: a ‘and’ (conjunctive) and o ‘or’ (alternative):(805)fèyo nuot kaflangè a nu fèyo nu-ot k-afèli-Ø-ang-è a nu then water-all β.ØP-move-pfv.nd-inc-2|3sg SA and water ‘then she went to the river and fetched water.’tènmukangè. (MD13(1)) t-n-wukè-Ø-ang-è β.3sg P-ven- fetch-pfv.nd-inc-2|3sgA (806)yerayènd a limanègh y-werè-Ø-ay-nd a limán-gh α.3sgP- hold-pfv.nd-rem.punc-2|3nsgA and pull-nom ‘they caught it and started pulling it.’yafngoyènd. (YD11(2)) y-wafngo-Ø-ay-nd α.3sgP- start-pfv.nd-rem.punc-2|3nsgA (807)yèna so yènkmare o so yèna so yèn-kèmè-ar-e o so here fut α.1nsgS P - be.lying.down-du.pa-pfv.du or fut ‘will we (2) sleep here or will we go back?’nangowèm? (TE11(1)) n-ango-Ø-wè-m α.ØP- return-ipfv-du-da-1nsgS A (808)Coordination can also be unmarked, as in comparative constructions:wagh so yufanat o si wagh so y-wufar-ta-t o si singsing fut α.3sgP- sing.out-ipfv.nd-2|3nsgA or story so norayat. (B&B:167) so n-oray-ta-t fut α.ØP- say-ipfv.nd-2|3nsgS A ‘they will sing out a singsing or tell stories.’
eBook - PDFA Critical Account of English Syntax
Grammar, Meaning, Text
- Keith Brown, Jim Miller(Authors)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Edinburgh University Press(Publisher)
In written, especially formal, texts sentences can be more complicated, not just one main clause together with more than one subordinate clause but both compound and complex, as in (2). But coordinates the two parts of the compound sentence, and each part of the compound sentence is complex. Again, the subordinate clauses are underlined. 2 Although snow is forecast, Juliet insists she will drive to Skye this after-noon but Lucie, who is cautious, says she will wait till Friday. SENTENCES AND CLAUSES: COMPOUND SENTENCES System sentences (and text sentences) may consist of two or more main clauses. These may be connected by one of the coordinating conjunc-tions and , but and or , as in (1). The coordinated clauses are underlined. 1 a Susan went to London and Kate went to York. b Susan went to London but Kate went to York. c Susan will go to London or Kate will go to York. The protypical case of coordination is (1a), in which the clauses can occur in the alternative order: Kate went to York and Susan went to London . The sentence in (2) is also compound but the clauses cannot change position, because and here is equivalent to and then . 2 She whistled and the dog came to heel. The sentence The dog came to heel and she whistled describes a different sequence of events; that is, the order of clauses cannot be reversed without changing the interpretation. From a syntactic point of view the sentence is compound, but not prototypically so. The clauses in a com-pound sentence need not be linked by an overt coordinating conjunc-tion but may simply be juxtaposed, as in (3). 3 The chairman made a proposal, the committee rejected it, the meeting broke up in acrimony. 212 A CRITICAL ACCOUNT OF ENGLISH SYNTAX In a compound sentence three or more clauses in a sequence need not all be connected by and or or but only the penultimate and the last, as in (4). † 4 The driver sounded the horn, the car skidded and both vehicles ended up in the ditch.
eBook - PDF- Martin J. Endley(Author)
- 2007(Publication Date)
- Information Age Publishing(Publisher)
Linguistic Perspectives on English Grammar, pages 355–396 Copyright © 2010 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. 355 10 Complex Sentences in English Coordination and Subordination U p to this point, I have been concerned with basic clause types and have concentrated on relatively simple sentence structures that have contained only one clause. However, proficient speakers do not normally produce such simple language. More often than not, the sentences they produce are rather elaborate, involving two or more clauses operating together. In the next few chapters, I turn to an examination of some of the more complex sentence structures that the grammar of English permits. It is traditional to distinguish between compound sentences (i.e., two independent clauses conjoined) and complex sentences (i.e., one indepen- dent clause and one or more dependent clauses). In this and succeeding chapters, I am using the label complex sentence as a more general term to refer to any “non-simple” sentence. In this chapter, I will look at two broad types of complex sentences, corresponding to the fundamental distinction between coordinated clauses and subordinated (or embedded) clauses. The chapter begins with a relatively brief discussion of coordination. After this, I turn to a more detailed examination of various types of subordinate 356 Linguistic Perspectives on English Grammar clause in English. I will look at three of the most common types of finite clause, the that clause, the wh- clause, and the if or whether clause; then I will consider what are usually called nonfinite clauses, that is, infinitive clauses and participial clauses. Coordinated Clauses One of the most common ways in which clauses may be combined to form more complex sentences involves a grammatical operation known as coordi- nation. Broadly, coordination involves the linking of two or more linguistic elements using a connective word-form such as and, or, or but.
eBook - PDF- Sandra A. Thompson, Joseph Sung-Yul Park, Charles N. Li(Authors)
- 2006(Publication Date)
- University of California Press(Publisher)
6. COMPLEX SENTENCES Complex sentences consist of more than one clause, where clause can be defined as a predicate and its arguments. There are two types of complex sentences in Wappo: (1) those in which the constituent clauses are conjoined, that is, in which both clauses have the properties of independent clauses; (2) those in which one clause is dependent that is, has at least one of the following three characteristics: (a) Its verb is a non-finite, or dependent (DEP), form. Dependent verb forms typically drop the word-final glottal stop, as can be seen in the verb form hak'se in the example below, whose form in an independent clause would be hak'se?: (1) ah [ ce k'ew i hak 1 -se ] hatis-khi? 1SG:NOM DEM man 1SG like-DUR:DEP know -STAT 7 know that the man likes me' (r!06) (b) Its subject is in the zero-marked (i.e., accusative) case. (c) If the main clause subject is a third person which is co-referential with an expressed referent in the dependent clause, that dependent clause mention must be the third person co-referential pronoun me (see section 3.9.3). 6.1 Conjunctions Conjoining of two clauses in Wappo, as in many other languages, is often accomplished by juxtaposition, as in (2) -(5), for example:
eBook - PDF- Rolf Kreyer, Joybrato Mukherjee(Authors)
- 2012(Publication Date)
6 Clauses and Sentences In the second chapter we looked at words as the basic building blocks of syntac- tic structures. In chapters 3 to 5, then, we explored how words of different word classes fulfil functions on the phrase level, namely as head, determiner, pre- modifier, or postmodifier. That is, we saw how an assemblage of words creates a structural unit on the next higher level, namely the level of phrases. In addition, we have seen in section 5.4 how phrases can also have functions within other phrases. In the present chapter we will see how phrases form the next higher structural unit, namely clauses or simple sentences. And just as phrases can be embedded in other phrases, so can clauses be embedded in other clauses; in that case we speak of a 'complex sentence', e.g. That syntax is boring is not true, where the subject of the whole clause is a clause itself, i.e. that syntax is boring. If more than one clause is co-ordinated, we speak of 'compound sentences', e.g. Syntax is not boring but it is demanding. Figure 6.1 below shows how the struc- tural units interact on different levels of linguistic description. The simple ar- rows mean 'form' whereas the rectangular arrows mean 'are embedded in'. words phrases clauses/ simple sentences complex sentences compound sentences Figure 6.1: The interaction of linguistic units on different levels of description. Note that there is a difference between the rectangular arrows on the phrase level and on the clause level. In the first case, we are dealing with two phenom- ena. Phrases are put together to form clauses (the straight arrow), as in the clause [[The study of syntax] is [very interesting]], and one phrase can be embedded in 106 Chapter 6 another phrase (the rectangular arrow), as in the phrase [the study [of [English syntax]]].
eBook - PDFGrammar By Diagram - Second Edition
Understanding English Grammar Through Traditional Sentence Diagraming
- Cindy L. Vitto(Author)
- 2006(Publication Date)
- Broadview Press(Publisher)
Let’s take a look at a couple of examples: Anna, who is my neighbor, works in Philadelphia, but her husband works in Denver. We can isolate two independent clauses: Anna works in Philadelphia her husband works in Denver Since these clauses are joined by the coordinating conjunction “but,” this sentence contains a compound structure. We can also isolate a dependent (relative) clause: who is my neighbor The relative clause gives us a complex sentence structure, which, combined with the compound structure, yields a compound-complex sentence. The following diagram visually illustrates the compound and complex nature of this structure: SEVEN ] COMPLEX SENTENCES WITH ADVERB & RELATIVE CLAUSES, & THE COMPOUND-COMPLEX SENTENCE 165 As the wind howled, we huddled in our makeshift shelter; then our fire went out. independent clauses: we huddled in our makeshift shelter our fire went out dependent (adverb) clause: as the wind howled Because the independent clauses are joined by a semicolon and a conjunctive adverb, we have a compound structure; the adverb clause adds the element of complex structure. Overall, then, the sentence is compound-complex, as illustrated by the following diagram as well. (Note that the conjunctive adverb “then” is diagramed as an adverb within the second independent clause but also connected to the horizontal line where a coordinating conjunction would appear. This indicates that “then” functions here as a conjunctive adverb.) 166 ] GRAMMAR BY DIAGRAM in my her Anna works Philadelphia in Denver husband works who is neighbor but As the our our makeshift we huddled shelter then in fire went out wind howled x C O M P L E T E S E N T E N C E S The most basic, and most important, grammar essential is the ability to recognize and write a complete sentence.
- Dave Kemper, Verne Meyer, John Van Rys, Patrick Sebranek(Authors)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Cengage Learning EMEA(Publisher)
And b. So c. Yet 7. Which of these simple sentences are not joined correctly into a compound sentence? a. It’s a beautiful night; the stars really do shine brighter away from the city. b. It’s a beautiful night and the stars really do shine brighter away from the city. c. It’s a beautiful night, for the stars really do shine brighter away from the city. 15.4 Compound Sentences 291 Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 15.5 Complex Sentences A complex sentence shows a dependent relationship between two ideas. Instead of joining two sentences as equal ideas, a complex sentence shows how one idea depends on the other. � Using a Subordinating Conjunction You can create a complex sentence by placing a subordinating conjunction before the clause that is less important. Table 15.1 shows common subordinating conjunctions: The subordinating conjunction shows how one sentence (the dependent clause) depends on the other (the independent clause) to make sense. Remember, a clause is a group of words with a subject and a verb. A dependent clause does not express a complete thought, while an independent clause does. Two Simple Sentences: We looked repeatedly. We found no instructions. Complex Sentence: Though we looked repeatedly, we found no instructions. NOTE: The subordinating conjunction begins the dependent clause, but the two clauses can be in either order. When the dependent clause comes second, it is usually not separated by a comma. Complex Sentence: We found no instructions though we looked repeatedly.
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