An Advanced English Grammar with Exercises

CHAPTER VII
COMBINATIONS OF CLAUSES

504. The use of subordinate clauses as complements and modifiers, and as modifiers of complements and of modifiers, may produce sentences of great length and complicated structure.

Such sentences, if skilfully composed, are not hard to follow. Their analysis requires merely the intelligent application of a few simple principles, which have already been explained and illustrated.

505. These principles may be summed up as follows:—

I. All clauses are either independent or subordinate. A clause is subordinate if it is used as a part of speech (noun, adjective, or adverb); otherwise, it is independent (§ 46).

II. Coördinate means “of the same rank” in the sentence (§ 46).

1. Two or more independent clauses in the same sentence are manifestly coördinate.

• The fire blazed and the wood crackled. [Two declarative clauses.]
• What is your name, and where were you born? [Interrogative clauses.]
• Sit down and tell me your story. [Imperative clauses.]

2. Two or more subordinate clauses are coördinate with each other when they are used together in the same construction,—as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs.

Such a group may be regarded as forming one compound subordinate clause.

• The truth is, that I have no money and that my friends have forsaken me. [Noun clauses.]
• The Indians, who were armed with long lances, and who showed great skill in using them, made a furious attack on the cavalry. [Adjective clauses.]
• When he had spoken, but before a vote had been taken, a strange tumult was heard in the outer room. [Adverbial clauses.]

In the first example, we have a compound noun clause; in the second, a compound adjective clause; in the third, a compound adverbial clause.

3. Coördinate clauses are either joined by coördinate conjunctions (and, or, but, etc.), or such conjunctions may be supplied without changing the sense (§ 362).

The good-natured old gentleman, who was friendly to both parties, [AND] who did not lack courage, AND who hated a quarrel, spoke his mind with complete frankness.

III. A subordinate clause may depend on another subordinate clause.

• The horse shied when he saw the locomotive. [The subordinate clause depends upon the independent (main) clause.]
• The horse shied when he saw the locomotive, which was puffing violently. [The second subordinate clause depends upon the first, being an adjective modifier of locomotive.]

In such cases, the whole group of subordinate clauses may be taken together as forming one complex subordinate clause.

Thus, in the second example, when he saw the locomotive, which was puffing violently may be regarded as a complex adverbial clause modifying shied, and containing an adjective clause (which was puffing violently).

506. From the principles summarized in § 505, it appears that—

Clauses (like sentences) may be simple, compound, or complex.

1. A simple clause contains but one subject and one predicate, either or both of which may be compound (§ 451).

2. A compound clause consists of two or more coördinate clauses (§ 454).

3. A complex clause consists of at least two clauses, one of which is subordinate to the other.

507. The unit in all combinations of clauses is clearly the simple sentence, which, when used as a part of a more complicated sentence, becomes a simple clause.

The processes used in such combinations, as we have seen, are really but two in number,—coördination and subordination.

Coördination of clauses produces compound sentences or compound clauses; subordination of one clause to another produces complex sentences or complex clauses.

508. Every sentence, however long and complicated, belongs (in structure) to one of the three classes,—simple, compound, and complex.

SIMPLE SENTENCES

509. A simple sentence may have a compound subject or predicate (or both), and may also include a number of modifiers and complements.

Obviously, then, a simple sentence need not be short. It remains simple in structure so long as it contains but one simple or compound subject and one simple or compound predicate. Thus,—

1. You leave Glasgow in a steamboat, go down the Clyde fourteen miles, and then come to Dumbarton Castle, a huge rock five or six hundred feet high, not connected with any other high land, and with a fortress at the top.—Webster.

The length of this sentence is due partly to its compound predicate, partly to the modifier (and modifiers of the modifier) attached to the noun Dumbarton Castle.

2. He was little disposed to exchange his lordly repose for the insecure and agitated life of a conspirator, to be in the power of accomplices, to live in constant dread of warrants and king’s messengers, nay, perhaps, to end his days on a scaffold, or to live on alms in some back street of the Hague.—Macaulay.

This sentence is lengthened by means of a series of infinitives used as adverbial modifiers of the complement disposed (a participle used as an adjective). Each of these infinitives takes a complement or a modifier (or both).

3. The arbitrary measures of Charles I, the bold schemes of Strafford, and the intolerant bigotry of Laud, precipitated a collision between the opposite principles of government, and divided the whole country into Cavaliers and Roundheads.—May.

Both the subject and the predicate are compound. Each of the three nouns in the compound subject has modifiers. The two verbs in the compound predicate have each a complement, and the second has an adverbial modifier (a phrase).

4. Twenty of the savages now got on board and proceeded to ramble over every part of the deck and scramble about among the rigging, making themselves much at home and examining every article with great inquisitiveness.—Poe.

The predicate is compound. The sentence is extended by the use of participles (making and examining), which modify the simple subject twenty.

• 5. She was tumbled early, by accident or design, into a spacious closet of good old English reading, without much selection or prohibition, and browsed at will upon that fair and wholesome pasturage.—Lamb.
• 6. The mermaid was still seen to glide along the waters, and mingling her voice with the sighing breeze, was often heard to sing of subterranean wonders, or to chant prophecies of future events.—Scott.
• 7. With early dawn, they were under arms, and, without waiting for the movement of the Spaniards, poured into the city and attacked them in their own quarters.—Prescott.
• 8. Arming a desperate troop of slaves and gladiators, he overpowered the feeble guard of the domestic tranquillity of Rome, received the homage of the Senate, and, assuming the title of Augustus, precariously reigned during a tumult of twenty-eight days.—Gibbon.

Note. A simple sentence with compound predicate often differs very slightly from a compound sentence. Thus in examples 4–7 the insertion of a single pronoun (they, she) to serve as a subject for the second verb (proceeded, browsed, etc.) will make the sentence compound.

COMPOUND AND COMPLEX SENTENCES

510. Every sentence that is not simple must be either compound or complex.

A sentence is compound if it consists of two or more independent clauses; complex, if it consists of one independent (main) clause and one or more subordinate clauses.

511. An ordinary compound sentence consists of two or more coördinate simple clauses.

Such a sentence may be of great length (as in the last example below), but its structure is usually transparent.

• A cricket chirps on the hearth, | and | we are reminded of Christmas gambols long ago.—Hazlitt.
• The moments were numbered; | the strife was finished; | the vision was closed.—De Quincey.
• The old king had retired to his couch that night in one of the strongest towers of the Alhambra, | but | his restless anxiety kept him from repose.—Irving.
• The clock has just struck two; | the expiring taper rises and sinks in the socket; | the watchman forgets his hour in slumber; | the laborious and the happy are at rest; | and | nothing wakes but meditation, guilt, revelry, and despair.—Goldsmith.
• The present, indeed, is not a contest for distant or contingent objects; | it is not a contest for acquisition of territory; | it is not a contest for power and glory; | as little is it carried on merely for any commercial advantage, or any particular form of government; | but | it is a contest for the security, the tranquillity, and the very existence of Great Britain, connected with that of every established government and every country in Europe.—Pitt.

512. A complex sentence, in its most elementary form, consists of one simple independent (main) clause and one simple subordinate clause.

• The gas exploded when I struck a match.
• Though he is idle, he is not lazy.
• The carpenter who fell from the roof has recovered from his injuries.
• Their eyes were so fatigued with the eternal dazzle and whiteness, that they lay down on their backs upon deck to relieve their sight on the blue sky.—Keats.
• The shouts of thousands, their menacing gestures, the fierce clashing of their arms, astonished and subdued the courage of Vetranio, who stood, amidst the defection of his followers, in anxious and silent suspense.—Gibbon.

513. Both compound sentences and complex sentences admit of much variety in structure, according to the nature and the relations of the clauses that compose them.

COMPOUND COMPLEX SENTENCES

514. Any or all of the coördinate clauses that make up a compound sentence may be complex. In that case, the sentence is called a compound complex sentence.

Note. Compound complex sentences form a special class or subdivision under the general head of compound sentences.⁴⁹

Old Uncle Venner was just coming out of his door, with a wood-horse and saw on his shoulder; and, trudging along the street, he scrupled not to keep company with Phœbe, so far as their paths lay together; nor, in spite of his patched coat and rusty beaver, and the curious fashion of his tow-cloth trousers, could she find it in her heart to outwalk him.—Hawthorne.

515. Further examples of compound complex sentences are:—

• 1. The people drove out King Athamas, because he had killed his child; and he roamed about in his misery, till he came to the Oracle in Delphi.—Kingsley.
• 2. Society is the stage on which manners are shown; novels are their literature.—Emerson.
• 3. We keep no bees, but if I lived in a hive I should scarcely have more of their music.—Cowper.
• 4. The same river ran on as it had run on before, but the cheerful faces that had once been reflected in its stream had passed away.—Froude.
• 5. There are some laws and customs in this empire very peculiar; and if they were not so directly contrary to those of my own dear country, I should be tempted to say a little in their justification.—Swift.
• 6. Here they arrived about noon, and Joseph proposed to Adams that they should rest awhile in this delightful place.—Fielding.
• 7. I never saw a busier person than she seemed to be; yet it was difficult to say what she did.—C. Brontë.
• 8. Malaga possessed a brave and numerous garrison, and the common people were active, hardy, and resolute; but the city was rich and commercial, and under the habitual control of opulent merchants, who dreaded the ruinous consequences of a siege.—Irving.
• 9. The Spaniards were not to be taken by surprise; and, before the barbarian horde had come within their lines, they opened such a deadly fire from their heavy guns, supported by the musketry and crossbows, that the assailants were compelled to fall back slowly, but fearfully mangled, to their former position.—Prescott.
• 10. Her cheeks were as pale as marble, but of a cold, unhealthy, ashen white; and my heart ached to think that they had been bleached, most probably, by bitter and continual tears.—Hood.
• 11. The hawk, having in spiral motion achieved the upper flight, fell like a thunderbolt on the raven, stunned him with the blow, clutched him in his talons, folded him in his wings, and, the hawk undermost, they tumbled down like a black ball, till within a short distance from the earth.—Trelawny.

In this sentence they were is understood after till.

VARIETIES OF THE COMPLEX SENTENCE

516. A complex sentence may be expanded either by compounding the main clause, or by increasing the number of subordinate clauses. Both methods may be used in the same sentence.

517. The independent (main) clause of a complex sentence may be compound.

• When they saw the ship, they shouted for joy and some of them burst into tears.
• As they turned down from the knoll to rejoin their comrades, the sun dipped and disappeared, and the woods fell instantly into the gravity and grayness of the early night.—Stevenson.
• The eye of the young monarch kindled and his dark cheek flushed with sudden anger, as he listened to proposals so humiliating.—Prescott.
• Sharpe was so hated in Scotland during his life, and his death won him so many friends, or pitying observers, that it is not easy to write of him without prejudice or favor.—A. Lang.
• As has been the case with many another good fellow of his nation, his life was tracked and his substance wasted by crowds of hungry beggars and lazy dependents.—Thackeray.

Note that the subordinate clause depends on the compound main clause, not upon either of its members.

Thus, in the first example, the subordinate clause (when they saw the ship) depends upon the compound main clause, they shouted for joy and some of them burst into tears. It is an adverbial modifier of both shouted and burst.

518. Though a complex sentence can have but one (simple or compound) main clause, there is, in theory, no limit to the number of subordinate clauses.

519. Subordinate clauses may be attached to the main clause (1) as separate modifiers or complements; (2) in a coördinate series of clauses, all in the same construction, and forming one compound clause; (3) in a series of successively subordinate clauses, forming one complex clause.

520. Two or more subordinate clauses may be attached to the main clause separately, each as a distinct modifier or complement.

• The bridge, which had been weakened by the ice, fell with a crash while the locomotive was crossing it. [The first subordinate clause is an adjective modifier of bridge; the second is an adverbial modifier of fell.]
• The architect who drew the plans says that the house will cost ten thousand dollars. [The first subordinate clause is an adjective modifier of architect; the second is a complement, being the object of says.]
• Isabella, whom every incident was sufficient to dismay, hesitated whether she should proceed.—H. Walpole.
• As the boat drew nearer to the city, the coast which the traveller had just left sank behind him into one long, low, sad-colored line.—Ruskin.
• Those dangers which, in the vigor of youth, we had learned to despise, assume new terrors as we grow old.—Goldsmith.
• When Farmer Oak smiled, the corners of his mouth spread till they were within an unimportant distance of his ears.—Hardy.
• As Florian Deleal walked, one hot afternoon, he overtook by the wayside a poor aged man, and, as he seemed weary with the road, helped him on with the burden which he carried, a certain distance.—Pater.
• While Joe was absent on this errand, the elder Willet and his three companions continued to smoke with profound gravity and in a deep silence, each having his eyes fixed on a huge copper boiler that was suspended over the fire.—Dickens.

521. Two or more subordinate clauses in the same construction, forming one compound clause, may be attached to the main clause as a modifier or complement.

• 1. The truth was that Leonard had overslept, that he had missed the train, and that he had failed to keep his appointment.
• 2. The guide told us that the road was impassable, that the river was in flood, and that the bridge had been swept away.
• 3. Ellis, whose pockets were empty and whose courage was at a low ebb, stared dismally at the passing crowd.
• 4. Before the battle was over and while the result was still in doubt, the general ordered a retreat.
• 5. After we had arrived at the hotel, but before we had engaged our rooms, we received an invitation to stay at the castle.
• 6. My first thought was, that all was lost, and that my only chance for executing a retreat was to sacrifice my baggage.—De Quincey.
• 7. The author fully convinced his readers that they were a race of cowards and scoundrels, that nothing could save them, that they were on the point of being enslaved by their enemies, and that they richly deserved their fate.—Macaulay.

In the first and second examples, three coördinate noun clauses are joined to make one compound clause, which is used as a complement,—as a predicate nominative in the first sentence, as the direct object of told in the second.

In the third example, a compound adjective clause modifies Ellis. In the fourth and fifth, a compound adverbial clause modifies the predicate verb (ordered, received). In the seventh, four that-clauses unite in one compound clause.

522. Two or more successively subordinate clauses, forming one complex clause, may be joined to the main clause as a modifier or complement.

In such a series, the first subordinate clause is attached directly to the main clause, the second is subordinate to the first, the third to the second, and so on in succession.

In the course of my travels, I met a good-natured old gentleman, (a) who was born in the village (b) where my parents lived (c) before they came to America.

Here gentleman (a complement in the main clause) is modified by the adjective clause who was born in the village (a). Village, in clause a, is modified by the adjective clause where my parents lived (b). Lived, the predicate verb of clause b, is modified by the adverbial clause before they came to America (c).

Thus it appears that a is subordinate to the main clause, and that b, in turn, is subordinate to a, and c to b. In other words, the three clauses (a, b, c) are united to make one complex clause,—who was born in the village where my parents lived before they came to America. This clause, taken as a whole, serves as an adjective modifier describing gentleman.

523. Further examples of the successive subordination of one clause to another may be seen in the following sentences:—

• I have passed my latter years in this city, where I am frequently seen in public places, though there are not above half-a-dozen of my select friends that know me.—Addison.
• In this manner they advanced by moonlight till they came within view of the two towering rocks that form a kind of portal to the valley, at the extremity of which rose the vast ruins of Istakar.—Beckford.
• The young fellow uttered this with an accent and a look so perfectly in tune to a feeling heart, that I instantly made a vow I would give him a four-and-twenty sous piece, when I got to Marseilles.—Sterne. [The conjunction that is omitted before I would (§ 388).]
• Three years had scarcely elapsed before the sons of Constantine seemed impatient to convince mankind that they were incapable of contenting themselves with the dominions which they were unqualified to govern.—Gibbon.
• Mr. Lewis sent me an account of Dr. Arbuthnot’s illness, which is a very sensible affliction to me, who, by living so long out of the world, have lost that hardness of heart contracted by years and general conversation.—Swift.

Note. The method of forming complex clauses by successive subordination, if overworked, produces long, straggling, shapeless sentences, as in the following example from Borrow:—“I scouted the idea that Slingsby would have stolen this blacksmith’s gear; for I had the highest opinion of his honesty, which opinion I still retain at the present day, which is upwards of twenty years from the time of which I am speaking, during the whole of which period I have neither seen the poor fellow nor received any intelligence of him.” A famous instance of the use of this structure for comic effect is “The House that Jack Built.”

SPECIAL COMPLICATIONS

524. The processes of coördination and subordination (§§ 514–523) may be so utilized in one and the same sentence as to produce a very complicated structure.

Examples of such sentences are given below, for reference (§§ 525–526). Their structure, however elaborate, is always either complex or compound complex.

I. IN COMPLEX SENTENCES

525. The following sentences are complex. They contain either compound or complex clauses, or both.

1. They preferred the silver with which they were familiar, and which they were constantly passing about from hand to hand, to the gold which they had never before seen, and with the value of which they were unacquainted.—Macaulay.

The main clause of this complex sentence is they preferred the silver to the gold. To this are separately attached (§ 520) two adjective clauses, both compound: (1) with which ... hand, modifying silver; (2) which they had ... unacquainted, modifying gold.

2. All London crowded to shout and laugh round the gibbet where hung the rotting remains of a prince who had made England the dread of the world, who had been the chief founder of her maritime greatness and of her colonial empire, who had conquered Scotland and Ireland, who had humbled Holland and Spain.—Macaulay.

The sentence is complex. The main clause is all London crowded to shout and laugh round the gibbet. The rest of the sentence (where ... Spain) forms one long complex adjective clause, modifying gibbet. In this complex clause, the first clause (where ... prince) has dependent on it a compound adjective clause (modifying prince), made up of four coördinate clauses, each beginning with who. The subordination of this compound clause to that which precedes (where ... prince) produces the long complex subordinate clause where ... Spain.

3. As we cannot at present get Mr. Joseph out of the inn, we shall leave him in it, and carry our reader on after Parson Adams, who, his mind being perfectly at ease, fell into a contemplation on a passage in Æschylus, which entertained him for three miles together, without suffering him once to reflect on his fellow-traveller.—Fielding.

In this complex sentence, two subordinate clauses are separately attached to the main clause: (1) the adverbial clause as ... inn; (2) the adjective clause who ... fellow-traveller. This latter clause is complex, since it contains the adjective clause which ... fellow-traveller, dependent on who ... Æschylus, and modifying passage.

4. As I sit by my window this summer afternoon, hawks are circling about my clearing; the tantivy of wild pigeons, flying by twos and threes athwart my view, or perching restlessly on the white pine boughs behind my house, gives a voice to the air; a fishhawk dimples the glassy surface of the pond and brings up a fish; a mink steals out of the marsh before my door and seizes a frog by the shore; the sedge is bending under the weight of the reed-birds flitting hither and hither; and for the last half hour I have heard the rattle of railroad cars, now dying away and then revving like the beat of a partridge, conveying travellers from Boston to the country.—Thoreau.

This sentence is complex. Its main clause is compound, consisting of a series of six coördinate simple clauses. The whole of this long compound main clause is modified by the adverbial clause with which the sentence begins (as ... afternoon).

5. That they had sprung from obscurity, that they had acquired great wealth, that they exhibited it insolently, that they spent it extravagantly, that they raised the price of everything in their neighborhood, from fresh eggs to rotten boroughs; that their liveries outshone those of dukes, that their coaches were finer than that of the Lord Mayor, that the examples of their large and ill-governed households corrupted half the servants in the country; that some of them, with all their magnificence, could not catch the tone of good society, but in spite of the stud and the crowd of menials, of the plate and the Dresden china, of the venison and the Burgundy, were still low men,—these were things which excited, both in the class from which they had sprung, and in that into which they attempted to force themselves, that bitter aversion which is the effect of mingled envy and contempt.—Macaulay.

This complex sentence, though very long, is perfectly easy to follow. It begins with a long compound noun clause (consisting of nine coördinate that-clauses). This would be the subject of the main predicate verb were, but for the fact that the pronoun these is inserted to act as the subject (referring back to the compound noun clause and summing it up in a single word). To the complement things is attached the adjective clause which excited ... contempt. This clause is complex, for it contains three adjective clauses, (1) from which they had sprung (modifying class), (2) into which ... themselves (modifying that), and (3) which is ... contempt (modifying aversion). All three are separately attached to the clause on which they depend, which excited that bitter aversion. Thus all that portion of the sentence which follows things forms one complex clause, modifying that noun.

6. That I may avoid the imputation of throwing out, even privately, any loose, random imputations against the public conduct of a gentleman for whom I once entertained a very warm affection, and whose abilities I regard with the greatest admiration, I will put down, distinctly and articulately, some of the matters of objection which I feel to his late doctrines and proceedings, trusting that I shall be able to demonstrate to the friends whose good opinion I would still cultivate, that not levity, nor caprice, nor less defensible motives, but that very grave reasons, influence my judgment.—Burke.

This is a fine example of a long, but well-constructed complex sentence. The main clause is I will put down, distinctly and articulately, some of the matters of objection. Upon this simple clause, everything else in the sentence depends in one way or another.

II. IN COMPOUND COMPLEX SENTENCES

526. Any complex sentence, however elaborate, may be used as one of the coördinate complex clauses that make up a compound complex sentence.

1. While the king was treated at this rude rate, Cromwell, with his army, was in Scotland, obstructing the motions that were making in his favor; but on the approach of the Scots, who were much superior in number, he was forced to retire towards Dunbar, where his ships and provisions lay.—Burnet.

In this compound complex sentence, both coördinate clauses are complex. In each, the main clause has two subordinate clauses attached to it separately (§ 520).

2. They had seen me cut the cables, and thought my design was only to let the ships run adrift, or fall foul on each other; but when they perceived the whole fleet moving in order, and saw me pulling at the end, they set up such a scream of grief and despair as it is almost impossible to describe or conceive.—Swift.

In this compound complex sentence, both of the two coördinate clauses are complex. The first contains the noun clause [that] my design ... each other, used as the object of thought. The second contains two subordinate clauses, separately attached to the main clause (they set ... despair). For the infinitive cut, see § 322. The infinitive to let is used as a predicate nominative (§ 491); it has as its object the infinitive clause the ships ... each other, containing two infinitives, run and fall (§ 325).

3. While things went on quietly, while there was no opposition, while everything was given by the favor of a small ruling junto, Fox had a decided advantage over Pitt; but when dangerous times came, when Europe was convulsed with war, when Parliament was broken up into factions, when the public mind was violently excited, the favorite of the people rose to supreme power.—Macaulay.

This compound complex sentence consists of two complex clauses, joined by the coördinate conjunction but. In each of these, the subordinate clause is compound (§ 521), consisting of several coördinate adverbial clauses introduced by relative adverbs (while in the first, when in the second).

4. The clear and agreeable language of his despatches had early attracted the notice of his employers; and before the Peace of Breda he had, at the request of Arlington, published a pamphlet on the war, of which nothing is now known, except that it had some vogue at the time, and that Charles, not a contemptible judge, pronounced it to be very well written.—Macaulay.

In this compound complex sentence, the first coördinate clause is simple, the second is complex. In the second, the adjective clause of which nothing is known has dependent on it the group of words except ... well written, consisting of the preposition except and its object (the compound noun clause, that ... time, and that ... well written). This group serves as an adjective modifier of the noun nothing. The whole passage of which ... well written forms a complex adjective clause, modifying pamphlet. It to be very well written is a complement, being an infinitive clause used as the object of pronounced (§ 325).