Subordination in the Complex Sentence
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 so that the length in no way impedes clarity.
Note the relationship between the dependent and independent clauses in the following sentence:
When a nimble Burman tripped me up on the football field and the referee (another Burman) looked the other way, the crowd yelled with hideous laughter.
—George Orwell
In this example, Orwell uses the subordinate clause to establish the chronology of events that lead to the main action of the sentence—that is, his being laughed at by the crowd.
Subordinating conjunctions (shown in blue below) can be classified by the relationships they indicate:
Contrast or Concession: although, even though, though, while, whereas
Although the book was not entirely free of the stereotypes of contemporary British colonial writing, it was in some ways remarkably advanced for its time . . .
—Chinua Achebe
Cause and Effect or Reason: because, since, so that
Because neither island was well suited to agriculture, the company in 1733 purchased St. Croix—a larger, flatter, and more fertile island, 40 miles south—from France.
—National Park Service
Condition: if, once, unless, should
If God helps and I get to be released, I hope you accept my invitation to be my guest in the holy city of peace, Jerusalem.
—Laura Blumenfeld
Time: when, whenever, after, before, as, once, since, while, until
When the United States purchased the Danish West Indies in 1917, it was for the islands’ strategic harbors, not their agriculture.
—National Park Service
Until there is a common vocabulary and a shared historical memory there is no peace in any society, only an absence of war.
—Chris Hedges
Punctuation
Correct punctuation adds clarity to longer sentences. The rule of thumb is: 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 Achebe, Blumenfeld, and the National Park Service 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 Chris Hedges in the last example above has decided not to interrupt the rhythm of the sentence with the pause of a comma.
When the subordinate clause follows the independent clause, 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:
It is left only to those on the margins to keep the flame of introspection alive, although the destruction of culture is often so great that full recovery is impossible.
—Chris Hedges
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. You may remember that in the discussion of appositives in Chapter 5 (p. 269) we also talked about using commas with essential and non-essential elements. Here the rule is the same: essential information must be included and thus should not be set off with a comma; non-essential information that can be excluded should be set off with a comma.
Keep in mind that a dependent clause cannot stand alone. When you’re using a dependent clause, be careful not to end up with a sentence fragment—that is, a dependent clause followed by a period. To correct a sentence fragment, simply attach it to the independent clause.
Rhetorical and Stylistic Strategy
One strategy is to use subordination to blend short sentences into more graceful, longer sentences. Consider the following two sentences:
It was still August. The air already had the smell of October, football season, piles of yellow-red leaves, everything crisp and clean.
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:
Though it was still August, the air already had the smell of October, football season, piles of yellow-red leaves, everything crisp and clean.
—Tim O’Brien
Here the conjunction though indicates a contrast between the summer months and the smell of the air. 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.
A writer has to determine which clause should be dependent and which should be independent in a complex sentence. Although one clause is just as important as the other, the independent clause usually carries the most force, so 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. Consider the following example:
Although my classmates and I would not have known it at the time, the London publishing house of Methuen had brought out the year before, in 1951, a little book titled simply West Africa.
—Chinua Achebe
What would the difference in effect have been if Achebe had written the following?
Although the London publishing house of Methuen had brought out the year before, in 1951, a little book titled simply West Africa, my classmates and I would not have known it at the time.
Both examples indicate that the relationship between the two clauses is one of contrast. But the second example puts the emphasis on Achebe and his classmates when, in fact, the publication of West Africa is the main event in the sentence and deserves more emphasis; the publication of the book affected Achebe and his friends, not vice versa.
Where to place the subordinate clause is another choice a writer must make. For instance, examine once again the dependent clause in the following example:
Though it was still August, the air already had the smell of October, football season, piles of yellow-red leaves, everything crisp and clean.
—Tim O’Brien
The dependent clause (“Though it was still August”) could have been put at the end of the sentence or even in the middle. Why do you think O’Brien placed it at the beginning? Perhaps placing the dependent clause in the middle of all those descriptive phrases would have muddled the sentence, making it difficult to decipher. As for putting it at the end, consider this example:
The air already had the smell of October, football season, piles of yellow-red leaves, everything crisp and clean, though it was still August.
The effect is different. In the original sentence, O’Brien signals at the outset that something is unusual: “Though it was still August.” However, if this clause appears at the end of the sentence, it gets buried. By the time we’ve read about the smell of things associated with autumn, the fact that “it was still August” seems beside the point.