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303
I know that you are afraid of me and that you suspect me of something.
In this case the structure of the sentence is:
Main clause
Subordinate clause
|
and
|
Subordinate clause
The main clause may have several subordinate clauses with different functions.
All she saw was that she might go to prison for a robbery she had committed years ago.
Main clause
All... was...
<——————————————
Predicative clause
... that she might go to prison for a robbery...
^
^
Attributive clause..
...she saw...
Attributive clause
.. .she had committed years ago.
Occasionally the two ways of joining clauses may result in a sentence of great complexity, when two or
more main clauses are coordinated, each of them being the “main” in relation to their subordinate clauses.
The walls were panelled, because this was the office of the department chairman, and because this
department was physics, the panels held small engraved portraits of Newton, Leibnitz, Faraday, and other
scientists.
Main clause
The walls were panelled
—————and————————
main clause
the panels held small engraved
portraits of... scientists
^
^
Subordinate clause of
cause...because this was the
office of the department chairman
Subordinate clause of cause
...because this department was
physics...
§ 147. Subordination is used to join clauses with a different degree of interdependence or fusion, in the same
way as parts of the sentence are joined to one another with a different intensity of connection. Therefore some
clauses - subject, predicative, most object clauses - are obligatory for the completeness of main parts, which are
otherwise deficient. For instance, in the sentence I think you are right it is impossible to drop the object clause,
as the part I think makes no sense. In the same way if we drop the predicative clause in the sentence My opinion
was that there was something behind, the part left *My opinion was is ungrammatical.
As can be seen from the examples given above, the role of a subordinate clause for the completeness of the
main clause is closely connected with the function of the former.
Most adverbial clauses are optional, not essential for the completeness of the main clause. Thus if we drop
the subordinate part in the following sentence, the part left will be identical with a simple sentence.
We’ll have dinner at 8 o’clock, when you come.
We’ll have dinner at 8 o'clock.
According to its syntactic function and the word it refers to, the subordinate clause may be placed before,
after, or in the middle of the main clause. Punctuation also depends on these factors: if closely connected, a
clause may be joined without any punctuation mark.
I know he is here.
This is the man I told you about.