 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
158
The first expansion: You are mistaken if you think that Mike was eager to receive an invitation to join us. I
invited him, but he refused.
The given concessive reading of the sentence is justified by the context: the tested compound sentence is to
be replaced here by the above complex one on a clear basis of equivalence.
The second expansion: It was decided to invite either Mike or Jesse to help us with our work. First I
invited Mike, but he refused. Then we asked Jesse to join us.
It is quite clear that the devised concessive diagnosis is not at all justified by this context: what the analysed
construction does render here, is a stage in a succession of events, for which the use of a concessive model
would be absurd.
§ 5. The length of the compound sentence in terms of the number of its clausal parts (its predicative
volume), the same as with the complex sentence, is in principle unlimited; it is determined by the informative
purpose of the speaker. The commonest type of the compound sentence in this respect is a two-clause
construction.
On the other hand, predicatively longer sentences than two-clause ones, from the point of view of semantic
correlation between the clauses, are divided into "open" and "closed" constructions. Copulative and
enumerative types of connection, if tney are not varied in the final sequential clause, form "open" coordinations.
These are used as descriptive and narrative means in a literary text, Cf.:
They visited house after house. They went over them thoroughly, examining them from the cellars in the
basement to the attics under the roof. Sometimes they were too large and sometimes they were too small;
sometimes they were too far from the center of things and sometimes they were too close; sometimes they were
too expensive and sometimes they wanted too many repairs; sometimes they were too stuffy and sometimes they
were too airy, sometimes they were too dark and sometimes they were too bleak. Roger always found a fault
that made the house unsuitable (S. Maugham).
In the multi-clause compound sentence of a closed type the final part is joined on an unequal basis with the
previous ones (or one), whereby a finalization of the expressed chain of ideas is achieved. The same as open
compound sentences, closed compound constructions are very important from the point of view of a general
text arrangement. The most typical closures in such compound sentences are those effected by the conjunctions
and (for an asyndetic preceding construction) and but (both for an asyndetic and copulative syndetic preceding
construction). Cf., respectively:
His fingernails had been cleaned, his teeth brushed, his hair combed, his nostrils cleared and dried, and he
had been dressed in formal black by somebody or other (W. Saroyan). Pleasure may turn a heart to stone, riches
may make it callous, but sorrow - oh, sorrow cannot break it (O. Wilde).
The structure of the closed coordinative construction is most convenient for the formation of expressive
climax.
C H A P T E R XXIX
SEMI-COMPLEX SENTENCE
§ 1. In accord with the principles laid down in the introductory description of composite sentences (Ch.
XXVI), the semi-composite sentence is to be denned as a sentence with more than one predicative lines which
are expressed in fusion. For the most part, one of these lines can be identified as the leading or dominant, the
others making the semi-predicative expansion of the sentence. The expanding semi-predicative line in the
minimal semi-composite sentence is either wholly fused with the dominant (complete) predicative line of the
construction, or partially fused with it, being weakened as a result of the fusing derivational transformation.
The semi-composite sentence displays an intermediary syntactic character between the composite sentence
and the simple sentence. Its immediate syntagmatic structure ("surface" structure) is analogous to that of an
expanded simple sentence, since it possesses only one completely expressed predicative unit. Its derivational
structure ("deep" structure), on the other hand, is analogous to that of a composite sentence, because it is
derived from two or more completely predicative units - its base sentences.
There are two different causes of the existence of the semi-composite sentence in language, each of them
being essentially important in itself.
The first cause is the tendency of speech to be economical. As a result of this tendency, reductional
processes are developed which bring about semi-blending of sentences. The second cause is that, apart from
being economical, the semi-composite sentence fulfills its own purely semantic function, different from the