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.