Two Kinds of Connectors

Besides the uses already described, coordination and subordination are two basic ways of linking clauses. Sometimes we don't have much choice about how to make the connection, but often, if we see the options, we do.

These trees lose their leaves every winter, but they don't die.

The clauses in the example above are joined by coordination, but could as easily have been joined by subordination.

Although these trees lose their leaves every winter, they don't die.

Now, the first clause is subordinate to the second. The two words that make the difference are called conjunctions, or joining words. "But" belongs to a group of conjunctions that coordinate. "Although" belongs to a group that subordinates. Learning to recognize these two groups of conjunctions will not only help you with your sentence structure, but also with your punctuation.

Coordinating Conjunctions

Not too much needs to said about them. They are few in number: and, or, but, for, nor, yet, so, and they can always be found at the point where the two coordinate structures are joined together, as in the example above.

Expanding the Basic Pattern - Substitution

A third way of expanding the basic pattern is substitution, which means replacing a single word with a word group. Again, an example will help.

S V/C

I saved/my meager wages.

By substituting, we can expand the complement to read:

S V/C

I saved/what I earned, which wasn't much.

"My wages" has been expanded to "what I earned" and "meager" to "which wasn't much." As you can see, this adds more words without adding much meaning and so could be objected to as uneconomical. Still it's a perfectly grammatical way of expanding sentences, and there may be times when it will suit your needs exactly, either to give emphasis or to improve sound and rhythm.

Sometimes, as in the example below, you can use substitution to clarify or summarize your thoughts:

Change:	Harold and Arthur earn more than I do. This makes me furious.
to:	Getting paid less than my male coworkers makes me furious.

Expanding the Basic Pattern - Coordination

The basic S V/C pattern can also be expanded by coordination. Whereas subordination ranks one element as more important than the other, coordination places elements on an equal footing. If the relationship of subordination is that of child to parent, the relationship of coordination is that of spouse to spouse. In a sentence it works like this:

Esther types/letters.

The subject can be expanded by adding a coordinate element:

S V/C

Lois and Esther type/letters.

And coordination can also be used to expand the complement.

S V/C

Lois and Esther type/letters and memos.

Or the verb.

Lois and Esther type letters and memos but write-out short notes and signatures.

Now each element has been compounded with a resulting structure that might be represented as follows:

S	V/C
Lois and Esther	type/letters and memos
	but
	write-out/short notes and signatures.

This sentence has a compound subject, a compound verb, and two compound complements. In every case the compound elements are coordinate to each other and therefore, because they are of equal importance, may be said to balance.

And just as we can subordinate either individual words or whole groups of words, the same is true of coordination. In the previous example we compounded the various parts of a single independent clause, but we could also coordinate two separate clauses.

S	V/C	S	V/C
Esther	types/letters,	but Lois	types/memos.

Now our sentence has two independent clauses, each of which could stand alone as a complete sentence.

Modification and Subordination

Modification and Subordination

The easiest and most common way of developing the S V/C pattern is by adding a modifier. To modify means to change or alter. A modifier, therefore, is a word or word group that changes the meaning of another word or word group that is more basic to the sentence.

S V/C

Luis eats/apples.

By adding a modifier to the complement, we can alter the meaning of "apples."

S V/C

Luis eats/green apples.

We can also modify the subject.

S V/C

Little Luis eats/green apples.

And even the verb.

S V/C

Little Luis never eats/green apples.

Notice how the basic S V/C pattern remains even after several modifiers have been added. This is because modifiers cluster around base elements like iron filings around a magnet.

The principle that describes this relationship between modifiers and more basic sentence elements is subordination. Subordination means taking a position of lesser importance or rank. In the Army, for example, a private is subordinate to a captain and a captain to a general. Likewise, when we say a modifier is subordinate to the base element, we mean it has less importance and is dependent upon that more basic element for its claim to a place in the sentence. We can see this by looking at our last example.

Little Luis never eats green apples.

When we drop all the modifiers, we still have a sentence that feels complete.

Luis eats apples.

But when we drop the base words that the modifiers depend on, we are left with something entirely different.

Little never green.

The result is nonsense. Our minds want to process the data as a sentence, but it won't fit. We have modifiers, but we don't know what is being modified. The base elements are missing.

We've seen how these two principles, modification and subordination, join individual words in clusters. It's also worth noting how they join word groups together. Just as individual words cluster around more important ones, so the clusters they form attach themselves to more important elements. Notice how this happens in the following example.

S V/C

The river was/cold.

Adding a little modification, we get this:

S V/C