Higher Lessons in English: A work on English grammar and composition - Alonzo Reed; Brainerd Kellogg

LESSON 78.

COMPLEX AND COMPOUND CLAUSES.

+Introductory Hints+.—Sun and moon and stars obey. Peter the Great went to Holland, to England, and to France. I came, I saw, I conquered. Here we have co-ordinate words, co-ordinate phrases, and co-ordinate clauses, that is, words, phrases, and clauses of equal rank, or order.

Leaves fall so very quietly. They ate of the fruit from the tree in the garden. Regulus would have paused if he had been the man that he was before captivity had unstrung his sinews. Here just as the word modifier quietly is itself modified by very, and very by so; and just as fruit, the principal word in a modifying phrase, is modified by another phrase, and the principal word of that by another: so man, in the adverb clause which modifies would have paused, is itself modified by the adjective clause that he was, and was by the adverb clause before captivity had unstrung his sinews. These three dependent clauses in the complex clause modifier, like the three words and the three phrases in the complex word modifier and the complex phrase modifier, are not co-ordinate, or of equal rank.

Mary married Philip; but Elizabeth would not marry, although Parliament frequently urged it, and the peace of England demanded it. This is a compound sentence, composed of the simple clause which precedes but and the complex clause which follows it—the complex clause being composed of an independent clause and two dependent clauses, one co-ordinate with the other, and the two connected by and.

Analysis.

The +clauses+ of +complex+ and +compound+ sentences may themselves be +complex+ or +compound+.

hour | had passed
=========|=============
\The |` '
` ' and
` …….
` '
opportunity | ` had escaped
============|==`============
\the | ` \
` '
` '
`'
`
`while
`
he | ` tarried
——|——————-
|
that
——-
'
earth | ' is \ round
=========|======'========
| '
that ' and
——- ……
' '
it | ' revolves '
===|='============'=
|
He | proved | / \
====|=============
|

+Explanation+.—The first diagram illustrates the analysis of the compound adjective clause in (3) below. Each adjective clause is connected to insects by which. And connects the co-ordinate clauses. The second diagram shows that the clause while he tarried modifies both predicates of the independent clauses. While modifies had passed, had escaped, and tarried, as illustrated by the short lines under the first two verbs and the line over tarried. The office of while as connective is shown by the dotted lines. The third diagram illustrates the analysis of a complex sentence containing a compound noun clause.