What is the difference between a composite sentence and a semi-composite sentence?

A COMPOSITE sentence consists of MORE than one predicative lines. A MINIMAL composite sentence consists of TWO predicative lines. Each predicative line makes up a CLAUSE. The predicative lines are represented by a subject and a finite verb in the function of the predicate. Examples:

- Ted knew he would be hanged (a complex sentence).

- Ted entered the room, his arm was in a sling (a compound sentence).

A SEMI-COMPOSITE sentence is not a simple sentence, it means that such a sentence must contain MORE than ONE predicative line. A minimal SEMI-COMPOSITE sentence DOES contain TWO predicative lines, but unlike a minimal COMPOSITE sentence, there may be two cases:

- either the two predicative lines are present in the sentence IN FUSION;

- or one predicative line is intact and the other predicative line is deprived of one of its main predicative parts.

For example:

A) The two predicative lines are present in the sentence IN FUSION.

a) The moon rose red.

This sentence looks like a SIMPLE sentence with ONE predicative line. But М.Я. Блох classifies this sentence as a semi-complex sentence of subject sharing. According to him, in this sentence there are TWO predicative lines given in fusion. This can be proved by the fact that this sentence can be restored to TWO base sentences:

- The moon rose.

- The moon was red.

b) Ted, but not Sam helped me.

This sentence looks like a SIMPLE sentence with ONE predicative line. But М.Я. Блох classifies this sentence as a semi-compound sentence. Here there are TWO coordinated (homogeneous) the subjects Ted and Sam. They are arranged antithetically. М.Я. Блох believes that EACH of these two subjects makes up its OWN individual connection with the predicate ‘ helped ’. Thus, he sees here TWO predicative lines, but they are fused, because the subjects Ted and Sam share the same predicate ‘ helped ’.

B) One predicative line is intact and the other predicative line is deprived of one of its main predicative parts.

a) Ted painted the door brown.

This sentence looks like a SIMPLE sentence with ONE predicative line. But М.Я. Блох classifies this sentence as a semi-complex sentence of object sharing. Here one predicative line is intact: ‘ Ted painted ’.

The other predicative line has the subject ‘ the door ’ (it is the secondary subject) and the predicate expressed by the adjective ‘ brown ’. The predicate ‘ brown ’ is elliptical: the verb ‘ to be ’ is omitted. We can say Ted painted the door to be brown.

So, Ted painted is a clause, it is a construction of PRIMARY predicativity. ‘ The door brown ’ is semi-clause, it is a construction of SECONDARY predicativity.

b) The man, working in the garden, looked familiar.

This sentence looks like a SIMPLE sentence with ONE predicative line. But М.Я. Блох classifies this sentence as a semi-compound sentence of linear expansion – a sentence of attributive complication.

Here one predicative line is intact: ‘ The man looked familiar’.

The other predicative line ‘ working in the garden ’ is deprived of its subject. If we restore this predicative line to its full form we shall get ‘ The man worked in the garden ’.

So, the sentence The man, working in the garden, looked familiar can be restored to TWO base sentences:

- The man looked familiar.

- The man worked in the garden.

That is why the sentence The man, working in the garden, looked familiar is NOT a SIMPLE one. It is a semi-

compound sentence in which one predicative line is complete, the other is incomplete.