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Additive/Paratactic and Subordinate
Sentence Structures

This characteristic has to do with what many students may recognize as compound sentences, as opposed to complex and compound-complex ones. The former one overwhelmingly characterizes orality, and the latters ones, literacy.

Oral

The oral culture uses mostly additive sentence structures (Ong 37-38), also known as compound sentences. The sentences express ideas that are equal in importance, and place them one after another, and so they are "additive" because they are added on.

They come in two types. In the first, two or more independent clauses (IC) are joined with coordinating conjunctions (cc). In the second, they accumulate in paratactic style, without conjunctions; simple sentences follow one after another separated by periods or joined with semicolons. Here is an example: The sun rose. Cool breezes blew in from the south. The day was cloudy; it cleared up later on.

The table below illustrates the types of sentence structures that occur in writing from a culture that is predominantly oral.

1. IC, cc IC (IC, FANBOYS IC) - Independent clauses are joined with a coordinating conjunction.

2. IC; IC - Independent clauses are joined with a semicolon.

3. IC. IC. IC. - Independent clauses follow one another in sequence .

1. Independent clause,

Fanboys

for
and
nor
but
or
yet
so

independent clause.
2. Independent clause,
;
independent clause.
3. Independent clause. Independent clause.

Examples

• In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God moved over the waters (Douay 1610).

• And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning-the first day. Gen. 1:1-5 (NIV)

The literate culture subordinates ideas as well (Ong 36-37).

Writers in a literate culture create compound sentences as do those in oral cultures, but they also use subordination to distinguish between important ideas and more important ideas. Whenever a complex sentence occurs in the compositions of an oral culture, it most likely arises from the translation or other cause, not from the original language.

Subordinating sentences are also known as complex sentences, containing at least one dependent clause (DP) and one or more independent clauses. They are joined by subordinating conjunctions (sub.conj.). The order of the clauses may vary. The table below illustrates complex sentence structures, which occur in writing from a culture that is predominantly literate.

1.IC sub.conj. DP - The independent clause begins the sentence while the subordinating conjunction joins the dependent clause to it.

2. Sub.conj. DP, IC - When the subordinating conjunction and dependent clause begin the sentence, a comma links them to the dependent clause.

3. IC; IC Sub.conj. DP - In a compound-complex construction, two independent clauses are joined by a semicolon, and then a subordinating conjunction introduces the dependent clause.

1. Independent clause

Subordinating
conjunctions

after
although
as
because
before
even though
if
since
though
unless
until
when
whenever
whereas
wherever
while

dependent clause.

2.Subordinating
conjunction

After
Although
As
Because
Before
Even though
If
Since
Though
Unless
Until
When
Whenever
Whereas
Wherever
While

dependent clause,

independent clause.

Examples

• IC DP. - In the beginning, the earth was void, empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep when God created the heavens and the earth.

• DP, IC. - When God created the heavens and the earth in the beginning, the earth was void, empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep

The evening, and the morning of the first day followed after God called the light "day," and the darkness "night."

• IC; IC, DP. - On the first day, God creates light; he creates the sun and moon on the fourth day, since he uses something else to mark days and nights before then.

Exception: Primally-strong emotions trigger a default back to the oral mode.

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