SENTENCE STYLES l 8 l He could not keep the masses from calling him Lindy, but he con- vinced them that he was not the Lindy type. John Lardner In literature there is no such thing as pure thought; in literature, thought is always the handmaid of emotion. j . Middieton Murry
> Choosing different subjects from those in the text, compose five balanced sentences modeled upon examples in the preceding question.
182 THE SENTENCE
The Loose Sentence
At its simplest the loose sentence contains a main clause plus a subordinate construction:
We must always be wary of conclusions drawn from the ways of the social insects, since their evolutionary track lies so far from
Ours. Robert Ardrey
The number of ideas in loose sentences is easily increased by adding phrases and clauses, related either to the main con- structions or to a preceding subordinate one:
I found a large hall, obviously a former garage, dimly lit, and
packed With COtS. Eric Hoffer
I knew I had found a friend in the woman, who herself was a lonely soul, never having known the love of man or child.
Emma Goldman
As the number of subordinate constructions increases, the loose sentence approaches the cumulative style (discussed on pages 124-25). It is impossible to draw a line between loose and cumulative sentences. Indeed, cumulative sentences (or rather, most of them) are a special variety of the loose style.
The difference is relative, depending on the length and weight of the subordinate constructions. In the cumulative sentence these take over, becoming more significant than the main clause, which serves primarily to introduce them. The follow- ing passage describing a Welsh town illustrates how loose structure evolves into a cumulative style:
Llanblethian hangs pleasantly, with its white cottages, and orchard and other trees, on the western slope of a green hill; looking far and wide over green meadows and little or bigger hills, in the pleas- ant plain of Glamorgan; a short mile to the south of Cowbridge, to which smart little town it is properly a kind of suburb.
Thomas Carlyle
SENTENCE STYLES 183
Loose sentences are appropriate for writing that aims to be colloquial, informal, relaxed. It puts first things first, as most of us do when we talk. On the other hand, loose structure lacks emphasis and easily becomes formless. Its unity derives not so much from a structural principle as from the coherence of thought. A loose sentence is well formed to the degree that it expresses a completed idea or perception. A good example is the following passage, which begins a description of the Brooklyn home belonging to the writer's grandmother:
Her house was a narrow brownstone, two windows to every floor except the ground, where the place of one window was taken by a double door of solid walnut plated with layers of dust-pocked cheap enamel. Its shallow s t o o p . . . . William Alfred
Alfred's sentence is unified by what it describes—the facade of the house. When that perception ends and our eyes are turned upon the stoop, the writer wisely begins a new sen- tence. Of course, this question of when to stop, of knowing when one statement should end and another begin, applies to all kinds of sentences. But it causes special problems with loose structure, where the absence of a clear stopping place may tempt you to ramble on and on.
The Periodic Sentence
Periodic sentences reverse the pattern of loose structure, be- ginning with subordinate constructions and putting the main clauses at the end:
If there is no future for the black ghetto, the future of all Negroes is d i m i n i s h e d . Stanley Sanders G i v e n a moist planet w i t h methane, f o r m a l d e h y d e , a m m o n i a , a n d some usable minerals, all of w h i c h a b o u n d , exposed to l i g h t n i n g or ultraviolet radiation at the right temperature, life m i g h t start a l - most a n y w h e r e . Lewis Thomas
184 THE SENTENCE
There is no one formula for the periodic sentence. Often, however, the opening subordinate constructions are adverbial clauses, as in the example by Stanley Sanders, or participial phrases, as in that by Lewis Thomas.
Whatever kinds of subordination it uses, the periodic style is emphatic. Delaying the principal thought increases its im- portance. To the degree that more and more subordinate clauses and phrases are accumulated at the beginning, further postponing the main clause, the sense of climax increases (within limits, of course; too long a delay will cause confu- sion). Here is an instance of effectively postponing the main point:
Paralyzed by the neurotic lassitude engendered by meeting one's past at every turn, around every corner, inside every cupboard, I go aimlessly from room to room. Joan Didion
The periodic style is also more formal and literary than the loose, suggesting a writer at a desk rather than a speaker in a relaxed social setting, a tone advantageous on formal occa- sions, though less so when informality is desired.
The Convoluted Sentence
In this type of periodic structure the subordinate elements split the main clause from the inside, often intruding between the subject and the verb and sometimes between verb and object or within the verb phrase:
White men, at the bottom of their hearts, know this.
James Baldwin
And once in a spasm of reflex chauvinism, she called Queen Vic- toria, whom she rather admired, "a goddamned old water dog."
William Alfred
Convoluted structure, as an occasional rather than habitual style, is a good way of achieving variety in sentence move-
SENTENCE STYLES 185
ment. It also establishes strong emphasis by throwing weight upon the words before and after the commas or dashes setting off the interrupting constructions:
Now demons, whatever else they may be, are full of interest.
Lytton Strachey
Here both "demons" and "full of interest" draw attention, expressing the principal idea more strongly than would loose or periodic structure:
Now demons are full of interest, whatever else they may be.
Whatever else they may be, demons are full of interest.
However, this fact does not mean that the convoluted style is inherently better than either the periodic or the loose. It is simply a convenient way of establishing emphasis on partic- ular words when that emphasis is desirable.
On the other hand, convoluted structure is formal, and it can tax readers' attention, especially as the interrupting ele- ments grow longer and more complicated:
Even the humble ambition, which I long cherished, of making sketches of those places which interested me, from a defect of eye or of hand was totally ineffectual. Sir Walter Scott The life story to be told of any creative worker is therefore by its very nature, by its diversion of purpose and its qualified success, by its grotesque transitions from sublimation to base necessity and its pervasive stress towards flight, a comedy. H. c. Wells
These are good sentences, carefully articulated and precise;
but they are not easy to read. They demand attention; readers must recognize when a construction is suspended and when it is resumed and be able to put the pieces together. Used sparingly, the long convoluted sentence has the virtue of the unusual: it draws attention to itself and, more important, to what it says, and it can challenge and stimulate the reader. A
186 THE SENTENCE
steady diet of such challenges, however, very soon grows tiresome.
The Centered Sentence
The type of subordinate structure that places the main clause more or less in the middle of the sentence, with subordinate elements on either side, has no common name. It has been called "circuitous" and "round composition"; we shall say
"centered." Whatever we call it, we see it often. (In the three examples that follow in this section, the main clauses have been italicized.)
Having wanted to walk on the sea like St. Peter he had taken an involuntary bath, losing his mitre and the better part of his reputation. Lawrence Durrell Standing on the summit of the tower that crowned his church, wings upspread, sword lifted, the devil crawling beneath, and the cock, symbol of eternal vigilance, perched on his mailed foot, Saint Michael held a place of his own in heaven and on earth which seems, in the eleventh century, to leave hardly room for the Virgin of the Crypt at Chartres, still less for the Beau Christ of the thirteenth century at Amiens. Henry Adams
While not as emphatic as periodic or as informal as loose construction, the centered style has several advantages, espe- cially in long sentences with numerous subordinate elements.
It enables a writer to place those elements more clearly. If half-a-dozen or more phrases and dependent clauses all pre- cede the main construction (as in the periodic style), or all follow it (as in the loose), some may seem to float free. The link becomes obscure, especially when writing about ideas.
The chance of obscurity is reduced if the main clause can be placed in the middle of the subordinate elements.
Another advantage of the centered sentence is that it is eas- ier to arrange sentence elements to reflect the natural order of the event or the ideas. Jonathan Swift does exactly this in
SENTENCE STYLES 187
the following passage criticizing England's participation in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714):
After ten years' fighting to little purpose, after the loss of above a hundred thousand men, and a debt remaining of twenty millions, we at length hearkened to the terms of peace, which was concluded with great advantage to the empire and to Holland, but none at all to us, and clogged soon after with the famous treaty of partition.
Allowed a broad and uncritical meaning of "idea," we may say that Swift's sentence contains nine of them: (1) the "ten years' fighting"; (2) the "little purpose," or lack of result; (3) the "loss" of the men; (4) the "debt remaining"; (5) the "hear- kening" to peace; (6) the conclusion of the peace; (7) the "ad- vantages" that followed for England's allies; (8) the absence of such advantages for England herself; and (9) the "clogging"
of the peace. Here the order of the sentence mirrors events.
In reality, as in the sentence, the fighting comes first, then the absence of positive results, the loss of life, the debt, and so on. Effecting a workable compromise between the natural or- der of thought or of events on the one hand, and the gram- matical order of the sentence on the other, is one of the most difficult tasks a writer faces. When you are dealing with a long and complicated subject, the centered sentence may prove the easiest solution to the problem.