Elements Joined by a Coordinate Conjunction

The elements of a compound sentence are principal clauses. Each principal clause may have any of the preceding forms of elements and therefore may by itself be a complex sentence.

Compound sentences can combine:

• linking verb clauses without emphasis using a single connective

  For example

  The rain is over, and the sun shines.

• linking verb clauses with the second clause made emphatic by means of an associated connective

  For example

  She sings, and, besides, she plays skillfully.

• linking verb clauses made emphatic by a correlative
  For example

  For example

  Not only am I instructed by this exercise, but I am also invigorated.

• adversative clauses with opposition or contrast

  For example

  He did not return to his parents, but he persisted in wandering among strangers.

• adversative clauses with limitation or restriction

  For example

  The army was victorious, but the general was slain.

• adversative clauses with emphatic opposition or restriction

  For example

  The delinquent has been repeatedly admonished, but still he is as negligent as ever.

• alternative clauses offering or denying a choice
  For example

  For example

  He cannot ride, nor will he walk.

• alternative clauses with emphasis

  For example

  Either he will love the one, and hate the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.

• causal clauses

  For example

  The south wind blows, [and] therefore it will rain.

• component parts complex

  For example

  When he rose, every sound was hushed; and when he spoke, every eye was fixed upon him.
  You take my house, when you do take the prop that doth sustain my house; you take my life,
  when you do take the means whereby I live.

Contracted Sentences / Sentences Formed with Common Parts Omitted

Compound Elements

A compound sentence may be contracted to a partially compounded sentence by using
elements common to the full propositions a single time, and uniting all others.

For example

Heaven shall pass away, and earth shall pass away.

This can be stated as,
Heaven and earth shall pass away.

Observe that the contracted sentence has only a compound subject.

Sentences can have:

• Compound subjects:

  For example

  Virtue and vice form a strong contrast to each other.
  To soothe thy sickness, and to watch thy health, shall be my pleasure.
  That their poetry is almost uniformly mournful, and that their views of nature were dark and dreary, will be
  allowed by all who admit the authenticity of Ossian.

• compound predicates:

  For example

  No fascinated throng weep, and melt, and tremble at his gate.
  The present life is not wholly prosaic, precise, tame, and finite.
  His direction was that the patient should take a great deal of exercise, that his diet should be
  very carefully attended to, and that everything of an exciting nature should be avoided.

• compound adjective element:

  For example

  Wise and good men are frequently unsuccessful.
  The parting of Hector and Andromache is beautifully described by Homer.
  That faith which is one, which renews and justifies all who possess it, which
  confessions and formularies can never adequately express, is the property of all alike.

• compound objective elements:

  For example

  Behold my mother and my brethren.
  It teaches us to be thankful for all favors received, to love each other,

• abridged clauses united:

  For example

  He found that everything was changed, that strangers inhabited the home of his childhood,
  and that he was alone in the world.

• compound adverbial elements:

  For example

  The boy studied diligently and faithfully.
  With trembling limbs and faltering steps, he departed from his mansion of sorrow.
  When a few more friends have left, a few more hopes deceived, and a few more changes
  mocked us, we shall be brought to the grave, and shall remain in the tomb.

Subordinate Clause Abridged

Abridged Propositions

A subordinate clause is abridged by dropping its connective and changing the predicate into a participle or an infinitive.

For example

To an American who visits Europe, the long voyage he has to make is an excellent preparative.
To an American visiting Europe, the long voyage he has to make is an excellent preparative.
I am glad that I find you well.
I am glad to find you well.

The participle is employed usually to abridge adjective and adverbial clauses, and the =infinitive and sometimes
the participle is used to abridge substantive clauses.

In many cases the linking verb is dropped and the attribute alone remains, in apposition, or
as an attributive object.

The subject is dropped when it has already been expressed in the principal clause.
Otherwise it must be retained, either in the nominative, the possessive, or the objective case.

Abridged propositions may be divided into two classes:

• participial forms
• infinitive forms

Participial Forms

For example
Subject nominative retained:
When shame is lost, all virtue is lost.
Shame being lost, all virtue is lost.

Predicate nominative retained:
That one should be a servant to the whole public is no easy task.
Being a servant to the whole public is no easy task.

Both retained:
Since, a youth is their leader.
A youth being their leader, what can they do?

Subject changed to the possessive:
I was not aware that he lived in the city.
I was not aware of his living in the city.
Here the full clause and the abridged expression are under the regimen of
aware, or aware of in the principal clause.
Observe, however, that this governing word has no control over his, which
is wholly under the government of living.
The same holds with predicate noun unchanged.

Subject and predicate changed to the objective:
We regarded him as being a good writer.
He entrusted his son to a gentleman named Cedric.
I saw that the chrysalis was becoming a butterfly.
I saw the chrysalis becoming a butterfly.
Here, as in many other cases, there is a difference of meaning between the
two forms.
In this case the usual form for abridgment is the infinitive. In fact, the
participle is equivalent to the: infinitive. The subject is changed to the
objective, and the predicate noun takes the same case.

Subject dropped:
As we were walking by the sea shore, we discerned the light of the burning ship.
Walking by the sea-shore, etc.
When we arrived at the gate, we found the porter asleep.
On arriving at the gate, etc.
Infinitive Forms

Observe, in the full form, that the whole clause is the only object while in the abridged form the subject becomes the direct object, and the predicate, still holding its relation to it as attribute, is the attributive object.

For example

Subject retained in the objective:
We taught them to read.
We wish that you would stay,
We wish you to stay.
Here the subject should be dropped when it is the same as that of the
principal clause.

Predicate noun retained in the nominative:
To be a king is to be a sovereign.
Subject and predicate retained in the objective:
I believed that he was an honest man,
I believed him to be, an honest man.
For him to be such a spendthrift was wholly inexcusable.
The abridged expression, the term of a comparison:
The bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself in it.
The bed is shorter than for a man, etc. . . .
Here the subjects are unlike.
My friend was so elated that he forgot, his appointment,—as to forget, &e. The soldiers desired nothing
more than that they might, know where the enemy was,—than to know, &c.
Here the subjects of the two clauses are alike.

An incorporated interrogative sentence:
I knew not what I should do,
I know not what to do.