Sentence complexity is a part of syntax – the study of how words, phrases and clauses are put together to form sentences. It explains the different levels of sentence construction in terms of their easiness and difficulty. How writers choose to write sentences in a text contributes to the reader’s understanding of the emotions transferred into their writing. Level of education and target audience, among others, are the ideas writers imply as a result of their sentence organization. This notion is best understood by observing the following categories of sentence complexity.
Simple sentences
Simple sentences are the first category of sentences under complexity in syntax. As the name suggests, these sentences are relatively less complex because they have a single independent clause structure. They are terse, simple, forceful and emphatic. Simple sentences often describe actions and usually use the “be” verb. For example, ‘People think I am foolish and ignorant, but I am not. I see. I read. I think. I walk by myself.’ Sentences of this kind are easily understood and are interesting to read because they mimic how language is used on daily basis.
Elliptical sentences
Elliptical sentences are sentence constructions without the subject, the predicate, or both. The main parts of these sentences are deliberately left out to reduce semantic redundancies. They spare the speaker time and space by cutting off unnecessary structures from the main idea resulting in constructions that produce a fast-paced flow of fragmentary thoughts. These sentences reveal the speaker’s emotions as excitement, impatience and delight, and are frequently used in telegraph, slogans, titles, notices and newspaper headlines. We often read sentences like, “No Parking!”, “Equal rights for women!”, “Murderer Sentenced”, “Cash for Scrap” and “Cash ‘n’ Carry.” These are some examples of ellipsis.
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Compound sentences
Compound sentences are another category of sentences. These sentences have more than one clause in them – mostly coordinated by conjunction – where the clauses are of equal grammatical status. They have several independent subject-predicate structures that are balanced. Compound sentences make a piece of narrative or description stylish and informative. They enable the creation of casual, intimate and natural effects in a text. In this regard, let us consider “The American Job Act” where Obama says: The purpose of the American Job Act is simple: to put more people back to work and more money in the pockets of those who are working. It will create more jobs for construction workers, more jobs for teachers, more jobs for veterans and more jobs for the long-term unemployed. It will provide a tax break for companies who hire new workers, and it will cut payroll taxes in half for every working American and every small business.
From the excerpt, Obama repeats the construction, it will create more jobs for… and more jobs for… several times, which are constructions of equal grammatical status. The following biblical text also makes a good example. It is an excerpt from the third Psalm in the Bible regarding the time David fled from his son Absalom (New Living Translation). It says:
1 O Lord, I have so many enemies;
so many are against me.
2 So many are saying,
“God will never rescue him!” Interlude
3 But you, O Lord, are a shield around me;
you are my glory, the one who holds my head high.
4 I cried out to the Lord,
and he answered me from his holy mountain. Interlude
5 I lay down and slept,
yet I woke up in safety,
for the Lord was watching over me.
6 I am not afraid of ten thousand enemies
who surround me on every side.
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Complex sentences
This type of sentence consists of a minimum of one dependent clause and one independent clause. The clauses are put together using conjunctions like when, if, since, due, unless, and though, among others. These sentences are often used in formal writing (such as the constitution). Texts using a lot of complex sentences achieve the highest level of precision and appear to have a serious tone. Using a lot of these sentences in fictional stories such as short stories often makes them uninteresting because the sentences are hard to comprehend since they express complicated ideas and the psychological aspects of things. Such sentences are not commonly used in daily conversations either. Not many enjoy a conversation filled with sentences like, “His first job as a minister in the city was short-lived because his abolitionist views clashed with those of his congregation” or “Whereas few people set out deliberately to defraud in this way, there is a risk of unintentional plagiarism”. In the first sentence, the subordinate clause begins from the subordinate conjunction “because”, and “whereas” to where there is a comma in the second sentence.
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Rhetorical questions
These are another category of sentences within the complexity of sentences in syntax. A rhetoric question is a construction that asks a question whose expected answer is implied by the question itself. Such questions express strong emotions to emphasize a particular aspect. When these questions are written along a declarative sentence, they make the sentence appear powerful, attract the listener’s attention, and induce sympathy in the listener. Here is how John MacArthur uses a rhetorical question in his sermon, “Why does God allow So Much Suffering and Evil?” He says, “How can you tell me that God is all-loving, all-good, all-holy, all-knowing, all-powerful, and then explain evil to me? In the minds of some, the biblical God cannot exist. Therefore, the Bible which presents such a God is not to be believed…” MacArthur’s rhetorical question emphasizes the idea that God and the Bible are unworthy to believe in, of course, except that this is not what he concludes in the sermon.
References
AJE Scholar (2022). Using Elliptical Constructions to Write More Concisely. Retrieved on November 14, 2022, from https://www.aje.com/arc/editing- tip-elliptical- constructios/
Britannica (n.d.). Syntax. Retrieved on November 19, 2022, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/syntax
Burton-Roberts, N. (2016). Analysing Sentences: An Introduction to English Syntax, (4th Ed.). New York: Routledge.
Byju’s.com (n.d.). Compound Sentences-Explore Meaning, Definition, How to Use Them with Examples. Retrieved on November 14, 2022, from https://byjus.com/englis/compound-sentence/
Byju’s.com (n.d.). Simple Sentences Explore Meaning, Definition, How to Use Them with Examples. Retrieved on November 14, 2022, from https://byjus.com/englis/compound-sentence/
MacArthur, J. (2015), Why Does God Allow Suffering and Evil? Retrieved on November 19, 2022 from https://youtu.be/6LFzk1afiD8
The Obama Whitehouse (2011). President Obama Presents American Job Act (Enhanced Version). Retrieved on November 19, 2022, from https://youtu.be/N5f-FwN2ZJs
University of Bristol (n.d.). Complex Sentences. Retrieved on November 19, 2022, from https://bristol.ac.uk/academic-language/media/BEAP/3.4/index.html
Francis Mkwapatira is a teacher and creative writer of Malawian origin. He is a teacher of Chichewa and English languages and writes fictional and nonfictional narratives. Francis was previously an editor of Writers Space Africa (WSA) Magazine and is the current country coordinator of WSA-Malawi.
