One way that writers build longer sentences that are logical and clear is through subordination. Subordination is the use of a subordinating conjunction to make the meaning of one clause dependent on another clause. Although there are different types of subordination, involving both clauses and phrases, we are focusing here on the complex sentence—that is, a sentence formed by an independent clause and a dependent clause that begins with a subordinating conjunction.
Just because a clause is subordinate does not mean that what it says is unimportant. The ideas in both clauses contribute to the meaning of the sentence. It is the job of subordination to tell us how those ideas are related. This ability to connect ideas is the reason subordination is so effective; by using because, you tell your reader that one thing causes another; by using when, you indicate that two things are related chronologically. Thus, you can show the logical relationships in a rather lengthy sentence without impeding clarity.
Note the relationship between the dependent and independent clauses in the following sentence:
After he failed to contact the emperor of China, the traders of India or the merchants of Japan, Columbus decided to pay for his voyage in the one important commodity he had found in ample supply—human lives.
—Jack Weatherford
In this example, Weatherford uses the subordinate clause to establish the chronology of events that lead to the main action of the sentence—that is, Columbus’s decision to pay for his voyage with human beings.
Subordinating conjunctions can be classified by the relationships they indicate:
Contrast or concession although, even though, though, while, whereas
Although he was not the first explorer to glimpse or visit the distant shores of the Americas, his was the discovery that permanently planted the reality of the New World in the imagination—and political schemes—of the old.
—Laurence Bergreen
Cause and effect or reason because, since, so that
Because Columbus captured more Indian slaves than he could transport to Spain in his small ships, he put them to work in mines and plantations which he, his family and followers created throughout the Caribbean.
—Jack Weatherford
Condition if, once, unless, should, whether
And if any can shew me a better middle way than I have here laid down, I shall be ready to embrace it… .
—John Hale
Whether the dumbing down of America or soccer came first is hard to say, but soccer is clearly an important means by which American energy, drive, and competitiveness is being undermined to the point of no return.
—Stephen H. Webb
Time when, whenever, after, before, as, once, since, while, until
Sporting should be about breaking kids down before you start building them up.
—Stephen H. Webb
Correct punctuation adds clarity to longer sentences. The rule of thumb is to use a comma to set off a subordinate clause that opens a sentence unless that sentence is very short. Notice that each of the opening clauses in the preceding examples from Weatherford, Edgerton and Jackson, Hale, and Webb is set off with a comma. Note that the comma comes not after the subordinating conjunction but after the entire clause. If you read the examples aloud, you’ll probably find yourself naturally pausing at the end of the subordinate clause. Of course, these rules are not rigid; they are matters of style. Notice that the opening clauses in the first five examples from Weatherford, Edgerton and Jackson, Hale, and Webb are set off with a comma.
When the subordinate clause follows the independent clause—as it does in the last example from Webb—it gets a little trickier. Most of the time there is no comma at all because the dependent clause is necessary to the meaning of the sentence; this is called a restrictive clause. The sentence you just read is an example: the clause “because the dependent clause is necessary…” is essential to the meaning of the sentence. In some cases, however, the dependent clause adds information but is not necessary to the meaning of the sentence. For example:
Relatively little is known of the Americas and their peoples before Columbus, although we are learning more all the time.
—N. Scott Momaday
Here the subordinate clause is not essential to the meaning of the sentence, so it is set off with a comma; this is called a nonrestrictive clause. This all may sound a bit familiar to you. In the discussion of appositives in Chapter 6 (p. 535) we will talk about using commas with essential and nonessential elements. Here the rule is the same: essential information must be included and thus should not be set off with a comma; nonessential information that can be excluded should be set off with a comma.
Keep in mind that a dependent clause cannot stand alone. When you begin with a subordinating conjunction, be careful not to end up with a sentence fragment—that is, a dependent clause followed by a period. To correct such a sentence fragment, simply attach it to an independent clause by using a subordinating conjunction.
Rhetorical and Stylistic Strategy
One rhetorical strategy is to use subordination to blend shorter sentences into more graceful, longer sentences. Consider the following two sentences:
I imagine my blood back through generations to the earliest man in America. I see in my mind’s eye a procession of shamanistic figures, like those strange anthropomorphic forms painted on the cliffs of Barrier Canyon… .
Both are complete sentences. As readers, we understand them easily. The relationship between the two is temporal. But consider the difference with the addition of a subordinating conjunction:
When I imagine my blood back through generations to the earliest man in America, I see in my mind’s eye a procession of shamanistic figures, like those strange anthropomorphic forms painted on the cliffs of Barrier Canyon… .
—N. Scott Momaday
Here the conjunction when indicates a temporal relationship—one of simultaneous action: Momaday indicates that in the act of imagining, he sees an image of the past. Combining the two short sentences does not make the resulting sentence more difficult to understand; on the contrary, the longer sentence is easier to understand because it leaves nothing to chance.
Another rhetorical decision a writer has to make is which clause should be dependent and which should be independent in a complex sentence. One clause may be just as important as the other, yet the independent clause usually carries the most force; in that case, you should put the idea you want to emphasize in an independent clause. Sometimes, the choice is obvious because the relationship is chronological or cause and effect, but other times either clause could be independent.
In the example of the restrictive clause above, note that Momaday could have switched the two clauses. He wrote:
Relatively little is known of the Americas and their peoples before Columbus, although we are learning more all the time.
—N. Scott Momaday
What would be the difference in effect if he had reversed the clauses?
Although relatively little is known of the Americas and their peoples before Columbus, we are learning more all the time.
This altered sentence opens with a subordinate clause about the amount of knowledge we have of the Americas prior to Columbus, and the independent clause emphasizes that the knowledge base is steadily increasing. But Momaday’s point is that we know very little; he adds that knowledge is growing. By making the current level of knowledge the independent clause, Momaday stresses that point but then acknowledges that what we do know continues to expand.
Where to place the subordinate clause is another choice a writer has. Consider the following example from President Barack Obama’s Tucson memorial speech:
[A]t a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized—at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do—it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we’re talking with each other in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds.
— Barack Obama
What would the difference in effect have been if President Obama had said the following?
It’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we’re talking with each other in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds, at a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized—at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who happen to think differently than we do.
Both examples indicate that the relationship between the two clauses is one of time—signaled by “when.” But the second example leads with the need for momentary reflection and adds the element of time. The sentence that was actually delivered emphasizes the “time”—“a time when our discourse has become…polarized,” “when we are…eager to lay…blame.”