English grammar - Roger Berry 2012
A9.3 Conjunctions and subordinators
A9 Types of sentence
Section A. Introduction
The conjunction is the last word class that we will encounter. Conjunctions are a closed class; their function is to join two clauses together and show the meaning relationship between them. There are two types of conjunction, parallel to the two types of clause combination:
□ coordinating: and, but, or
□ subordinating, e.g. when, if, although, because, since, before, etc. Some consist of more than one word: as soon as, so that.
There are also a number of other words that are used to introduce subordinate clauses:
□ that: I know that you don’t like him. (see A10)
□ wh- words: I know what you mean. (see A10)
□ relative pronouns (see B10)
□ if and whether in indirect questions (see B12): I wonder if/whether she’ coming.
These are sometimes called ’subordinators’; the term can be extended to include all subordinating conjunctions.
Although they are used differently, conjunctions cover similar meanings to linking adverbs and some prepositions. All show the connection in meaning between two ideas. Thus:
but (coordinating conjunction)
although, though, yet (subordinating conjunction)
however, nevertheless, yet (linking adverbs)
despite, in spite of (prepositions)
all cover the idea of ’concession’, that is where two ideas are somehow contradictory, and the second one would not be expected from the first. However, conjunctions create a closer connection than linking adverbs because they are in the same sentence.
Activity A9.3
The four graphological sentences below illustrate the same basic meaning relationships using different grammatical means: a co-ordinating conjunction in 1, a subordinating conjunction in 2, a linking adverb in 3 and a preposition in 4. Work out
a) how many grammatical sentences there are in each case;
b) what type of sentences there are (simple vs multiple, compound vs complex).
1. He’s stubborn but I still like him.
2. I still like him although he’s stubborn. (or Although. . .)
3. He’s stubborn; however, I still like him.
4. In spite of his stubbornness I still like him.
As well as joining clauses, co-ordinating conjunctions can be used to join smaller units, for example, phrases:
He’ clever and hard-working with it.
Should I see a doctor or a dentist?
or parts of phrases:
I was laughing and crying at the same time.
And can also join two subordinate clauses:
We’ll leave when the job is done and when we’ve been paid.
The boundary between conjunctions and linking adverbs can sometimes be hard to draw. First, linking adverbs such as so and yet are often used as conjunctions:
The party was getting boring so we left. (Or . . . boring. So we left.)
Second, co-ordinating conjunctions are often used to introduce simple sentences, where they have the appearance of linking adverbs, as in this example (at the start of a paragraph) from the Amy Tan text in C9:
And then my mother cut a piece of meat from her arm.
In a prescriptive approach (see A1) it is said that this is wrong, that ’you shouldn’t start a sentence with and’, but this is common in creative and other types of writing. In this book, the approach taken is that this is a graphological sentence (because this is what the writer wants), rather than a grammatical sentence. Grammatically it belongs to the previous sentence, but this does not imply that it is ’incorrect’. See C9 for more discussion of such ’sentences’.
Activity A9.4
How would you describe the use of however in this sentence?
We wrote to the company on August 18, however we have received no reply.
Sometimes clauses are joined without a conjunction. Tag questions are one example (see B9); ’echoes’ at the end of sentences are another:
She’ got a lot of nerve, she has.
And spoken English quite often has strings of clauses with no explicit connection. (See A12 and C12 for more on this.)
Comments
Activity 9.1:
Only (2) is a major sentence. (4) is a subordinate clause - see A10. Your money is spent by the state would be a major sentence but the addition of ’how’ shows that it is only a clause element, a fragment which could be reconstructed as
This article shows how your money is spent by the state.
Activity A9.2:
There is only one grammatical sentence, based on (1), which has the clause structure SVPs, where the predicative is a clause. (2), (3) and (4) are all fragments; (2) and (3) are merely further predicative clauses based on (1), while (4) echoes the prepositional phase (beneath my skin) that is part of (3). The whole paragraph could be rewritten as:
Here is how I came to love my mother, how I saw in her my own true nature, what was beneath my skin, inside my bones.
Note that, although (2) and (3) begin with wh- words, they are not interrogatives; they are subordinate clauses (see A10). The whole constitutes a major, multiple, complex sentence. See C9 for more practice on this.
Activity A9.3:
(1) consists of one multiple, compound sentence.
(2) consists of one multiple, complex sentence.
(3) has two simple sentences; the semi-colon is equivalent to a (grammatical) sentence break.
(4) consists of one simple sentence; the prepositional phrase carries the same basic meaning as one of the clauses in the other sentences.
Activity A9.4:
However is essentially a linking adverb, but here it used like a coordinating conjunction (= but). This usage is quite common, in particular in business communication, but it is considered by many to be incorrect, an example of what is called a ’run-on’ sentence.