SEMI-COMPOUND SENTENCE

The semi-compound sentence is a semi-composite sentence built up on the principle of coordination. Proceeding from the outlined grammatical analysis of the composite sentence, the structure of the semi-compound sentence is derivationally to be traced back to minimum two base sentences having an identical element belonging to one or both of their principal syntactic positions, i.e. either the subject, or the predicate, or both. By the process of semi-compounding, the sentences overlap round the identical element sharing it in coordinative fusion, which can be either syndetic or asyndetic. Thus, from the formal point of view, a sentence possessing coordinated notional parts of immediately sentential reference (directly related to its predicative line) is to be treated as semi-compound. But different structural types of syntactic coordination even of direct sentential reference (coordinated subjects, predicates, objects, adverbial modifiers) display very different implications as regards semi-compounding composition of sentences.

There was nothing else, only her face in front of me. > There was nothing else in front of me.+There was only her face in front of me.

The entrance door stood open, and also the door of the liv-ing-room. —» The entrance door stood open.+ The door of the living-room stood also open.

The semi-compound sentence of predicate coordination is derived from minimum two base sentences having identical subjects. By the act of semi-compounding, one of the base sentences in most cases of textual occurrence becomes the leading clause of complete structure, while the other one is transformed into the sequential coordinate semi-clause (expansion) referring to the same subject. E.g.:

The soldier was badly wounded. +The soldier stayed in the ranks. > The soldier was badly wounded, but stayed in the ranks. He tore the photograph in half. + He threw the photo-graph in the fire. > He tore the photograph in half and threw it in the fire.

Of all the diversified means of connecting base sentences into a semi-compound construction the most important and by far the most broadly used is the conjunction and. The functional meanings expressed by the and-semi-compound patterns can be exposed by means of both coordinative and subordinative correlations. Here are some basic ones:

The officer parked the car at the end of the terrace and went into the Mission. > The officer parked the car..., then went into the Mission. (Succession of events, inviting a coordinative exposition) Suddenly the door burst open and Tommy rushed in panting for breath.> As the door burst open, Tommy rushed in...(" Successive simultaneity" of actions, inviting a subordinative exposition)

The asyndetic formation of the semi-compound sentence stands by its functional features close to the syndetic and-formation in so far as it does not give a rigorous characterization (semantic mark) to the introduced expansion. At the same time its functional range is incomparably narrower than that of the and-formation.

He closed the door behind him with a shaking hand, found the old car in its parking place, drove along with the drifting lights. They talked, laughed, were perfectly happy late into the night.