SEMI-COMPOUND SENTENCE

SEMI-COMPOUND SENTENCE

1. The semi-compound sentence is a semi-composite sentence built up on the principle of coordination. Proceeding from the outlined grammatical analysis of the composite sentence, the structure of the semi-compound sentence is derivationally to be traced back to minimum two base sentences having an identical element belonging to one or both of their principal syntactic positions, i.e. either the subject,

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or the predicate, or both. By the process of semi-compounding, the sentences overlap round the identical element sharing it in coordinative fusion, which can be either syndetic or asyndetic. Thus, from the formal point of view, a sentence possessing coordinated notional parts of immediately sentential reference (directly related to its predicative line) is to be treated as semi-compound. But different structural types of syntactic coordination even of direct sentential reference (coordinated subjects, predicates, objects, adverbial modifiers) display very different implications as regards semi-compounding composition of sentences.

By way of a general statement we may say that, other things being equal, the closer the coordinative group is related to the verb-predicate of the sentence, the more directly and explicitly it functions as a factor of sentence semi-compounding.

For instance, coordinated subjects connected asyndetically in an enumerative sequence or forming a plain copulative syndetic string can hardly be taken as constituting so many shared though separately identified predicative lines with the verbal constituent of the sentence. As different from this, two subject-groups connected adversatively or antithetically are more 'live' in their separate relation to the predicative centre; the derivative reference of such a sentence to the two source predicative constructions receives some substantiality. E.g.:

There was nothing else, only her face in front of me. → There was nothing else in front of me.+There was only her face in front of me.

Substantially involved in the expression of semi-compounding is a combination of two subjects relating to one predicate when the subjects are discontinuously positioned, so that the first starts the utterance, while the second concludes it with some kind of process-referred introduction. Cf.:

The entrance door stood open, and also the door of the living-room. The entrance door stood open.+ The door of the living-room stood also open.

However, if we turn our attention to genuine coordinations of predicates (i.e. coordinations of non-repetitive or otherwise primitivising type), both verbal and nominal, we shall immediately be convinced of each element of the group presenting its own predicative centre relating to the one

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subject axis of the sentence, thereby forming a strictly compounding fusion of the predicative lines expressed. This fact is so trivially clear that it does not seem to require a special demonstration.

Hence, we will from now on treat the corresponding sentence-patterns with coordinate predicate phrases as featuring classes of constructions that actually answer the identifying definition of semi-compound sentence; in our further exposition we will dwell on some structural properties and functional semantics of this important sentence-type so widely represented in the living English speech in all its lingual divisions, which alone displays an unreservedly clear form of sentential semi-compounding out of the numerous and extremely diversified patterns of syntactic coordination.

2. The semi-compound sentence of predicate coordination is derived from minimum two base sentences having identical subjects. By the act of semi-compounding, one of the base sentences in most cases of textual occurrence becomes the leading clause of complete structure, while the other one is transformed into the sequential coordinate semi-clause (expansion) referring to the same subject. E.g.:

The soldier was badly wounded. +The soldier stayed in the ranks. → The soldier was badly wounded, but stayed in the ranks. He tore the photograph in half. + He threw the photograph in the fire. → He tore the photograph in half and threw it in the fire.

The rare instances contradicting the given rule concern inverted constructions where the intense fusion of predicates in overlapping round the subject placed in the end position deprives the leading clause of its unbroken, continuous presentation. Cf.:

Before him lay the road to fame. + The road to fame lured him. → Before him lay and lured him the road to fame.

In case of a nominal predicate, the sequential predicative complement can be used in a semi-compound pattern without its linking part repeated. E.g.:

My manner was matter-of-fact, and casual. The savage must have been asleep or very tired.

The same holds true about coordinated verbids related

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to a common finite verb in the function of an auxiliary or otherwise. E.g.:

The tiger was at large and burning with rage. He could not recall the face of the peasant girl or remember the feel of her.

By the number of bases joined, (and predicate phrases representing them) semi-compound sentences may be two-base (minimal) or multi-base (more than minimal two-base). The coordinated expansion is connected with the leading part either syndetically or asyndetically.

The syndetic formation of the semi-compound sentence expresses, first, copulative connection of events; then contrast, either comparative or adversative; furthermore, disjunction (alternation), consequence, limitation, elucidation. The conjunctive elements effecting this syndetic semi-compounding of sentences are both pure conjunctions and also words of adverbial nature. The pure conjunction and, the same as with pleni-compound sentences, expresses the unmarked semantic type of semi-compounding; the rest of the connectors render various marked types of it. The pure conjunctions used for semi-compounding, besides the copulative and, are monoconjunctions but, or, nor, and double (discontinuous) conjunctions both and, not only but also, either or, neither nor. The conjunctive adverbials are then, so, just, only.

Here are some examples of double-conjunctional formations expressing, respectively, disjunction, simple copulative relation, copulative antithesis, copulative exclusion:

They either went for long walks over the fields, or joined in a quiet game of chess on the veranda. That great man was both a soldier and a born diplomat. Mary not only put up with his presence, but tried to be hospitable. I am neither for the proposal, nor against the proposal; nor participating in that sham discussion of theirs at all.

Cf. instances of conjunctive-adverbial introduction of predicate expansion rendering the functional meanings of action ordering (then), of adversative-concessive relation (yet), of consequence (so), of limitation (just):

His beady eyes searched the clearing, then came back to my face. He was the tallest and bravest, yet was among those to give up life. I knew then that she was laughing,

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so laughed with her. The Colonel didn't enlarge on the possible outcome of their adventure, just said a few words of warning against the abrupt turns of the mountain-pass.

With semi-compound sentences, similar to pleni-compound sentences, but on a larger scale, conjunctions combine with particle-like elements of modal-adverbial description. These elements supplement and specify the meaning of the conjunction, so that they receive the status of sub-conjunction specifiers, and the pairs 'conjunction plus sub-conjunctive' become in fact regular conjunctive-coordinative combinations. Here belong such combinations as and then, and perhaps, and probably, and presently, and so, and consequently, etc; but merely, but only, but instead, but nevertheless, etc.; or else, or even, or rather, etc. The specifications given by the sub-conjunctives are those of change of events, probability evaluation, consequence in reasoning, concessive contrast, limiting condition, intensity gradation, and many others, more specific ones. E.g.:

He waited for some moments longer and then walked down to the garden to where, on the terrace, the jeep was parked (H. E. Bates). She lived entirely apart from the contemporary literary world and probably was never in the company of anyone more talented than herself (J. Austen). To his relief, she was not giving off the shifting damp heat of her anger, but instead was cool, decisive, material (J. Updike). For several hours I discussed this with you, or rather vented exhaustive rewordings upon your silent phantom (J. Updike).

3. Of all the diversified means of connecting base sentences into a semi-compound construction the most important and by far the most broadly used is the conjunction and. Effecting the unmarked semi-compounding connection of sentences, it renders the widest possible range of syntactic relational meanings; as for its frequency of occurrence, it substantially exceeds that of all the rest of the conjunctives used for semi-compounding taken together.

The functional meanings expressed by the and-semi-compound patterns can be exposed by means of both coordinative and subordinative correlations. Here are some basic ones:

The officer parked the car at the end of the terrace and went into the Mission. → The officer parked the car ,

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then went into the Mission. (Succession of events, inviting a coordinative exposition) Suddenly the door burst open and Tommy rushed in panting for breath.→ As the door burst open, Tommy rushed in ('Successive simultaneity' of actions, inviting a subordinative exposition) Patterton gavelled for attention and speedily disposed of several routine matters. → Patterton gavelled for attention so that he could dispose and did dispose of several routine matters. (Purpose in successive actions, inviting a subordinative exposition) Her anger and emotion grew, and finally exploded. → Her anger and emotion grew to the degree that they finally exploded. (Successive actions in gradation, inviting a subordinative exposition) He just miscalculated and won't admit it. Though he miscalculated, he won't admit it. (Concession in opposition, inviting a subordinative exposition) Mary promised to come and he was determined to wait. → He was determined to wait because Mary had promised to come. (Cause and consequence, inviting a subordinative exposition)

Among the various connective meanings expressed by the conjunction and in combination with the corresponding lexemic constituents of the sentence there are two standing very prominent, due to the regular correlations existing between such constructions and semi-complex patterns with verbid phrases  infinitival and participial.

The first construction expresses a subsequent action of incidental or unexpected character:

He leaped up in time to see the Colonel rushing out of the door (H. E. Bates). → He leaped up in time and saw the Colonel rushing out of the door. Walker woke in his bed at the bourbon house to hear a strange hum and buzz in the air (M. Bradbury). → Walker woke in his bed at the bourbon house and heard a strange hum and buzz in the air.

In these constructions the leading clause, as a rule, includes verbs of positional or psychological change, while the expansion, correspondingly, features verbs of perceptions. As is seen from the examples, it is the semi-compound pattern that diagnoses the meaning of the pattern with the infinitive, not the reverse. The infinitive pattern for its part makes up an expressive stylistic device by virtue of its outward coincidence with an infinitive pattern of purpose: the unexpectedness of the referent action goes together with the contextual unexpectedness of the construction.

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The participial construction expresses a parallel attendant event that serves as a characteristic to the event rendered by the leading clause:

He sat staring down the gardens, trying to remember whether this was the seventh or eighth day since the attack had begun (H. E. Bates). → He was sitting and staring down the gardens, and was trying to remember Rage flamed up in him, contorting his own face (M. Puzo). →Rage flamed up in him and contorted his own face.

With the participial pattern, the same as with the infinitival one, the diagnostic construction is the semi-compound sentence, not vice versa.

The nature of the shown correlations might be interpreted as a reason for considering the relations between the head-verb and the verbid in the tested patterns as coordinative, not subordinative. However, on closer analysis we must admit that diagnosis of this kind is called upon to expose the hidden meanings, but not to level up the differences between units of opposed categorial standings. The verbid patterns remain part of the system of semi-complex sentences because of the hierarchical ranking of their notional positions, while the correlation with semi-compound sentences simply explain their respective semantic properties.

4. The asyndetic formation of the semi-compound sentence stands by its functional features close to the syndetic and-formation in so far as it does not give a rigorous characterisation (semantic mark) to the introduced expansion. At the same time its functional range is incomparably narrower than that of the and-formation.

The central connective meaning distinguishing the asyndetic connection of predicative parts in semi-compound sentences is enumeration of events, either parallel or consecutive. In accord with the enumerative function, asyndetic semi-compounding more often than not is applied to a larger set of base sentences than the minimal two. E.g.:

He closed the door behind him with a shaking hand, found the old car in its parking place, drove along with the drifting lights. They talked, laughed, were perfectly happy late into the night.

Asyndetic semi-compound sentences are often used to

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express gradation of intensity going together with a general emphasis. E.g.:

He would in truth give up the shop, follow her to Paris, follow her also to the chateau in the country (D. du Maurier). He never took the schoolbag again, had refused to touch it (J. Updike).

Characteristic of enumerative and gradational semi-compound sentences is the construction where the first two parts are joined asyndetically, and the third part syndetically, by means of the conjunction and. In such three-base constructions the syndetic expansion finalises the sentence both structurally and semantically, making it into an intensely complete utterance. E.g.:

He knows his influence, struts about and considers himself a great duellist. They can do it, have the will to do it, and are actually doing it.

Of the meanings other than enumerative rendered by the construction in question, the most prominent is elucidation combined with various connotations, such as consequence, purpose, additional characteristics of the basic event. Cf.:

The sight of him made me feel young again: took me back to the beaches, the Ardennes, the Reichswald, and the Rhine. I put an arm round her, tried to tease her into resting.

5. The number of predicative parts in a semi-compound sentence is balanced against the context in which it is used, and, naturally, is an essential feature of its structure. This number may be as great as seven, eight, or even more.

The connection-types of multi-base semi-compound sentences are syndetic, asyndetic, and mixed.

The syndetic semi-compound sentences may be homo-syndetic (i.e. formed by so many entries of one and the same conjunctive) and heterosyndetic (i.e. formed by different conjunctives). The most important type of homosyndetic semi-compounding is the and-type. Its functional meaning is enumeration combined with copulation. E.g.:

A harmless young man going nowhere in particular was knocked down and trodden on and rose to fight back and was punched in the head by a policeman in mistake for someone else and hit the policeman back and ended in more trouble than if he had been on the party himself (M. Dickens).

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A series of successive events is intensely rendered by a homosyndetic construction formed with the help of the conjunctive then. E.g.: You saw the flash, then heard the crack, then saw the smoke ball distort and thin in the wind (E. Hemingway).

Another conjunctive pattern used in homosyndetic semi-compounding is the or-type in its different variants. E.g.:

After dinner we sat in the yard of the inn on hard chairs, or paced about the platform or stumbled between the steel sleepers of the permanent way (E. Waugh). Babies never cried or got the wind or were sick when Nurse Morrison fed them (M. Dickens).

By heterosyndetic semi-compounding the parts of the sentence are divided into groups according to the meanings of the conjunctives. Cf.:

A native woman in a sarong came and looked at them, but vanished when the doctor addressed her (S. Maugham). Ugly sat in the bow and barked arrogantly at passing boats, or stood rockily peering in the river (M. Dickens).

The asyndetic connections in semi-compound sentences, within their range of functions, are very expressive, especially when making up long enumerations-gradations. E.g.:

He had enjoyed a sharp little practice in Split, had meddled before the war in anti-Serbian politics, had found himself in an Italian prison, had been let out when the partisans briefly 'liberated' the coast, had been swept up with them in the retreat (E. Waugh).

In the mixed syndetic-asyndetic semi-compound sentence various groupings of coordinated parts are effected. E.g.: He spun completely round, then fell forward on his knees, rose again and limped slowly on (E. Waugh).

In cases where multi-base semi-compound sentences are formed around one and the same subject-predicate combination, they are very often primitivised into a one-predicate sentence with coordinated secondary parts. Of these sentences, a very characteristic type is presented by a construction with a string of adverbial groups. This type of sentence expresses an action (usually, though not necessarily, a movement) or a series of actions continued through a sequence of consecutive place- and time situations. E.g.: Then she took my hand, and we went down the steps of the tower

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together, and through the court and to the walls of the rock-place (D. du Maurier).

The construction is very dynamic, its adverbial constituents preserve clear traces of the corresponding predications, and therefore it approaches the genuine semi-compound sentence of predicate coordination by its semantic nature.

6. The semi-compound sentence of predicate coordination immediately correlates with a compound sentence of complete composition having identical subjects. Both constructions are built upon the same set of base sentences, use the same connective means and reflect the same situation, E.g.:

She looked at him and saw again the devotion, the humility in his eyes. → She looked at him and she saw again the devotion, the humility in his eyes (The latter sentence  from D. du Maurier). The officer received the messengers, took their letters, and though I stood with them, completely ignored me. The officer received the messengers, took their letters, and though I stood with them, he completely ignored me (The latter sentence  from H. E. Stover).

A question arises whether the compared sentences are absolutely the same in terms of functions and semantics, or whether there is some kind of difference between them which causes them to be used discriminately.

In an attempt to expose the existing functional difference between the two constructions, it has been pointed out that base sentences with identical subjects are connected not in a semi-compound, but into a compound sentence (of complete composition) in the three main cases: first, when the leading sentence is comparatively long; second, when the finite verbs in the two sentences are of different structure; third, when the second sentence is highly emotional.* These tentative formulations should rather be looked upon as practical guides, for they do correspond to the existing tendencies of living speech. But the tendencies lack absolute regularity and, which is far more significant, they do not present complete lingual facts by themselves, but rather are particular manifestations of a general and fundamental mechanism at work. This mechanism is embodied in the actual division of the

* Irtenyeva N. F., Shapkin A. P., Blokh M. Y. The Structure of the English Sentence. M., 1969, p. 110.

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sentence: as a matter of fact, observations of the relevant contexts show that the structure of the actual division in the two types of sentences is essentially different. Namely, whereas the actual division of the compound sentence with identical subjects presents two (or more) separate informative perspectives characterised by identical themes and different rhemes, the actual division of the semi-compound sentence presents only one perspective, analysed into one theme and one, though complex, rheme; the latter falls into two or more constituent rhemes (sub-rhemes) in various concrete contexts.

The sub-rhemes may be of equal importance from the informational point of view, as in the following example: We were met by a guide who spoke excellent English and had a head full of facts.

The sub-rhemes may be of unequal informative importance, the predicative expansion rendering the basic semantic content of the sentence. E.g.: She gave us her address and asked us to come and see her.

The coordinated predicate groups may also be informatively fused into an essentially simple rheme, i.e. into a phrase making up a close informative unity. E.g.: He took out his diary and began to write. The man looked up and laughed.

As different from the semi-compound construction with its exposed informative properties, the very identity of the subject themes in a compound sentence of complete composition is a factor making it into a communicatively intense, logically accented syntactic unit (compare the examples given at the beginning of the paragraph).