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We already know that when we need to combine two
independent clauses of equal grammatical rank, the connectives to
use are the coordinating conjunctions “and,” “but,”
“yet,” “or,” “nor,” “so,” or “for.” As we
discussed in the previous column, our choice of coordinating
conjunction will depend on the logical relationship we want to
establish for the ideas in those two independent clauses. When we
use a coordinating conjunction to combine two independent and
grammatically co-equal clauses, of course, we form what is known in
English grammar as a compound sentence, as in this sentence: “We
wanted to hire the woman, but she didn’t meet the requirements.”
When it’s a dependent clause
that we need to combine with an independent clause, however, a
coordinating conjunction will no longer do to establish a logical
relationship for them. For example, take the clauses “she won’t
leave” and “I tell her to do so,” in that order. Try as we
may, none of the seven coordinating conjunctions can logically
connect them. (Do that mentally now.) But the word “until” can:
“She won’t leave until I tell her to do so.” And so can the
word “unless”: “She won’t leave unless I tell her to do
so.” Each of these two connectives logically connects the two
clauses by making one of them—“I tell her to do so” in this
case—dependent on or subordinate to the other. They are two of
what we know in English grammar as the subordinating conjunctions.
The subordinating conjunctions
fall into four groups based on the logical relationship they convey.
These groups are (1) the time conjunctions “after,”
“before,” “until,” “till,” and “while”; (2) the
cause-and-effect conjunctions “as,” “as if,” “since,”
“because,” “inasmuch as,” “lest,” “now that,”
“once,” “that,” “so that,” “when,” and
“whenever”; (3) the opposition and contrast conjunctions
“though,” “although,” “as though,” “even if,”
“even though,” “than,” “rather than,” “where,” and
“whereas”; and (4) the conditional conjunctions “if,” “if
only,” “as long as,” “in order that,” “unless,” and
“wherever.”
Each of the 32 subordinating
conjunctions above has the ability to functionally link a dependent
idea to an independent or main idea, enabling a dependent clause to
draw meaning from the main clause and the rest of the sentence.
This, for example, is what “because” does in this sentence:
“Because we had faith in the man, we entrusted the family
heirlooms to him.” Typically, sentences that use a subordinating
conjunction can also be constructed with the subordinate clause
positioned after the independent clause: “We entrusted the family
heirlooms to the man because we had faith in him.” Either way,
however, they always take the form of a complex sentence—one that
has a subordinate clause attached to a main or independent clause.
Grammatically, a subordinate
clause formed by most of the subordinating conjunctions functions as
an adverb that modifies the verb in the independent clause. Take
this sentence, for instance: “The ragtag political coalition
continued to campaign although it had run out of funds.” Here, the
subordinate clause “although it had run out of funds” functions
as an adverbial clause modifying the verb “continued” in the
main clause. A few of the subordinating conjunctions, however, form
dependent clauses that function as an adjective clause or direct
object instead. The most common of them is the subordinator
“that.”
Consider this sentence, for
instance: “We finally found a housing lot that we can pay on easy
installments.” Here, the dependent clause “that we can pay on
easy installments” functions as an adjective modifying “housing
lot.” And now look at this sentence where a dependent clause
introduced by “that” functions as a direct object: “The new
homeowner felt that he got a raw deal from the subdivision
developer.” Here, the dependent clause “that he got a raw deal
from the subdivision developer” serves as the direct object of the
verb “felt” in the main clause.
(Next: The conjunctive adverbs
revisited).
j8carillo@yahoo.com
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