Delahunty and Garvey
Compound-complex sentences
The sentences of (73) illustrate coordination of main clauses. However, sub-
ordinate clauses, both finite and non-finite, may also be coordinated:
(74) a. We left because we were tired and because the lecture was boring.
(Conjoined finite adverbial clauses)
b. Alex wanted to sing and to play the piano.
(Conjoined to-infinitive complement clauses)
c. Anyone who attends classes and who pays attention should pass
the course. (Conjoined relative clauses)
d. Climbing Denali and winning the biathlon were Meg’s greatest
accomplishments. (Conjoined gerunds functioning as subject)Sentences like those in (74), which include coordinated subordinate
clauses, are compound-complex sentences, as are sentences with coordi-
nated main clauses, one or both of which contain at least one subordinate
clause:
(75) The king, who doesn’t like to be disturbed, is in his counting
house, and the queen, who is much more sociable, is in her parlor,
where she is surrounded by her sycophants.In (75) the coordinated main clauses are The king is in his counting house and
The queen is in her parlor.
miscellaneous information-restructuring sentence types.
In this section we describe sentence types with subordinate clauses that do
not fit neatly in the categories above: extraposition, NP-movement (or
raising), tough-movement, cleft, and pseudo-cleft constructions.
Extraposition
Clauses that are interpreted as subjects may occur not only in the main clause
subject position but also at the right hand end of the main clause predicate.
Compare the following pair:
(76) a. That Oscar writes poetry upsets his parents.
b. It upsets his parents that Oscar writes poetry.
These two have essentially the same meanings. In both, the italicized clause