The structure

The composite sentence is a series of sentences spliced by the comma. Sentences can be spliced to become a composite sentence only under four conditions:

• when independent sentences relate as items of a list;

• when a foreshortened sentence attaches to an independent sentence;

• when a sentence attributes the statement of another;

• when a direct-address noun (vocative noun) or sentence accompanies another sentence.

Spliced sentences that relate as items of a list

Spliced independent sentences relate as items of a list in the following composite sentence. Each of them expresses a person's attitude to the agreement. They are therefore properly spliced as items of a list of attitudes:

Brian claims that the agreement will effect a major increase in staff numbers, Mary agrees with him, Vic says it is valuable only because it will improve the student-teacher ratio.

The spliced `result' sentence

The only sentence that can splice with listed sentences is the `result' sentence that declares the outcome of the listed facts:

Brian claims that the agreement will effect a major increase in staff numbers, Mary agrees with him, Vic says it will improve the student-teacher ratio, so there is no real disagreement at executive level.

The foreshortened sentence

Sentences are foreshortened for the specific purpose of enabling their splicing to another sentence. The foreshortening strategies are the following:

Sentences foreshortened to become adjectives

The adjectival foreshortened sentence describes the subject of the independent sentence with which it splices. It is formed from the predicate adjective of a copula sentence. In the next sentences the predicate-adjective enraged splices with an independent sentence and describes its subject he: 

Enraged, he seized his assault rifle and emptied its magazine into the aircraft.
He was enraged. He seized his assault rifle and emptied its magazine into the aircraft.

Born in Spain, Miguel never did get used to our country.
Miguel was born in Spain. Miguel never did get used to our country.

 Return to Composite Sentence Index

Sentences foreshortened to become nouns

Where the copula sentence is complemented by a noun, that noun becomes an alternate name for the subject of an independent sentence:

A publisher now, Kara's future is a robust one.
Kara is a publisher now. Her future is a robust one.

A surgeon, John takes his physical fitness very seriously.
John is a surgeon. John takes his physical fitness very seriously.

The foreshortened sentence that makes a noun phrase of a sentence only to dismiss it

This is the arrogant foreshortened sentence. It makes its noun-phrase structure only to knock it over it with a word like `notwithstanding' or `aside' or `regardless of'. This sentence makes the noun phrase Discomfiture to those of our citizens with strong ties to that country from the sentence `Those of our citizens who have strong ties to Iran will be discomforted' then inserts the knockout word notwithstanding:

Discomfiture to those of our citizens with strong ties to that country notwithstanding, this government will support belligerent action against it.
Those of our citizens with strong ties to that country will be discomforted. That does not matter. This government will support belligerent action against it.

The same operation happens in this sentence:

Objections aside, the plan has merits.
There are objections to this plan. I am disregarding those objections. It has merits.

 Return to Composite Sentence Index

Sentences foreshortened to become  participle phrases

The copula or verb of the sentence-to-be-foreshortened becomes a present or past participle, then splices with an independent sentence. This splicing comma performs a role that can also be performed by a compounding operator:

PRESENT-PARTICIPLE PHRASEs
Words being politicians' weapons, the Minister is whetting his.
Words are politicians' weapons. The Minister is whetting his.
Because words are politicians' weapons, the minister is whetting his.

Having weeded the flower bed, I can now relax.
I have weeded the flower bed. I can now relax.
I have weeded the flower bed so I can now relax.

 PAST-PARTICIPLE PHRASEs
The flower bed weeded, I can now relax.
I have weeded the flower bed. I can now relax.
I have weeded the flower bed so I can now relax.

The deed done, repentance was still to come.
The deed was done. Repentance was still to come.
Although the deed was done repentance was still to come.

  Return to Composite Sentence Index

The list of foreshortened sentences

Foreshortened sentences that are nouns, adjectives or participle phrases can splice with one another other before they splice with an independent sentence. A compounding operator can also compound another participle phrase to them. In this sentence, the noun phrase A publisher now and the present-participle phrase having left teaching a number of years earlier splice with each other then compound with the adjective phrase second in the company only to its general manager:

A publisher now, having left teaching a number of years earlier and second in the company only to its general manager,  her future is a robust one.

The sentence foreshortened to become a relative-pronoun phrase

As a foreshortened sentence, the relative-pronoun phrase can refer to and comment upon the whole statement of the independent sentence with which it splices, or upon a selected part of it. It is recognised by the presence of the relative pronoun `which'. In this sentence the relative phrase selects tertiary education with `of which' and comments upon it:

Academics complain about the shortage of funds in tertiary education, the quality of which is surely deteriorating.
Academics complain about the shortage of funds in tertiary education. The quality of education in tertiary institutions is surely deteriorating.

In this sentence the relative-pronoun phrase refers to the whole sentence There was a nasty incident there with `which' and comments upon it:

There was a nasty accident there, which was only to be expected. 
There was a nasty accident there. A nasty accident there was only to be expected.

This clever-kate foreshortened sentence can splice also with a present-participle phrase that acts like a reason-attributing compounding operator:

There was a nasty accident there, which was only to be expected, knowing the maniacs who ski on those slopes. 
There was a nasty accident there. A nasty incident in that place was only to be expected because  the people who ski on those slopes are maniacs I know.

  Return to Composite Sentence Index

 `However' is a foreshortened sentence

`However' is a foreshortening of sentences in this way:

However angry you are, you should apologise.
It does not matter how angry you are. You should apologise.

You must remember that your first duty is to us, however much they flatter you.
You must remember that your duty is to us. It does not how much they flatter you.

The ghost sentence

In every context where `however' appears alone rather than as part of a phrase, there are two sentence and an intervening implicit third sentence. The function of that third sentence is to disjoin the two it intervenes. It is represented by `however':

You paid some money. However, it was not the full amount owing.
You paid some money. [Something else is also true.] It was not the full amount.

Other attempts at replication, however, yielded far less spectacular results.
Other attempts at replication [this is the other perspective] yielded far less spectacular results.

However, other attempts at replication yielded far less spectacular results.
[This is the other perspective]: other attempts at replication yielded far less spectacular results.

`however', `but', `nevertheless'' and `still' as synonyms

The words `however', `nevertheless', `but' and `still' are not ordinary disjunctive operators when they are synonymous. The fact that they are always demarcated by the comma from an independent sentence acknowledges this. When they are synonymous they represent sentences that are implicitly present between two sentences:

You will be shot. However, you may choose the rifle.
You will be shot. Nevertheless, you may choose the rifle.
You will be shot. Still, you may choose the rifle.
You will be shot. There is a mitigating circumstance: You may choose the rifle.

It is unusual to see a comma after `but'. Yet the comma is a perfectly correct there when `but' represents a sentence as `however', `nevertheless' and `still' do

You will be shot. But, you may choose the rifle.

 Return to Composite Sentence Index

The sentence foreshortened to become an `as'-led sequence

Two sentences can splice if they make parallel statements and one of them is foreshortened to become an `as'-led sequence. The parallel `being a vegetarian' obtains in these two sentences:

She is a vegetarian. Her friends are vegetarians.

One or the other of  them can foreshorten to become an `as'-led sequence:

She is a vegetarian, as are her friends.

Her friends are vegetarians, as is she.

In the next two sentences the parallel is `the telling'. The sentence that refers to the past event is foreshortened:

I have already told you that you may not eat in class. You may not eat in class.

As I have already told you, you may not eat in class.

The `as'-led sequence is sometimes a foreshortened `ghost' sentence. In this set of sentences it foreshortens a ghost sentence something like `Mary has come to mind':

John is an able pianist. As for Mary, she wins every competition she enters.

The spliced attributing sentence

Attributing sentences are ones that assign a comment or a speech sequence. They can splice only with one independent sentence either by following or by intervening it:

`You must know', she said, `that it's late'.

`You must know that it's late', she said.

It was late, he warned them. They really ought to go home.

 Return to Composite Sentence Index

Validity in the composite sentence

Validity in the composite sentence is easily obtained. One need only remember that the composite sentence can splice only when one of four specific conditions obtains.

Do the listing commas list only sentences that are items of a list?

Some writers think, mistakenly, that a comma can splice any two sentences that address the same topic. Indeed, the original version of a sentence discussed in the previous section made that mistake:

DEFECTIVE SENTENCE
In their recent policy statement the leadership was quick to praise the agreement, Brian claims that the agreement will effect a major increase in staff numbers, Mary agrees with him, and Vic says that the agreement is valuable only because it improves student-teacher ratios.

The leading sentence In their recent policy statement the leadership was quick to praise the agreement is a summary of attitudes to the agreement. Being a summary, it cannot lead spliced sentences that list individual attitudes. It should have been marked with a full stop or a colon:

In their recent policy statements the leadership was quick to praise the agreement. Brian claims ...

Parenthetical commas amid the listing commas

Sometimes writers interrupt listed sentences with explanatory parenthetical sequences demarcated by commas. The author of the following sentence did this. (His parenthetical sequences are rendered in italics.) He spliced four sentences, lopping the subject of the second and third, to list the events in `John's' professional life. (The verbial of each sentences is underlined.)

John  began to edit a literary periodical, became the conductor of a small theatre orchestra, accepted an appointment as art master in a girls' school, all in a space of a few months and in order to be able to marry, until his future father-in-law, broad-minded though he was in the matters of genius and career, would no longer put up with it.

Writers given to making parenthetical comments in the context of a composite sentence need to be alert, for this is the practice most likely to result in a composite sentence that continues beyond the point where it should have been stopped. Indeed, the original version of the foregoing sentence had improperly spliced `he read him the riot act firmly' to its end. The subject he of that wrongly spliced sentence represented John's father-in-law, not John. That alone was enough to disable the splicing. Apart from that the spliced sentence headed by until is a `result' sentence that completes a listing. No sentence can splice with the `result' sentence of a composite sentence.

Had this writer been desperate to get `he read him the riot act firmly' into the scheme of his composite sentence he could have investigated the possibility of making a relative noun phrase of his `result' sentence:

... until his future father-in-law, who would not put up with it any longer in spite of his broad-mindedness in the matter of genius and career, read him the riot act firmly.

  Return to Composite Sentence Index

Is it sentences that are being listed?

In the next sentence the comma that splices the foreshortened-sentence-cum-adjective phrase Born in 1799 to an ancient and impoverished family to the independent sentence is the only splicing comma.

Born in 1799 to an ancient and impoverished family, Pushkin lived his entire life attending St Petersburg salons, walking at designated times in the park, forever scrutinised by the Tsar's secret police.

The subsequent commas are not commas that splice sentences. They are commas that demarcate a list of adverb phrases that describe the manner of the act lived of the subject Pushkin:

... attending St Petersburg salons, walking at designated times in the park, forever scrutinised by the Tsar's secret police.

A common blunder among writers is to mistake comma-demarcated phrases for sentences and then splice a real sentence to them:

Born in 1799 to an ancient and impoverished family, Pushkin lived his entire life attending St Petersburg salons, walking at designated times in the park, forever scrutinised by the Tsar's secret police, he never went abroad.

An independent sentence cannot be spliced with phrases. He never went abroad is a sentence. But its inability to splice is not to do with information. (Obviously, `he never went abroad' is, like the adverb phrases, a description of how Pushkin lived his life.) It is to do with construction. If the sentence He never went abroad is re-cast as an adverb phrase, it can be listed with the other adverb phrases:

Born in 1799 to an ancient and impoverished family, Pushkin lived  his entire life attending St Petersburg salons, walking at designated times in the park, forever scrutinised by the Tsar's secret police, never going abroad.

 Return to Composite Sentence Index

Do the subjects and the foreshortened sentence really splice?

It is essential to realise that a foreshortened sentence does not splice with an independent sentence just because it has been foreshortened. In this copula sentence the subject bank is described by the predicate adjective finished. Its, the subject of the foreshortened sentence, represents the bank.  Its predicate-adjective phrase forever ruined in the eyes of the people who matter can therefore describe the bank:

The bank is finished, its credibility forever ruined in the eyes of the people who matter.

Its credibility forever ruined in the eyes of the people who matter, the bank is finished.

If the subject of the foreshortened sentence is other than the subject of the independent sentence, that foreshortened sentence cannot contain an adjective phrase that describes the subject of the independent sentence: It describes its own subject. And describing its own subject, it cannot splice with the independent sentence:

Thousands of public servants  have been  retrenched  since last June, those remaining glad to be in work.

The subject of the foreshortened sentence those remaining glad to be in work is those remaining. And those remaining cannot represent the subject public servants of the independent sentence because `the public servants' are the retrenched ones. The predicate adjectives retrenched and glad to be in work describe different subjects. This foreshortened sentence cannot splice. It needs to be an independent sentence:

Thousands of public servants have been retrenched since last June. Those who remain are glad to be in work.

 Return to Composite Sentence Index

Is the adjectival foreshortened sentence well placed?

The placement of the foreshortened sentence that acts like an adjective is a serious issue in the process of making sense. The next sentence misplaced the foreshortened sentence and therefore failed in its intention to describe the subject of the independent sentence:

The minister opened a conference on affirmative action in tertiary institutions attended by the senior administrators of every university in the country.

The foreshortened sentence [The minister was] attended by the senior administrators of every university in the country must precede the independent sentence. Otherwise it acts as it does in the foregoing sentence: as an adjective phrase that describes tertiary institutions as places attended by the senior administrators of every university in the country.  It should have described `the minister':

Attended by the senior administrators of every university in the country, the Minister opened a conference on affirmative action in tertiary institutions.

Does the attributing sentence splice with only one sentence?

This is probably the simplest of the composite-sentence splicings. It is surprising that so many writers misuse it. The most common mistake is that of trying to splice an attributing sentence with two sentences:

WRONGLY USED SPICING COMMA
`It's late,' she said, `we must call a taxi.'

The two sentences without the attributing sentence are It's late and We must call a taxi. The attributing sentence can splice only with the first one. The other must remain an independent sentence:

`It's late', she said. `We must call a taxi.'

It is only when the attributing sentence intervenes one sentence of a speaker that a set of two commas demarcates it. The intervened sentence in the next sentence is I seem to remember that you used to enjoy walking:

`I seem to remember', he smiled mischievously as he prodded her into motion, `that you used to enjoy walking'.

Does `however' disjoin two independent sentences?

A surprisingly prevalent misuse of `however' tries to make it a disjunctive operator within one sentence. The writer of the next sentence did this. But `however' simply cannot be a one-sentence operator. It is a foreshortened sentence that attaches to one independent sentence to make a disjunctive statement about a foregoing one.

 DEFECTIVE SENTENCE
There are various government programmes we can tap into to obtain funds, however, we are looking also a making sponsorship proposals to private businesses.

This sentence should have been stopped before `however':

There are various government programmes we can tap into to obtain funds. However, we are looking also at making sponsorship proposals to private businesses.

EXERCISE 11 of Exercise and Answer Notes is appropriate here.