The Grammar

Lesson
of Complex
2
Sentence
Learning Outcomes:
At the end of this lesson, you are expected to:
• examine and discuss how complex sentence
structures are formed in order to characterize
authorial and text styles ; and
• demonstrate mastery on the basic principle of
complex sentence structures and its effect to
different texts.
Introduction:
In this lesson, we will review the basic grammar of simple sentences and clauses and
explore how clauses are combined together to make more complex sentences using the
principles of linking, listing and nesting.

To put into details, we will explore the different kinds of directly nested clauses, the
different kinds of indirectly nested clauses (nested inside phrases within clauses, and acting as
modifiers of phrases), and some of the ways in which linking, listing and nesting can be used in
texts to create particular effects and contribute towards particular styles.

Activity

The diagram
shown at the COMPLEX
lower right part of SENTENCE
this page requires CONSTRUCTION
you to assess each
symbolic figure
inside each circle.
B
C
 Based on the diagram, how will you describe EACH
diagram in relation to the grammar of complex sentence?

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Abstraction
THE HIERARCHICAL NATURE OF GRAMMATICAL UNITS

We have seen from our work on grammar so far that grammar involves a hierarchy of
levels. Here is the basic hierarchy again:

Sentences are made up of one or more clauses

Clauses are made up of one or more phrases
Phrases are made up of one or more words
Words are made up of one or more morphemes

We have been working mainly on simple sentences (which consist of one clause) and
phrases (which are made up of one or more words). Everyone knows roughly what a sentence
is like and what a word is like, because they are marked in a text, respectively, (a) by initial
capitals and final full stops and (b) spaces . But phrases and clauses are not normally marked
in this way, so we need ways of showing where they start and end. When we annotate texts one
way is to use Round Brackets to mark (PHRASES) and Square brackets to mark [CLAUSES].

In fact, SPOCA analysis belongs to CLAUSES, not sentences, so when we have a single
SPOCA pattern in a sentence, we say that this is a SIMPLE SENTENCE containing a SINGLE
MAIN CLAUSE (MCl), as in the example below:

(1) [(The professor) (devoured) (his sixth peach) (with gusto)].

However, sometimes this kind of notation can mean that there are a large number of
sets of brackets to mark in, and this can make it rather awkward to see where the various clauses
and phrases start and end. So it may be more helpful to set out the structure using another
notation, called a TREE DIAGRAM. Below, we show how this works with the same simple
sentence:

Linking, Listing and Nesting

The types of structure which can occur enable us to add more elements on, or in to, a
sentence as we need them -- to make sentences as long and complex as we want them to be, in
fact. The main types of structure this involves are called linking, listing and nesting.

• Clauses which are nested inside other clauses are subordinated ('backgrounded') not
just grammatically, but often in terms of content or meaning.

• Simple sentences and compound sentences are usually associated with simple and
straightforward styles.
• Overuse of compounding with little nesting often produces the effect over-simplistic,
childlike style.

• Conversely, the use of complex sentence-structures often results in a style of writing

which people feel is complex and difficult to understand.

• Listing and Linking are typical of spoken language, and associated with styles of
writing which people often characterise as "loose" or "progressive".
 • Nesting structures which hold up the development of a sentence lead to a style which
is often characterised as being "tight" or "parenthetical". This style of writing tends to
lead to a climax point towards the end of the sentence when the overall construction is
completed,
e.g: After completing his assignment and when it had stopped raining, John,
even though he was not very athletic, decided, because he felt so relieved, to go
for a jog. (To see the parenthetical effect, try rearranging this sentence so that it
is no longer parenthetical, by starting with "John decided to go for a jog and
then comparing the result)

In this particular case, because the climactic point at the end of the sentence
does not carry much interest semantically, there is a mismatch between the
foregrounding expectations produced by the structure and the meaning. The
resultant effect is bathetic (if not to say pathetic!)

A) LINKING

Look at this bracketed example:

[(The student) (resented) (the lecturer's example sentences)] but [(the lecturer) (loved) (them)].

We notice that in this sentence there are two main clauses (marked by the square
brackets), each with its own "SPOCA" pattern:

Main Clause Main Clause

S P O cj S P O
The resented the but the lecturer loved them
student lecturer's
example
sentences

Note that in this, and the other examples below, our tabular boxes effectively do the
same job as the round brackets, but we have left the brackets in to help you see how to mark
grammatical structures in text.

The two clauses are linked together by the conjunction but, so the sentence has two
main clauses. Sentences which have more than one main clause, like that above, are called
Compound Sentences.

When we add two clauses together as above, and make them into a compound sentence,
this is an example of Linking. The main linking words are and, or, and but - known as
coordinating conjunctions (CJ).

Linking can take place not only between clauses, but also at other grammatical levels,
and hence between other units, like phrases and words. Examples:
mother and father (N) CJ (N) linked nouns
naughty but nice (Adj) CJ (Adj) linked adjectives
the student or the lecturer (NP) CJ (NP) linked noun phrases
 over the carpet and under the table (PP) CJ (PP) linked prepositional phrases
In sentences where the Subject of the linked main clauses is the same, English grammar
allows us to miss out (or elide) the second ("understood") Subject, because it can easily be
retrieved from the context:

Facts about Linking:

1. LINKING of clauses is what makes compound sentences

2. LINKING can take place between clauses, phrases, words, etc.
3. LINKING can involve two or more than two elements - you can link as many
elements as you like, in fact. e.g.:

X and X
X and X and X
X and X and X and X and X and X and X and X and X and X...

B) LISTING

The last two abstract sentence structures given in 4 above are exceptional, because when
we use a sequence of 3 or more linked elements in English, we generally prefer to omit all
'ands' except the last 'and', and replace them (in writing) by a comma, so that we get:
X, X and X (e.g. puffs, powders, and patches)
X, X, X and X (e.g. puffs, powders, patches and bibles)
X, X, X, X and X (e.g. puffs, powders, patches, bibles, and billets-doux)

What we are doing in (5) is modifying the basic "linking" structure so that it becomes
"listing". We may go further, and miss out all the ands, replacing them by commas or other
punctuation marks:

X, X, X (e.g. puffs, powders, patches)

X, X, X, X (e.g. puffs, powders, patches, bibles, billets-doux)

A special kind of listing:

Look at the Noun Phrases highlighted below. They look like a case of LISTING, but
you could not insert 'ands' wherever you want: (Why not?)

At Archie Schwert's party the fifteenth Marquess of Yayburgh,

Earl Vanburgh de Brendon Baron Brendon, Lord of the Five
Isles and Hereditary Grand Falconer to the Kingdom of
Connaught, said to the eighth Earl of Balcairn, Viscount Erdinge,
Baron Cairn of Balcairn, Red Knight of Lancaster, Count of the
Holy Roman Empire and Chenonceaux Herald of the Duchy of
Aquitaine, 'Hullo,' he said, 'Isn't this a repulsive party? What are
you going to say about it?' for they were both of them, as it
happened, gossip writers for the daily papers.

(Evelyn Waugh, Vile Bodies)

 This is an extreme illustration of the structure called Apposition, where two Noun
Phrases, placed together, refer to the same person, place, group, etc. In the above example there
are only two people, but they have, respectively, 4 and 5 noun phrases in apposition to the first
noun phrase referring to them. Note that apart from the last item in each appositional list, it
would not be possible to link each pair of phrases together, as this would force the reader to
think that there were more, different, people being referred to. Simpler examples would be:

[(Peter Rabbit), (the eponymous hero of a famous children's story)...]

[(My next-door neighbours), (Mr and Mrs Bloggs)...]

C) NESTING

There is another kind of sentence, called a Complex Sentence, where one clause is part
of another clause. For example, in the sentence below the clause [that the weakness was in the
region of the heart] is the Object of "gathered" (i.e. it is what Pemberton gathered). Hence it is
part of the Main Clause shown by the outer square brackets:

Main Clause
[S P O[CJ S P A]]
[(Pemberton) (gathered) [that (the (was) (in the
weakness) region of the
heart)]].

Other, more or less alternative terms which you may come across for nesting are
embedding and subordination. The nested clause in the above sentence is the O of the main
clause, and the sentence below is the A of the main clause:

Main Clause
A[CJ S P O] S P
[[While (Mick) (was (his (Dan) (was)
delivering) lecture)].

Notice that we find two SPOCA patterns in these two clauses, one within the square
brackets indicating the structure of the nested clause, and one outside it, indicating the structure
of overall Main Clause.

Often in prose a sentence contains two Main Clauses and a subordinate clause. This is
called a Compound Complex Sentence, e.g.:

Main Clause Main Clause

[S P O[S P O A]] CJ [S P O]
[(I) (know) [(who) (put) (the (in the but [(I) (won't (you)].
axle stew)]], tell)
grease)
 So nesting is a relation between grammatical units of the same rank, when one is
included in the other, or when a unit of a higher rank is included in a lower-level unit. For
example:

[S P A[CJ S P O]]
[(Curley's (was [when (Lennie) (reached for) (it)]].
fist) swinging)

In the two sentences above, the nested clause in each case fills up an entire SPOCA
element (O, A), and acts as that element. This is called direct nesting. In (14) below, the
subordinate clause is embedded inside a Noun Phrase, the whole Noun Phrase acting as the
SPOCA element (S):

[S [S P A] P A]
[(The [who (slept) (through the (snored) (loudly).]
student lecture)])

Things to Notice about Nesting:

a) Nesting is when a clause has another clause embedded inside it.

b) When a clause is nested inside another clause, it acts as an S, O, C, or A in that clause
(in which case it is directly nested) - or sometimes, as part of an S, O, C, or A (in
which case it is indirectly nested).
c) There can be more than one clause nested inside the same Mcl:
For example:

[[While the 11 o'clock lecture was on], Mick cleavered [whoever he could catch]].
= [Mcl (A[AdvCl]) (S) (P) (O[NCl])]
d) You can nest things inside things which are already nested (e.g. nested clauses inside
other nested clauses:

For example:

[Mick cleavered [the student [who was eating the Mars bar [he had stolen]]].
= [Mcl (S) (P) (O[RCl [RCl]])]

e) As indicated in (a) above, we can nest phrases inside phrases as well as clauses inside
clauses, e.g:
(i) Hereditary Grand Falconer (to the Queen)) = PP inside NP
(ii) (the region (of (the heart))) = NP inside PP inside NP.

f) With linking and listing, nesting accounts for our ability to build sentences as long and
complex as we need them - even sentences hundreds of words long.

For example:

[This is the dog [that chased the cat [that killed the rat [that ate the corn [that lay in
the house [that Jack built]]]]]].
 g) Subordinate clauses can be nested inside main clauses to occupy a number Of
different SPOCA slots. For example:

What we want is more grammar.

Has the overall structure SPC, with the NCl "What we want" as S.

More grammar is what we want.

Has the same overall structure, SPC, with the NCl"what we want" as C.

I know what we want.

Has the overall structure SPO, with the NCl "what we want" as O.

He studied grammar because we made him.

Has the overall structure SPOA, with the AdvCl "because we made him" as A.

D) MORE NESTING

Directly Nested Clause

S P A (= Prepositional Clause [PCl]

The student | was astonished | by the professor squirting his joke bow tie at her
This kind of embedded clause is called a Prepositional clause (PCl) because it takes
the place of a prepositional phrase (PP) in the adverbial slot of the sentence (you could
substitute 'by the professor's antics' for 'by the professor squirting his bow tie at her' without
altering the overall structure of the sentence). This process of substitution is the same
grammatical test we used (with noun phrases and adverb phrases) to establish noun clauses
and adverbial clauses in the 'linking, listing and nesting' page in this topic.

Indirectly Nested Clauses (I) - Relative Clauses (Rcls)

We have now seen those Noun clauses, Adverbial clauses and Prepositional
clauses can all be directly nested (embedded) inside main clauses (i.e. comprise a whole
SPOCA element within the main clause). We also need to take account of the fact that
clauses can be indirectly nested inside main clauses. By 'indirect nesting' we mean that the
nested clauses do not form a whole SPOCA element, but are part of (i.e. nested inside) a
phrase which forms an entire SPOCA element.

1. The professor with the bow tie is a bit silly

2. The professor wearing the bow tie is a bit silly

3. The bow tie wearing professor is a bit silly

Sentences 2 and 3 have nested clauses and they both function as modifiers inside
a noun phrase. That is, they modify the headword of the NP and they can be substituted for
by a simpler, non-clausal modifier without changing the overall structure of the sentence,
or of the phrase they are nested inside.

Sentence 1 is a simple sentence:

 S P C
The little professor with the bow tie | is | a bit silly

Here the subject NP has professor as its headword, with the determiner 'the' and
the adjective 'silly' pre-modifying it, and the prepositional phrase 'with the bow tie' post-
modifying it.

Sentence 2:

S P C
The little professor (who is wearing the bow tie) | is | a bit silly

Here the subject NP contains a clause ('who is wearing a bow tie', which has the
SPOCA structure SPO) which acts as a post-modifier to the headword. It substitutes for
'with the bow tie' in sentence 1.

Sentence 3:

S P C
The (bow tie wearing) professor | is | a bit silly

Here the subject NP contains a clause ('bow tie wearing', which has the SPOCA
structure OP) which acts as a pre-modifier to the headword. It substitutes for 'little' in
sentence 1.

In traditional grammars, these sorts of clauses were often called adjectival clauses,
because they were said to act 'like adjectives'. But modern grammarians usually call them
Relative Clauses (RCls) because they can easily be substituted for by non-adjective
modifiers as well as adjectives(compare 1 and 2 above), and they relate to the headword.
The most common place for relative clauses to appear inside noun phrases is after the
headword, where prepositional phrases are much more common than adjectives (see
sentence 1 above).

Post-modifying relative clauses often begin with a relative pronoun ('who', 'which',
'that'), but they can also have no relative pronoun at all (note that in 2 above you could omit
'who is' and still have a perfectly normal English sentence in grammatical terms.

Relative Clauses (RCls)

This is the dog that chased the cat that killed the rat that lived in the house (that Jack
built).
S P C
 tThis iis the dog (that chased the cat (that killed
| | the rat (that lived in the house (that Jack
built)))).
Overall, this sentence has a very simple SPC structure. But the NP acting as the
Complement of the sentence, and which has 'dog' as its headword has a relative clause post-
modifying it (beginning with the relative Subject pronoun 'that'). That clause has the
structure SPO, but the NP acting as O in the RCl then has another RCl inside that (with its
own relative Subject pronoun), and so on. It is this ability to nest clauses again and again
inside other clauses or phrases which enables us to construct truly complex sentences.

It is easiest to describe exactly what is going on by starting from the right, with the
most deeply nested RCl.

• The RCl 'that Jack built' post-modifies 'house',

• 'that lived in the house that Jack built' post-modifies 'rat',
• 'that killed the rat that lived in the house that Jack built' post-modifies 'cat'
and,
• 'that chased the cat that killed the rat that lived in the house that Jack built'
post-modifies 'dog', the headword of the Complement NP.

Indirectly Nested Clauses - Prepositional Clauses

S P C
The little professor's habit (of wearing bow ties) | is getting | a bit boring

Here 'of wearing bow ties' is a clause beginning with the preposition 'of' and which
has a PO structure. It is part of the Subject NP, and clearly postmodifies 'habit'. But it is not
a relative clause - you can't insert a relative pronoun at the beginning of it. Because it begins
with a preposition, we call, it a Prepositional clause (PCl). Another difference between
RCls and PCls is that RCls can only act as modifiers inside NPs, but PCls can also act as
modifiers in AdjPs or AdvPs.

Note, that PCls can be directly nested or indirectly nested.

Indirectly Nested Clauses - Comparative Clauses

S P C
1. That bow tie | is | even gaudier (than the ones he usually wears)

Here the headword of the Complement AdjP is post-modified by a Comparative

clause (CCl - so-called because it involves a comparison) with the structure CjOSAP. We
could substitute the post-modifying phrase 'than usual' for it.

S P O
 2. That professor | has got | more bow ties (than I've had hot dinners)

Here the headword of the Object NP is post-modified by a comparative clause.

Instructions: Work your way through the test, read each item carefully. Choose the correct
answer from the options given in each item.

1. How many main clauses and how many nested clauses are there in the following
sentence?

The computers crashed, the students cheered, the embarrassed tutors

wanted the earth to swallow them up and the professor with the bow
tie decided to go back to his word processor.

a) 2 main clauses and 4 nested clauses

b) 4 main clauses and 2 nested clauses
c) 3 main clauses and 3 nested clauses
d) 4 main clauses and 0 nested clause

2. What kind of clause is the highlighted part of the following sentence?

When the car arrived, the gangsters jumped in.

a) Directly nested AdvCl

b) Directly nested PCl
c) Indirectly nested PCl
d) Indirectly nested NCl

3. What kind of clause is the highlighted part of the following sentence?

If we finish work at 10 o'clock, we can have a couple of drinks at

the pub John drinks in before we catch the bus back.

a) Comparative Clause (CCl)

b) Prepositional Clause (PCl)
c) Relative Clause (RCl)
d) Noun Clause (NCl)
4. What kind of clause is the highlighted part of the following sentence?

The students presented the little professor with a bigger

bowtie than he had ever seen in his life.

a) Comparative Clause (CCl)

b) Prepositional Clause (PCl)
c) Relative Clause (RCl)
d) Noun Clause (NCl)

5. What kind of sentence is the following sentence?

The students asked for an extension for their essays but the tutors said departmental
rules did not allow it.

a) Simple Sentence
b) Long Sentence
c) Relative Clause Sentence
d) Complex Sentence

6. What kind of clause is the highlighted clause in the following sentence?

The students finished the workshop early by skipping the self-test.

a) Propositional Clause (PCl)

b) Prepositional Clause (PCl)
c) Relative Clause (RCl)
d) Noun Clause (NCl)

7. What kind of clauses are Relative clauses?

a) Main Clauses
b) Family Clauses
c) Indirectly Nested Clauses
d) Directly Nested Clauss

8. What kind of structure does the following sentence have?

Read, learn, inwardly digest.

a) Listing structure
b) Simple Structure
c) Linking Structure
d) Nesting Structure
 9. Which of the descriptions below applies to the following sentence?

What you see is what you get.

a) Complex Sentence: 1 main clause with 2 indirectly nested Noun

clauses
b) Complex Sentence: 1 main clause with 2 directly nested Noun
clauses
c) Complex Sentence: 1 main clause with 1 directly nested Noun clause
d) Complex Sentence: 1 main clause with 2 directly nested Adverbial
clauses

10. How many RCls are there in the following sentence?

This is the dinosaur which swallowed the dog that chased

the cat that ate the rat which was eating the corn stored in
the house that Jack built.

a) 3
b) 4
c) 5
d) 6

References
Short, Mick (1996) Exploring the Language of Poems, Plays and Prose, London: Longman,
chapter 1, pp. 1-35.

Carter, Ron (1993) 'Between languages: grammar and lexis in Thomas Hardy's "The Oxen"',
in Peter Verdonk (ed.) (1993) Twentieth-century Poetry: From Text To Context,
London: Routledge, chapter 5, pp. 57-67.

Leech, Geoffrey N. (1969) A Linguistic Guide to English Poetry, London: Longman, chapters
1 and 2.

Short, Mick (1993) 'To analyse a poem stylistically: "To Paint a Water Lily" by Ted Hughes',
in Peter Verdonk (ed.) (1993) Twentieth-century Poetry: From Text To Context,
London: Routledge chapter 1, pp. 5-20.

Simpson, Paul (1997) Language Through Literature, London: Routledge chapter 2, pp. 23-59.

Verdonk, Peter (1993) 'Poetry and public life: a contextualised reading of Seamus Heaney's
"Punishment"', in Peter Verdonk (ed.) (1993) Twentieth-century Poetry: From Text To
Context, London: Routledge chapter 9, pp. 112-33.
Widdowson, Henry (1983) 'The Conditional Presence of Mr Bleaney' in Ronald Carter (ed.)
Language and Literature, London: Allen & Unwin chapter 1, pp. 18-26.

Closure

Congratulations! You have made the second lesson completely. It is expected that you
were able to understand the lesson. Just continue to read intensive and extensively!