Making Sense

So a binomial in which one item was shorter, semantically more important, contributed to a regular stress pattern, and had a front vowel would definitely put that item first

n dumb is further back. Similarly, the vowel in knife is front and high; the vowel in fork is back and low. Other examples include this or that, cats and dogs, spick and span, ifs and buts, tit for tat, [when all’s] said and done.

the first item seems to be more functionally distinctive: teeth cause more damage than nails, cloaks hide daggers, and we can have chips ‘with everything’.

tooth and nail, cloak and dagger, and fish and chips,

hill and dale, leaps and bounds, ups and downs, above and beyond, rise and fall, and an arm and a leg

born and bred, hand to mouth, life and death, rise and shine, kiss and make up, hit and run, smash and grab, old and grey

Other subordinate clauses acted like subjects, objects, or complements. And because they were doing the same job as a noun, they were called noun clauses (or, using an adjective that became popular during the nineteenth century, nominal clauses). That handled cases like this:

Because the clause is doing the same job as an adverb, grammarians in this approach therefore called it an adverb clause (or adverbial clause).

and, but, either, and or

Conjunctions such as because, when, and after were consequently called subordinating conjunctions – with subordinators a more succinct alternative. And sentences containing clauses linked by subordinators were called complex sentences.

fter Daddy pushed the pram

was subordinate clause

And sentences containing clauses linked by coordinators were called compound sentences.

. Coordinating conjunctions became the most widely used term, though some grammarians, finding this a bit of a mouthful, later opted for coordinators. A clause that followed a coordinator was called a coordinate clause.

placing little demand on her memory

toe-in-the-water sequences

Madam, the agony is somewhat abated

taken grammatical terminology (and jigsaws?) in his stride

with great force

. Some linguists adopted adverbial – actually a medieval alternative for adverb, but now used with this broader meaning. Others opted for another old term, used since the sixteenth century (and employed in Chapter 2): adjunct.