Compound and Complex Sentences. Connectives

§ 219. Compound and complex sentences existed in the English language since the earliest times. Even in the oldest texts we find numerous instances of coordination and subordination and a large inventory of subordinate clauses, subject, clauses, object clauses, attributive clauses, adverbial clauses. And yet many constructions — especially in early original prose — look clumsy, loosely connected, disorderly and wanting precision, which is natural in a language whose written form had only begun to grow.

§ 220. Coordinate clauses were mostly joined by and, a conjunction ofa most general meaning, which could connect statements with various semantic relations. The ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLES abound insuccessions of clauses or sentences all beginning with and, e.g.;

And pāonʒeat sē cyninʒ pæt ond hē, on pa duru ēode, and pā unbēanlice hine werede, op hē on pone æpeling lōcude, and pā ūt rǣsde on hine, and hine miclum ʒewundode; and hie alle on pone cyninʒ wǣron feohtende, op pæt hie hine ofslæʒnne hæfdon, 'and then the king saw that, and he went to the door, and then bravely defended himself, until he saw that noble, and then out rushed on him, and wounded him severely, and they were all fighting against that king until they had him slain' (from the earliest part ofthe CHRONICLES A.D. 755).

§ 221. Repetition of connectives at the head of each clause (termed "correlation") was common in complex sentences:

pā hē pǣr tō ʒefaren wæs, pa ēodon hie tō hiora scipum 'then (when) he came there, then they went to their ship.'

Attributive clauses were joined to the principal clauses by means of various connectives, there being no special class of relative pronouns. The main connective was the indeclinable particle pe employed either alone ortogether with demonstrative and personal pronouns:

and him cӯpdon pæt hiera mǣʒas him mid wǣron, pā pe him from noldon 'and told him that their kinsmen were with him, those that did not want (to go) from him'.

The pronouns could also be used to join the clauses without the particle pe:

Hit ʒelamp ʒio pætte ān hearpere wæs on pǣre ðiode ðe Dracia hātfe, sio wæs on Crēca rice; se hearpere wæs swiðe unʒelrǣʒlice ʒōd, ðæs nama wæs Orfeus; hē hælde ān swiðe ǣnlic wif, sio wæs hāten Eurydice 'It happened once that there was a harper among the people on the land that was called Thrace, that was in the kingdom of Crete; that harper was incredibly good; whose name (the name of that) was Orpheus; he had an excellent wife; that was called Eurydice' (see also § 182for the use of pronouns).

The pronoun and conjunction pæt was used to introduce object clauses and adverbial clauses, alone or with other form-words: oð ðæt 'until', ǣr, pæm pe 'before', pæt 'so that' as in:

Isaac ealdode and his ēaʒan pӯstrodon, pæt hē ne mihte nān pingʒesēon 'Then Isaac grew old and his eyes became blind so that he could not see anything'.

§ 222. Some clauses are regarded as intermediate between coordinate and subordinate: they are joined asyndetically and their status is not clear:

'pā wæs sum consul, Boethius wæs hāten 'There was then a consul, Boethius was called' (perhaps attributive: '(who) was called Boethius' or co-ordinate '(he) was called Boethius').

In the course of OE the structure of the complex sentence was considerably improved. Ælfric, the greatest writer of the late 10th — early 11th c, employed a variety of connectives indicating the relations between the clauses with greater clarity and precision.

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