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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
512. A complex sentence, in its most elementary form, consists of one simple independent (main) clause and one simple subordinate clause.
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.
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.
This sentence consists of three coördinate clauses, each independent of the others. These are joined by the coördinate conjunctions and, nor. The first and the third clause are simple, but the second clause is complex. Hence the whole forms one compound complex sentence.
The complex clause consists of two clauses, the second of which is subordinate to the first. Taken as a whole, however, this complex clause is manifestly coördinate with the two simple clauses, since the three form a series joined by coördinate conjunctions.
515. Further examples of compound complex sentences are:—
In this sentence they were is understood after till.
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.
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.
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.
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:—
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.”
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.
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.
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).