Theoretical Grammar of English

The Structural Approach to Composite Sentences

One of the representatives of structural linguists Ch. Fries (31), (32) considers two kinds of composite sentences: sequence sentences and included sentences. The sequence sentences consist of situation sentence and sequence sentence. Example:

1. 
   The government has set up an agency called Future builders.
   
2. 
   It has a certain amount of fund to make loans to social enterprises.
   

These two sentences are connected with each-other. The first sentence is a situation sentence and the second one is a sequence sentence since it develops the idea of the situation sentence.
In the following example “The biggest loan has gone to M. Trust, which runs a school for handicapped children.” There are also two sentences included into one but they are not separated by a period (full stop).
Thus, in both cases there are certain signals that serve to connect the constituents, they are “if” in the sequence sentence and “which” - in the included one.
The most significant difference between these function words as signals of “inclusion” and the forms given above as signals of sequence lies in the fact that these function words of inclusion at the beginning of a sentence look forward to a coming sentence unit, while the signals of sequence look backward to the preceding sentence unit.
When sentence units are included in larger units they can fulfill a variety of structural functions. In the structure of the larger sentence unit in which they are included they often operate as a single unit substitutable for one of the single part of the speech.
C.H. Fries, as we see, makes an attempt to reject the traditional classification and terms. He substitutes for the traditional doctrine his theory of included sentences and sequences of sentences. His attitude towards the traditional concept of the compound sentence is primarily a matter of the punctuation of written texts.