4.6 Subordination

In grammar, subordination is the process by which we join two clauses, so that one depends on the other. As a result, they are called main clause and subordinate clause. The use of subordinating conjunctions (when joining adverb clauses) and relative pronouns (in the case of adjective clauses), is an indicator of subordination.

I'm happy when i'm working.

[Main clause] subordinating conjunction [subordinate clause] 

We drink because it's what men do.
[Main clause] subordinating conjunction [subordinate clause]

We decided to keep business, but run it past Detroit, which means Bob gets involved.

[Main clause] cc [main clause] relative pronoun [subordinate clause]

And since this is it...

Please, feel free to leave comments and add corrections, thank you for stopping by.

Move forward.

Source:http://grammar.about.com/od/c/g/coordterm07.htm

4.5 Coordination

Coordination in grammar is the process of joining two words, phrases, or clauses together by means of a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet,so). Coordination gives them the same emphasis or importance.

He spent 3 weeks alone in that cave and he hasn't clubbed another ape yet.

Are we winners or losers?

 Losers tonight, but winners in general. 

Source: http://grammar.about.com/od/c/g/coordterm07.htm

4.4 Clauses

The basic unit of English grammar is the clause. A clause must have at least two parts, a noun phrase and a verb phrase (or subject and verb). Clauses can be either  independent or subordinate, and by joining them together we form sentences.

There are three clauses in this sentence:

[Margarine was invented for Napoleon II] + [because armies need to move] + [and it never spoiled] = compound complex sentence.

 There are many different types of clauses, let's take a look at the most important ones.

• Noun Clause: a noun clause is a clause that functions as a noun (subject, object, or complement). They are aso called nominal clauses. We use words like "that" or "who" to start noun clauses, that's why they're called that-clauses and wh-clauses. Nominal clauses are always dependent.

I don't need a book to tell me what little boys do = object

 I'm one of those people who talks back to the radio = complement

I know that you're frightened and there are many decisions i can't prepare you for = object

 
• Adverbial Clause: Adverbial clauses function as adverbs, but they modify the whole sentence instead of just the verb. Like adverbs, they indicate time, place, condition, contrast, concession, reason, purpose, or result. They begin with a subordinating conjunction, and they also contain both a subject and a predicate.
  
  
                           
  
  Time: Sometimes when people get what they want they realize how limited their goals were.
                                       
  
  Cause: Maybe i'm late because i was spending time with my family reading the bible.

Condition: If I stop drinking all at once, I'm afraid the cumulative hangover will kill me.

• Relative Clause: Relative clauses modify nouns or noun phrases. They begin with a relative pronoun (which, that, who, whom, whose), a relative adverb (where, when,why), or a zero relative (when the relative pronoun is omitted). A relative clause always comes after the noun or noun phrase.
  
  Relative clauses are divided into two categories: restrictive, which give specific information about the noun, and non-restrictive, which give additional but unnecessary information about the noun, and are marked by commas.

     

Restrictive + relative pronoun: You were crying in the break room, which i have specifically forbidden.

   

  

Zero Relative: It's just [that] my people are Nordic.

 

 Restrictive + relative adverb: This is where i grew up.

Restrictive + relative pronoun: I abuse the people whose help i need.

Source: http://grammar.about.com/od/rs/g/relativeclterm.htm

4.3 Compound-Complex Sentences

The compound-complex sentence contains two or more independent clauses, and one or more subordinate clauses. 

Main clause:I don't know what was more miraculous

Main clause: the technological achievement

Subordinating conjunction: that

Dependent clause: put our species in a new perspective

Coordinating conjunction: or

Main clause: the fact that all of us were doing the same thing at the same time.

Independent clause: I know people say life goes on

Dependent clause: and it does

Dependent clause: but no one tells you

Independent clause: that is not a good thing

Punctuation: When joining two independent clauses together, a comma (,) should be used before the coordinating conjunction.

I know people say life goes on, and it does...

*If anyone catches an error, please let me know.
source: http://grammar.about.com/od/c/g/comcomplexterm.htm

4.2 Complex Sentences

A complex sentence has a main or independent clause and one or more dependent clauses joined together by the use of subordinating conjunctions. 

Dependent clauses are not complete sentences, so they need to be attached to an independent clause in order to form a complete sentence. 


               main clause + subordinating conjuntion of cause + dependent clause

I'm living like there's no tomorrow because there isn't one.

When a subordinating conjunction is placed at the beginning of a complete sentence, the sentence becomes a dependent clause, or fragment. This fragment does not make sense on its own so it needs an independent clause to form a complete sentence.

Subordinating conjunction of time + dependent clause + independent clause
When I think about forever, i get upset.

Subordinating conjunction of concession + dependent clause + independent clause
Even though success is a reality, its effects are temporary.

Independent clause + subordinating conjunction of time + dependent clause
You're never going to get that corner office until you start treating Don as an equal.

Source: http://grammar.about.com/od/rs/g/subordconj.htm

4.1 Compound Sentences

At the beginning of this blog we learned about the structure of sentences, how sentences are made up of clauses, and the way they can be classified, depending on the type of clauses they contain.

Now we'll take a more thorough look into the structure of compound sentences, which is one of the four basic sentence structures. 

Compound sentences are sentences made up of at least two independent clauses and can be formed by using a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor,but, or, yet, so) to join the main clauses.

Coordinating conjunctions are used when both clauses are equally important, or from the same grammatical category.

independent clause + coordinating conjunction + independent clause

I had a baby and I gave it away

She was drunk and she got other girls drunk.

                                         



           independent clause + coordinating conjunction + independent clause
                                    You go by many names but I know who you are

                                       

The city is flat and ugly and the air is brown but I love the vibrations.

They may also be joind by either using a using a semicolon (;) with or without a conjunctive adverb, or by using a colon (:), though this is less common.




Source: http://grammar.about.com/od/c/g/compoundsent.htm 

3.5 Verbals

Verbals are tricky not because they're difficult, but because they may be confused with verb phrases. The difference is that verbals are simply verb forms functioning as nouns, adjectives or adverbs, not as the verb of the sentence.

There are three different kinds of verbals: infinitives, gerunds (or -ing forms), and participles ( -ing and -en forms). 

Verbals are never inflicted for person or tense. Each of these verbals are part of a phrase, which includes modifiers, complements, and objects.


Infinitives: An infinitive consists of to + simple form of the verb + modifier(s). In the next sentence, likes is the main verb, the verbal to go is functioning as a noun.

Everybody likes to go to the movies when they're sad

Gerunds: verb + -ing + modifier(s). It functions as a noun and can be used as a subject, object, and object preposition. The following example is that of an object of the preposition.

Are there people that eat dinner and smile at each other instead of watching TV?

preposition + verb + -ing + modifier

Participles: Verbals that function as adjectives, and modify nouns and pronouns. 
They end in -ing or -en.

Verb + -ing + noun:                 This is a binding contract.

Source: http://grammar.about.com/od/basicsentencegrammar/a/verbalswhat.htm

3.4 Verb Phrase

A verb phrase is a group of words that includes a main verb and one or more helping verbs. If the sentence is a negation, the verb phrase also includes the word not. 

In some cases, a verb phrase is the whole predicate of the sentence. 

A verb phrase can have only one modal verb, and it always comes before the main verb. In a phrase where there's more than one auxiliary verb, they must follow a particular order:

modal/helping verb + have (to indicate a perfect tense) + be (to indicate a progressive) 

We'll start with Sylvia. She wants to end things with Don, and asks him to stop calling. The verb phrase in this sentence is Don't make me hang up. It follows the formula below:

            Auxiliary verb+negation+zero infinitive+pronoun+inseparable phrasal verb

In the image below, Joan is telling Richard that she won't stop working and become a trophy wife. She uses the sentence:

I can't just turn off that part of myself

In it, the verb phrase follows the formula modal + negation + separable phrasal verb

The second part, I would never dream of making you choose, is another example. The verb phrase would never dream follows the formula modal verb + negation + zero infinitive.

The rest of that sentence, the phrase of making you choose, opens the way for our next topic, verbals. 

Sources:http://grammar.about.com/

              https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org        

3.3 Prepositional Phrases

The function of prepositional phrases in a sentence is to add meaning to the nouns and verbs. In some cases, a prepositional phrase adds minor details, but sometimes it is necessary for the sentence to make sense.

As we learned before, a preposition shows how a noun or pronoun relates to the rest of the sentence. Prepositional phrases are made of two basic parts: a preposition and its complement, which in most cases is a noun or pronoun.

Preposition + noun + preposition  + pronoun:

And this world just drops a bunch of rules on top of you to make you forget those facts.

Preposition + noun phrase/adverbial of time (this also functions as an adverbial phrase ): 

I can't wait until next year when all of you are in Vietnam.

Preposition + -ing clause (adverb phrase):

I did not get to where i am by dwelling on the past.

This is a very rich sentence syntactically-wise:
to where i am: prepositional phrase
by dwelling: prepositional phrase functioning as an adverbial phrase.
on the past: also a prepositional phrase functioning as an adverbial phrase.



Preposition + noun phrase:

I translated your speech into Pig Latin.

Adverb + Preposition + noun = Adverbial phrase:

It has come to my attention, completely by accident, that Donald Draper here is not who he says he is.

This is another example of how prepositional phrases can function as adverbial phrases.

Sources:
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/english-grammar/clause-phrase-and-sentence/prepositional-phrases
http://grammar.about.com/od/basicsentencegrammar/a/prepphrases.htm
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/prepositional-phrases

3.2 Adjective Phrase

In a sentence, adjective phrases have the same function as adjectives. They can change the meaning of a noun or add information to it. The head word of the phrase is always an adjective and it may be accompanied by modifiers, qualifiers, or determiners (all of which are called dependents.

Adjective phrases may be attributive (adjective before the noun) or predicative (after a linking verb), depending on their position in the sentence.

Predicative:                       linking verb + attributive adjective

They just want you to be as miserable as they are.

Predicative:                  linking verb + attributive adjective + noun 

...and hopefully be a different person than you two.

Attributive:            adjective in the 1st position + noun in the 2nd position

I don't think it's ridiculous to assume that we are looking for new planets.

Attributive:                                      Adjective + Noun 

No dull moments or dull men tolerated.

Sources:http://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/adjective-phrases-position
http://grammar.about.com/od/ab/g/attribadjterm.htm

3.1 Noun Phrase

A noun phrase is a noun or pronoun, which is called the head , and any other dependent words that come before or after the head. These dependent words are either determiners or modifiers, and they give specific information about the head.

Noun phrases name a particular example of something or a whole class of people or things.

Determiner + Noun:        The Greeks had two meanings for it.

Quantifier + Noun:                   Some people don't like it.

Adjective premodifier + Noun:   Young people don't know anything.

Demonstrative determiner + Noun:   These men.

Sources:
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/noun-phrases-dependent-words
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/english-grammar/clause-phrase-and-sentence/noun-phrase

2.7 Attributes

Attributes are words that function the same way as adjectives, but usually they come in the first position, that is, before the noun. While regular adjectives are found in the predicate, attributes do not need a verb to link them to the noun they're modifying. Adjectives are not the only parts of seech that can serve as attributes. Participles, pronouns, partitives, and other nouns can function the same way. 

In this quote, Roger Sterling is giving us three examples of attributes. The first one is the avocado people, he's referring to the people who work in the avocado business.

 In the main sentence (see what i did there?), he's using the superlative biggest to modify the noun job. 

Roger's job in these meetings is to keep the clients from saying "golly" too many times. These is the demonstrative pronoun modifying the noun meetings. 

 Gene is Sally's little brother. The noun baby modifies the proper noun Gene.

Here, Don is using a possesive pronoun, Our, and another superlative, worst, to describe the noun fears.

Here, the quantifier Every, appears before the noun generation. 

Sources: http://grammar.about.com/od/ab/g/attribadjterm.htm
              http://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/adjectiv/attribut.htm

2.6 Subject Complement

A subject complement is a word or phrase that describes or renames the subject of a sentence. It follows a linking verb. It is also called a predicate nominative.

The most common linking verb in the English language is be, but verbs like appear, become, seem, feel, get, look, and sound are very common, too.

In this song, Bert Cooper is describing the way the best things in life are.

The main difference between a Subject Complement and an Object is that the former is not introducing any new elements to the sentence, the way the object does, but rather adding information about the subject.