Now, in the first sentence the second proposition is intended to tell why the ground is wet, just as the words this morning tell when it is wet. Why a certain state exists may be told by a phrase as well as by a proposition, because it is only a modifying circumstance. It might be told here by the prepositional phrase from last night’s rain. If this second proposition, then, is put into the sentence merely to tell something about some part of the independent proposition, it is clearly subordinate, and therefore dependent.
In the second sentence the second proposition does not express any modification of any idea in the first proposition. It states a conclusion drawn from the fact stated in the first proposition, and in the author’s mind the conclusion is of equal importance with the fact that supports it. We may even supply the conjunction and before hence, which shows that the two propositions are coördinate, so if one is independent the other must be.
It may be said that if the conjunction hence is taken as a part of the following proposition, the proposition cannot stand alone any more than can the proposition introduced by because. But because must be taken as a part of its proposition because it indicates the special modifying circumstance—not time, or place, but cause—which the author intended that proposition to denote, whereas hence is not a part of the following proposition because that proposition is not intended, as we have shown, to be a modifier of any part of the preceding proposition, but a conclusion drawn from the whole of it. Because, indicating subordination is a subordinating conjunction and always a part of the proposition it introduces. Hence, indicating equality, or grammatical coördination, is a coördinating conjunction and never a part of the proposition following it.
The Partially Compound Sentence.—Since there are three well defined types of sentences, it is natural that there should be forms lying in between any two of these types and partaking of the nature of both. One of these forms, the complex-compound sentence, we have already spoken of. Another form is found in the following sentence,—“The diseases, the elements, fortune, gravity, lightning, respect no persons.”—Emerson.
Here there are several subjects but only one assertion made, hence only one proposition. The sentence resembles both the compound sentence and the simple sentence, but is, strictly speaking, neither one. It is called partially compound, and may be considered a fifth kind of sentence. Sometimes it contains only one subject but two or more predicates,—“He shook his head, shouldered the rusty firelock, and, with a heart full of trouble and anxiety, turned his steps homeward.”—Irving.
Exercise 3
Classify the following sentences according to structure, giving in each case the grounds for your decision.
1. I could never fathom how a man dares to lift up his voice to preach in a cathedral.—Stevenson.
2.
Great feelings hath she of her own,