Unit 8

Unit 8 Joining Sentence Together (II)

Objective

At the end of the unit you will be able to

1. Tell what subordination is and explain the similarity and the difference between coordination and subordination;

2. Learn how to add information and achieve special emphasis with subordination;

3. Learn how to write natural and concise subordination sentences;

4. Know how to avoid misplace modifiers and dangling modifiers; and

5. Learn to write short compositions.

PART I Warm-up Activities

1. Combine the following two groups of sentences in as many ways as possible, then compare your sentences with others, and try to find out any difference between them.

Group 1

Mary likes that shop very much.

Mary goes to that shop almost every week.

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Group 2

Tony is very gifted in music.

Tony chose to major in accounting.

2. Write a short composition on “My Life at College”.

PART II Focus

Subordination

Subordination vs. Coordination

Read the following sentence.

Mary goes to that shop almost every week because she likes it very much.

As you can see, the sentence consists of two clauses. One expresses a complete idea and can stand alone as a sentence, but the other expression an incomplete idea and cannot be used alone. Besides, a word is used to connect these two clauses and indicate their relationship. We call this type of sentences subordinate sentences. The clause that can be used independently is called in dependent clause; the clause that cannot be used alone is called dependent clause, and the word used to connect them and indicate the relationship is called subordinator.

The following are some possible answers to Group 2 in the Warm-up Activities. Decide whether they are coordinate sentences (C) or subordinate sentences (S).

( ) a. Tony is very gifted in music, but he chose to major in accounting.

( ) b. Although Tony is very gifted in music, he chose to major in accounting.

( ) c. Tony, who is very gifted in music, chose to major in accounting.

( ) d. Tony, who chose to major in accounting, is very gifted in music.

Based on the analysis of the two groups of sentences, can you now write down any similarity or difference between coordination and subordination?

Difference:

Similarity:

Classroom Activities

Combine each of the groups of sentences into a coordination sentence AND a subordination sentence.

1) That kingdom was small bur rich.

Everybody lived happily in that kingdom.

2) Red roses are usually used to symbolize love.

Many people buy red roses on Lover’s Day.

3) Manchester United has played very well since last November.

Many young people admire the members of that football team.

4) Till now only a small number of Americans have realized the American dream.

Most Americans still hold the belief to be true.

5) He was very experienced in selling optical products.

He was turned down by that spectacles company.

Types of subordination

Look at the following sentences, and try to tell what are the functions of the subordinate clauses in them. Can you group these sentences into a few general categories?

a. People have to decide what can be eaten and what cannot be eaten.

b. That one man’s meat is another man’s poison is in fact a universal truth.

c. If you live in a Mediterranean country, you would consider octopus a delicious dish.

d. Your stomach will turn at the sight of potatoes that have been fried in animal fat.

e. The sad truth is that most of us have been brought up to eat certain foods.

Your classification:_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A. Nominal clauses

A nominal clause is a dependent clause functioning as a noun. It can be used as a subject, an object, or a predicative. When trying to turn a sentence into a nominal clause, we need to distinguish among three different types of sentences, namely statements, yes/no questions, and wh-questions. By turning the following groups of sentences into subordinate sentences, you may find out the rules for yourselves.

a. That man is your father.

I don’t know this.

b. Has you father noticed that smell of cigarette smoke in the room?

I don’t know the answer to this question.

c. Why does your father come here?

This is a mystery to me.

Now, work with your partner to fill out the following table.

Group	Type	Subordinator	Word order*
a
b
c

* Is the word order in the dependent clause changed? If yes, how is it changed?

Classroom Activities

Turn one of sentences in each of the following groups into a subordinate sentence using nominal clauses.

(1)Different flowers mean quite different things.

Many people are still ignorant of this.

(2)She almost shuddered at the mention of that name.

Nobody noticed this.

(3)”I the only one of my species in the universe.”

The flowers told the little prince that.

(4)You’ve come to visit me.

This is much fun.

(5)When should we leave home to live by himself?

He hasn’t decided about this yet.

(6)”Do you want anything else before you diet?”

The ghost asked the poor old man.

(7)Why do some people find snails disgusting?

The French cannot understand this.

(8)His mother has recovered from her illness.

This is a great relief to him.

B. Relative clauses

Dependent clause can also function as adjectives or prepositional phrases to modify nouns. Some of these modifiers provide more details, some more specification. When we use dependent clauses to modify nouns, we usually need some words to connect the two parts. The connecting words are also known as relatives, and the dependent clauses relative clauses. To write a correct relative clause, we must choose the relative carefully. Which relative to use mainly depends on the kind of noun it is to modify.

Now turn the second sentence in each group into a relative clause modifying a noun in the first sentence. Try to use as many relatives as possible.

a.I like the boy.

The boy is asking his mother to buy him an ice cream.

b. I like the boy.

You talked about the boy in your letter.

c. I like the dog.

The dog is chasing a cat.

d. I like the dog.

Your aunt is holding the dog in her arms.

e. Most of the students like the teacher.

The teacher’s way of teaching is inspiring.

f. New houses are very popular among house-buyers.

The prices of the houses are between 2,500 to 5,000 Yuan per square meter.

g. I will never forget this important day.

I came to this famous university on this day.

H .The old man likes to watch the playground from his apartment.

Many kids usually play basketball on the playground.

i. In his letter he explained the reason to his father.

He wanted to drop out of school this season.

Now, fill in the following table based on your discoveries.

Group	Types of noun (person, thing, time, Place, reason, etc.)	Grammatical function of the noun in the dependent clauses(subject, object, possessive attribute)	Subordinator
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i

Classroom Activities

Supply correct relatives for the following sentences.

1) The official__________takes bribes should be heavily punished.

2) The little boy__________arm was broken was rushed to hospital.

3) I have lost the disk__________my professor gave me. Oh, God, what shall t do?

4) New stories__________demonstrate reporters’ personal feeling should not appear in newspapers at all.

5) The old castle_________many famous people lived is now deserted.

6) Please find a photo of the artist__________you mentioned in your article.

7) My chemistry teacher cannot stand music__________beat is too strong.

8) The boss demanded a reason__________he had spent so much on his business trip.

9) December is the month_________many people feel sorry for not having carried out their new—year plans.

C. Adverbial clauses

There are many kinds of adverbials, such as adverbials of time, of place, of condition, to name just a few. Different kinds of adverbials are indicated with different subordinators.

Look at the following sentences. How many kinds of relationships can

exist between them, and what subordinators can be used to indicate them? Work with your partner, and try to come up with as many answers as possible.

Preparations are well made.

Your plan can be easily carried out.

Now, use your answers to complete the following table.

Type of relationship	Subordinator	Example ___________preparations are well made, your plan can be easily carried out. ___________preparations are well made, your plan cannot be easily carried out. Preparations are well made____________your plan can be easily carried out.

Classroom Activities

Supply suitable subordinators for the following sentences.

1) He never eats beef_________he was born in the year of the ox.

2) __________your teacher calls the roll(点名),you should say “Here!”

3) __________you read more, you probably can write better.

4) His sister always arrives__________the party starts.

5) You may stay here for another hour before leaving for you class_________the lecture has been postponed.

6) __________Jack comes back, everybody in the dorm stays out of his way.

7) __________Mary went, the lamb was sure to go.

8) The project may achieve better results_________people are cooperative.

9) People usually speak loudly__________they are confident about their answer.

10) __________everybody in the world were against me, I would stick to my plan.

Function of subordination

Subordination is an effective way to add more information to a sentence, and create a close relationship between the ideas in the sentence. In this part, the functions of subordination will be discussed.

A. More information

Look at the following sentence. How are they different?

a. Julia likes seeing movies.

b. Julia, who comes from Los Angeles, likes going to the movies.

c. Julia, who comes from Los Angeles, likes going to the movies only if they are made in the States.

It is obvious that the three sentences contain increasingly more detailed information, which is realized with the help of subordinate clauses. Like coordination, subordination can also add information to the original sentence.

Classroom Activities

Use subordination to add more information to the following sentences.

1)That ancient castle has been destroyed by fire.

___________________________________________________________

2)The boss came into the office.

___________________________________________________________

3)There used to be a huge three in front of this building.

___________________________________________________________

4)I will sing you a song.

___________________________________________________________

5)Many people refuse to eat this type of meat.

___________________________________________________________

B. Emphasis

Perhaps you still remember that in coordinate sentence, ideas get almost equal emphasis. Look at the picture on the right, and then study the three sentences that three people use to sentence it. Is there any difference? Underline the idea that you think is emphasized.

a. The girl happily taking on the phone on a sofa, and the cat is sleeping soundly in front the sofa.

b. The cat is sleeping soundly in front the sofa on which the girl is sitting and talking happily on the phone.

c. The girl is talking happily on the phone on a sofa in front of which the cat is sleeping soundly.

It is clear that the three people are paying attention to different things in the same picture. To help you see the points, let us look at another example. Suppose you are writing an article entitled” My Opinion on Fake Products,” which of the following will you choose to express the central idea?

a. We can find more and more fake goods, which are very harmful to the economy.

b. Fake goods, which we can find more and more, are very harmful to the economy.

As the article asks for your opinion, Sentence b is definitely better where your opinion (Fake goods are very harmful to the economy) becomes more important than the fact (We can find more and more fake goods).

To sum up, subordination can add more information to a sentence, and more importantly, it can give special emphasis to part of the sentence.

Classroom Activities

1. Use subordination to combine the sentence in each of the following pairs. Write two combined sentence for each pair, each sentence giving emphasis to a different part.

1) Mother was reading a fashion magazine on the sofa.

Father was busy preparing supper in the kitchen at the same time.

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2) Most people are considering buying houses.

The economy may benefit a lot from this.

____________________________________________________

3) Modesty can win you acceptance form your colleagues.

Modesty may also prevent you from fully demonstrating your ability.

_____________________________________________________

4) Bill got bored in school.

Bill dropped out of school.

_____________________________________________________

5) I got to his place after the nightmarish exam.

He was watching TV in his living room at that time.

_______________________________________________________

2. Describe the following picture in two or more different ways, using subordination to indicate different emphases.(图片p122)

2）

Effective use of subordination

In order to write effective subordinate sentence, you also need to know where to put subordinate clauses, and how to simplify them to achieve conciseness.

A. Position of the subordinate clause

It is important to decide on the position of a subordinate clause because it may decide how natural the sentence is going to be. An unnatural sentence is one that, though grammatically correct, sounds awkward to its readers.

Work in pairs to read the following sentences and answer the questions.

a. Thomas missed the flight because he left home at midnight.

b. Because Thomas left home at midnight he missed the flight.

c. Although Thomas left home at midnight, he missed his flight.

d. Thomas missed the flight although he left home at midnight.

Questions:

1.Is it right that, in any sentence, there is always some information that we believe our readers have already know (know information), and some information that we believe our readers don’t know (new information)?

2.When writing in a sentence, where do we usually put the known information and the new information?

3.When we use because to indicate a cause-effect relationship, which do you think the readers have already known, the cause, or the effect.

4.When we use although to present a situation and an outcome, which do you think the readers may have already known, the situation, or the outcome?

When writing subordinate sentences, we should be aware of the logical relationships between the ideas in them. We need to organized the ideas in such a way that our readers get the known information before they receive the new information. Otherwise, we will be running against the natural logical process, thus producing unnatural sentence.

B. Simplified subordination

Effective sentences are usually concise, which requires us to use as few words as possible. When writing, we should always look for ways to achieve conciseness and efficiency. Of course not all the subordinate sentences can be simplified, but some can lend themselves to simplification.

Discuss the following sentences with your partner, and try to simplify as many of them as you can.

a. When you are in trouble, you may go to Miss Lin for help.

_____________________________________________________

b. When you are in trouble, Miss Lin will usually offer help.

______________________________________________________

c. While they are traveling in a bus, most people like to listen to the radio.

_______________________________________________________

d. While people are traveling in a bus, some bus drivers play wonderful music for them.

______________________________________________________

e. Although Jim was defeated, he was confident that he would play better the next time.

______________________________________________________

f. Although Jim was defeated, we were confident that he would play better the next time.

_______________________________________________________

g. When terrorists attacked civilians, they were blinded by their misguided devotion.

_______________________________________________________

h. When terrorists attacked civilians, the whole nation fought bravely against them.

_______________________________________________________

Probably you find that only Sentence a, c, e and g can be simplified. Now work with your partner to work out the rules. The following statements may give you some guidance.

●A subordinate clause can be simplified if its__________is the same as that of the main clause.

●If the predicate of the subordinate clause is be + participle, you can_________________________________________________________________________

●If the predicate of the subordinate clause is a common verb, you can________________________________________________________

Classroom Activities

1.Choose a sentence that goes smoothly with the sentence before or after it.

1) Most of my friends would get excited at the mere mention of the countryside.________

A. Though they praise the virtue of living a peaceful life, only one of them has been there

B. Only one of them has been there, though they praise the virtue of living a peaceful life

2)The job of historians is to record the history of the past._______

A. Future histories will have trouble when they come to record the history of our times

B. When they come to record the history of our times, future histories will have trouble.

3)_________ When mistakes do occur, they are usually the passengers’ mistake.

A. Not every passenger is careful enough

B. Railway stations seldom make mistakes

4) ________ If we can understand how absent-mindedness occurs, we can probably better understand human errors in general.

A. Absent-mindedness is a type of human error

B. It is important for us to better understand human errors

2.Try to make the following sentence concise by simplifying the subordinate clauses.

1) Since the car is damaged, it should be sent to the garage.

_____________________________________________________

2) Although my typewriter was made almost 50 years ago, it still works very well.

_____________________________________________________

3) The stepmother told Cinderella, “Before you go to the party, you have to sweep the floor three times”

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4) As the professor was disappointed at your argument, he plans to give you an F.

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5) When people travel long distances, they have to decide whether to go by land, sea, or air.

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