7.Складносурядне речення і типи сурядного зв’язку (Compound sentence and types of coordination).

The 2 main types of connection of clauses in a composite sentence are subordination and coordination. By coordination clauses are arranged as units of syntactically equal rank, i.e. equipotently. The leading clause and a sequential clause (He came and we had coffee. We had coffee and he came). By subordination they are arranged as units of unequal rank, one being categorically dominated by the other.

Besides the classical types of coordination and subordination of clauses, we find another case of construction of a composite sentence. When the connection between the clauses combined in a polypredicative unit is extremely loose, placing the sequential clause in a syntactically detached position. In this loosely connected composite sentence the information expressed by the sequential clause is presented as an afterthought, an idea that comes to the speaker’s mind after the completion of the foregoing utterance. This kind of connection is called cumulation. Its formal sign is the tone of completion. In writing it is a semifinal mark, such as a semicolon, a dash, sometimes a series of periods. Continuative cumulation: He did his job in the office without any fuss; he answered questions in the House: he made a couple of speeches. Parenthetical cumulation: Your story, you know, showed such breadth and depth of thought.

Compound sentences:

Form the semantico-syntactic point of view there are 2 basic types of connection:

• Marked coordinative connection – copulative, causal, resultative, adversative, disjunctive, e.g. We cannot go upstairs for we are too tired.

• Unmarked coordinative connection - is realized by the coordinative connector “and” and also asyndetically (copulative, enumerative, causal, resultative relations), e.g. Time passed, and she came to no conclusions. We cannot go upstairs, we are too tired.

Opened constructions are copulative and enumerative. They are used in narrations in literary texts as a descriptive means.

Closed type of compound sentences presupposes some kind of finalization. Conjunctions AND and BUT.

The problem of communication types:

There are compound sentences consisting of clauses belonging to different communication types. In this case it is impossible to state to what type the compound sentence as a whole belongs.

e.g. These came nearer than most to meaning something to her, but what? (declarative + interrogative)

Can we call a compound sentence a sentence at all? according to communication type – NO

There is theory on the unity of communication type, which recognizes compound sentences as a special sentence type.

Compound sentences consist of clauses joined together by coordinating conjunctions: and, but, or, for, yet.

Grammatical structure of compound sentences:

The semantic relations between the clauses making up the compound sentence depend partly on the lexical meaning of the conjunction uniting them, and partly on the meanings of the words making up the clauses themselves:

Copulative conjunctions - and, neither…nor

Disjunctive conjunctions - or, otherwise, either…or

Adversative conjunctions - but, yet, still, nevertheless, however

As to the use of tenses in clauses making up a compound sentence, we should note that there is no general rule of their interdependence. However, in a number of cases we do find interdependence of co-ordinate clauses from this point of view.

The number of clauses in a compound sentence may be greater than 2, and in this case the conjunctions uniting the clauses may be different.