Lecture 1 Fundamentals of grammar

4. Asyndetic Sentences
In some composite sentences clauses are not attached to one another in any
grammatical way, they simply abut against each other, they make contact but are
not connected. Grammar books differ in identifying the linguistic essence of such
syntactic structures. In traditional grammar asyndetic sentences, just as syndetic
ones, were classified into compound and complex. For instance, the sentence He
came to her; she did not move would be classed among the compound sentences, and the sentence I can see what you are driving at among complex ones.
This traditional treatment of asyndetic composite sentences was criticized by
some scholars. For example, a different approach is found in N. S. Pospelov's
treatments of asyndeton in Russian syntax where asyndetic sentences are viewed as
a special syntactic category with no immediate relevance to subordination or
coordination.
Various approaches to classifying asyndetic composite sentences have been
sought, but non of them has provided an adequate interpretation of this
phenomenon so far.
According to Prof. Ilyish, in some types of asyndetic composite sentences,
there is a main and a subordinate clause, while the other types of asyndetic
sentences do not admit of such a distinction.
E g. This is the most interesting book I have ever read. – attributive clause
I think you should go there right away. – object clause
Should any problems occur, give me a call. – conditional clause
The old man felt offended; he had been treated unjustly. – causal clause
He pressed the button, something clicked inside. – clause of result
As it can be seen from the above examples, the semantic relations between
clauses are signalled only by the lexical meaning of the words making up the
sentence. This example is illustrative of the interaction between vocabulary and
syntax which should not be overlooked in grammatical analysis.