The Complex Sentence

The complex sentence is a polypredicative construction built up on the principle of subordination. It is derived from two or more base sentences one of which performs the role of a matrix (the principal clause) in relation to the others, the insert sentences (its subordinate clauses).

The subordinate clause is joined to the principal clause either by a subordinating connector (subordinator), or asyndetically.

Various types of subordinate clauses specifically affect the principal clause from the point of view of the degree of its completeness. The principal clause is markedly incomplete in complex sentences with the subject and predicative subordinate clauses:

And why we descend to their level is a mystery to me. (The gaping principal part outside the subject clause: " — is a mystery to me".)

Your statement was just what you were expected to say. (The gaping principal part outside the predicative clause: "Your statement was just — ")

How he managed to pull through is what baffles me. (The principal clause representation: " — is — ")

The principal clause dominates the subordinate clause positionally but it doesn't mean that by its syntactic status it must express the central informative part of the communication. The order of clauses plays an important role in distributing primary and secondary information among them. In unemphatic speech the principal clause is often reduced to an introducer of the subordinate clause, the latter expressing practically all the essential information.

The principal clause-introducer can also perform the function of keeping up the conversation (phatic function):

I'т sure I can't remember her name now.

There are two bases of classification of complex sentences:

1) functional

2) categorial.

According to the functional principle, subordinate clauses are classed on the analogy of the positional parts of the simple sentence.

According to the categorial principle, subordinate clauses аre to be classed by their nominative properties. From this point of view all the subordinate clauses can be divided into three categorial-semantic groups:

1) clauses of primary nominal position that name an event as a certain fact (substantive-nominal=nominal). subject, predicative, object clauses

That his letters remained unanswered annoyed him very much (That fact annoyed him very much).

The woman knew only too well what was right and what was wrong (The woman knew those matters well).

2) clauses of secondary nominal position that refer to an event-fact as giving a characteristic to some substantive entity (qualification-nominal-attributive):

The man who came in the morning left a message (That man left a message).

Did you find a place where we could make a fire?(Did you find such kind of place?)

3) clauses of adverbial position that make their event-nomination into a dynamic relation characteristic of another, event or a process or a quality (adverbial):

Describe the picture as you see it

All will be well if we arrive in time.

Subordinate clauses are introduced by functional connective words (sentence subordinators) which categorially fall into two types:

1) those that occupy a notional position in the derived clause (conjunctive substitutes): the pronominal words who, what, whose, which, that, where, when, why.

2) those that do not occupy such a position (pure conjunctions): since, before, until, if, in case, because, so that, in order that, though, however, than, as if, etc.

Some of these words are double-functional (bifunctional) and can be used both as conjunctive substitutes and conjunctions (where, when, that, as):

That was the day when she was wearing her pink dress (the relative pronominal "when" syntagmatically replaces the antecedent "the day")

Sally put on her pink dress when she decided to join the party downstairs (the conjunction "when" has no relative pronominal status).

Clauses of primary nominal positions

The subject clause regularly expresses the theme on the upper level of the actual division of the complex sentence. The equivalent subject-clausal function can be expressed by the construction with an anticipatory pronoun (mostly the anticipatory it): It is a miracle how he managed to pull through (cleft sentence)

The predicative clause performs the function of the nominal part of the predicate: The trouble is that I don't know Fanny personally. The predicative clause in a minimal complex sentence regularly expresses its rheme.

The object clause denotes an object-situation of the process expressed by the verbal constituent of the principal clause: They will accept with grace whatever he may offer.

Subordinate clauses of secondary nominal positions

Attributive clauses fall into two major classes:

1) descriptive attributive clauses (expose some characteristic of the antecedent as such)

1.1. ordinary descriptive clauses (proper)

1.2. continuative descriptive clauses

2) restrictive (limiting) attributive clauses (perform an identifying role, single out the referent of the antecedent in the given situation).

To attributive clauses belong appositive clauses which do not simply give some sort of qualification to its antecedent, but define its very meaning in the context. Appositive clauses refer to substantive antecedents of abstract semantics. Appositive clauses fall into three groups clauses of:

1) nounal relation (the characteristic antecedents are abstract nouns like fact, idea, question, plan, suggestion, news, information, etc.)

2) pronominal relation (an indefinite or demonstrative pronoun:

I couldn't agree with allthat she was saying in her irritation.

Thatwhich did strike us was the inspector's utter ignorance of the details of the case

3) anticipatory relation (used in constructions with the anticipatory pronoun (namely, the anticipatory it, occasionally the demonstratives this, that):

I would consider it (this) a personal offence if they didn't accept the forwarded invitation.

Clauses of adverbial positions fall into many subdivisions:

1) 1 group: clauses of time and clauses of place. Their common semantic basis is localisation (temporal and spatial).

2) 2 group: clauses of manner and comparison. The common semantic basis of their functions is qualification.

3) 3 group: clauses of attendant event, condition, cause, reason, result (consequence), concession, purpose. The common semantic basis of is circumstance. The whole group should be divided into two subgroups: 1) clauses of "attendant circumstance"; 2) clauses of "immediate circumstance".

4) 4 group: parenthetical or insertive constructions.

Parenthetical clauses distinguish two semantic subtypes:

1) introductory (express different modal meanings): Jack has called here twice this morning, if I am not mistaken.

2) deviational (commenting insertions): Jim said, though I don't quite agree with him, that it would be in vain to appeal to the common sense of the organisers.

Complex sentences which have two or more subordinate clauses have two types of subordination arrangement:

1) parallel (subordinate clauses immediately refer to one and the same principal clause).

Parallel subordination may be homogeneous and heterogeneous:

When he agrees to hear me, and when we have spoken the matter over, I'll tell you the result (the two clauses of time are embedded on the principle of parallel subordination, are homogeneous – they depend on the same element (the principal clause as a whole), are connected with each other coordinatively and perform the same function)

(1) The speakers who represented different nations and social strata were unanimous in their call for peace which is so ardently desired by the common people of the world (co-subordinate clauses mostly refer to different elements in the principal clause)

2) consecutive

(2) It has a hierarchy of clausal levels where one subordinate clause is subordinated to another – direct consecutive subordination:

(3) I've no idea why she said she couldn't call on us at the time I had suggested.

Alongside of direct consecutive subordination there is another form of clausal hierarchy which is formed without an immediate domination of one subordinate clause over another:

(4) What he saw made him wince as though he had been struck (the comparative subordinate clause is dominated by the whole of the principal clause which includes a subordinate unit in the syntactic position of the subject) – oblique consecutive subordination.

The number of consecutive levels of subordination gives the evaluation of the depth of subordination perspective. In the first two examples this depth is estimated as 1; in the third example it equals 3; in the forth example it equals 2.