The Compound Sentence
It characteristically has:
1. a co-ordinating conjunction, AND, OR, BUT, ("But" may be elliptical when combined with the adverb "yet".) restricted to the initial position of the second and following compound sentences as its key feature;
2. no subordinate clauses and therefore, no subordinate conjunctions like "who, what where, how, which, whose, why, that, because";
3. two or more simple sentences joined by one or more co-ordinating
conjunctions creating identical parallel structures.
Here's a typical functional level representation of their identical parallel structures with examples:
(i) Subject + predicate + co-ordinating conjunction + subject + predicate;
(ii) Jack walked and Jill ran to school.
(iii) Jack walked, (but) yet Jill ran to school.
The Complex Sentence
It characteristically has:
1. as its key feature one or more subordinate conjunctions (e.g. who -- refers to persons-- ; to, for, with + whom; whoever; which -- refers to non-persons --; to, for, with + which; to, with, at + what; where, wherever; how; however; at, for, with +whose; why; that; because; for, since, after, before, as, if, unless, once, when, while) OR/AND one or more compound subordinate conjunctions (e.g. in, so, such, except, + that; now, provided, supposing, considering, seeing + that; as far, as long, as soon, so long, just +as; sooner, rather + than; as + if, though; in case; if only; judging from; the moment that) OR/AND one or more correlative subordinate conjunctions [e.g. if ... then; (al)though ... yet/nevertheless; as ... so; more/less ... than; so/as ... as; no sooner ... than; whether ... or; either/neither ... or/nor;] that embeds the subordinate clause within the main clause;
2. only one main subject and predicate combination: one main (principal) clause;
3. one or more subordinate clauses (whose subordinate conjunction may be elliptical). [e.g. Jill supposes
(that) Jack is right.] Note that when the subject and the auxiliary verb are elliptical in
a subordinate clause, it is considered to be rather a participle clause. [e.g. Although (he
was) attacked by a dog, Jack can walk.; While (Jill is) laughing, she runs to school.]
Here's a functional level representation of the basic complex sentence variations with examples:
1. (i) Subject + subordinate conjunction + subordinate clause + predicate.
(ii) Jill, who has long hair, is laughing.
2. (i) Subject + predicate + subordinate conjunction + subordinate clause.
(ii) Jack walks because he has hurt his leg.
3. (i) Subject + subordinate conjunction + subordinate clause + predicate + subordinate conjunction + subordinate clause.
(ii) Jill, who is laughing, runs to where her friends are.
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Updated: January 14, 1999