Asyndeton

There is another type of syntactic addition which gets along without any connection at all. Clauses juxtaposed in this way are not attached to one another in any grammatical way, they simply abut against each other, they make contact but are not connected. Grammar books differ in identifying the linguistic essence of such syntactic structures. According to the traditional angle of view, they are classified in most languages into compound and complex sentences.

A different approach is found in N. S. Pospelov's ¹ treatments of asyndeton in Russian syntax where asyndetic sentences are viewed as a special syntactic category with no immediate relevance to subordination or coordination.

¹ H. С. Поспелов. О грамматической природе и принципах классификации бессоюзных сложных предложений. «Вопросы синтаксиса современного русского языка». 1956, pp. 338—345.

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This angle of view has been taken also in other books and work-papers on this specialised topic. ¹

The multiplicity of ways in which asyndetic sentences are formed in many if not all languages gives, however, every reason to say that sentence-patterns of this type in all the variety of their lexico-grammatical organisation can hardly be adequately described on the whole as irrelevant to subordination and coordination.

Our survey of asyndeton in Modern English with its own semantic traits and features of syntactic arrangement gives sufficient evidence to point out that in some types of asyndetic composite sentences subordinate relations are quite prominent.

The first to be mentioned here are patterns with the attributive clauses, sometimes referred to as "contact-clauses", because what characterises them is the close contact between the antecedent and the clause, e. g.:

You don't care about them! They're not the gimcrack things you and your friends like, but they cost me seventy pounds!" (Galsworthy)

It's a pretty large thing I'm going on to and I'll need a lot of clever medical advice. (Cronin)

That the criterion of subordination is relevant to asyndetic sentences may well be illustrated by object and conditional clauses. Examples are:

He knew there were important ideas working in the other man's mind. (Cronin)

Old Jolyon said he would wait ... (Galsworthy)

I'm afraid there's no doubt about it. (Galsworthy)

Had I been a mere clod, neither would I have desired to write nor would you have desired me for a husband. (London)

Observe also the following examples of asyndeton where the close contact between two clauses is suggestive of causal relations:

Timothy was very poorly, he had had a lot of trouble with the chimney sweep in his bedroom; the stupid man had let the soot down the chimney. (Galsworthy)

" Why, yes", she answered, as the music stopped, trying to keep an even tone to her voice. She was glad they were walking toward a chair. (Dreiser)

In other types of asyndetic composite sentences the meaning of result or consequence is quite prominent, e. g.:

Warmth, softness, light, a sweet scent, all those things so familiar to her she never even thought about them, she watched that other receive. (Mansfield)

She had put on so much weight he would scarcely recognise her. (Cronin)

Asyndetic sentences are fairly common after the introductory it is, e. g.:

¹ See: Грамматика русского языка, т. 2, ч. 2, 1954, pp. 382—384. Л. П. Зайцева. Типы бессоюзных сложных предложений в современном английском языке. Автореферат канд. дисс, Л., 1955.

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It is an apple she wants, not a pear.

A similar case is found in patterns like: What is this I hear?

As can be seen from the above examples the semantic relations between clauses are signalled only by the lexical meaning of the words making up the sentence. And this is one more example to illustrate the interaction between vocabulary and syntax which must never be overlooked in grammatical analysis.

A word will be said about asyndetic sentences in which the relative pronoun as a subject can be dispensed with (the so-called "apokoinou" principle).

"There's a gentleman downstairs wishes to see the lady", said Alderson. "It's her father, I think", he added quietly. (Dreiser)