[Linguists’ Forum] From Simplicity to Complexity: The Role of Sentence Types in Effective Writing, By Lateef Kugbayi, PhD
Among the stages of language development in children, as identified in psycholinguistics, are pre-linguistic (cooing and babbling), holophrastic (one-word) and two-word stages. A child’s ability to demonstrate the features of the listed stages of language development efficiently when it is expected can be exciting to the parents. However, the parents will be demoralised if the child fails to move beyond communicating with two words to combining words to form complex utterances. It can be more demoralising for readers or examiners of essays that are written in fragmented sentences or sentences that lack combinations of subordinations. Candidates who will sit for essay-based examinations are, therefore, required to combine a variety of sentences in their writing to bring life to it. The varied sentences are generally categorised according to:
i. function (declarative, interrogative, exclamatory and imperative sentences).
ii. structure (simple, compound, complex and compound-complex sentences).
While it may not be necessary to have all the functional varieties of sentences in an essay, combining all the structural types of sentences in the essay is not out of place. It will make the essay impactful and interesting to the reader/examiner. In essence, the structural types of sentences are further discussed below.
a. Simple Sentence: This has one independent clause (that is, a clause that has a complete thought), as in:
i. Abiodun promises a peaceful handover in 2027.
ii. Ronaldo reaches 956 career goals.
b. Compound Sentence: This is a combination of two independent clauses with the use of a coordinating conjunction such as and, or, but, etc.
Examples:
i. Titi went to the market + Titi bought a new bag = Titi went to the market (and) bought a new bag.
ii. The team played very well + the team lost the match = The team played very well (but) lost the match.
c. Complex Sentence: This has one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses.
i. Nigerians rejoiced (independent) + when Dangote reduced the pump price of petroleum (dependent) = Nigerians rejoiced when Dangote reduced the pump price of petroleum.
ii. The man retired from the company (independent) + because he was redundant (dependent) + after he had worked for many years (dependent) = The man retired from the company because he was redundant after he had worked for many years.
d. Compound-Complex Sentence: It contains two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses.
Examples:
i. Although Hadiza did not attend her father’s retirement party (dependent) + she called him (independent) + she apologised for her absence (independent) = Although Hadiza did not attend her father’s retirement party, she called him and apologised for her absence.
ii. Osai bought a car (independent) + He gave a car to his wife (independent) + because he appreciated her commitment to their marriage (dependent) = Osai bought a car and gave it to his wife because he appreciated her commitment to their marriage.
Note: The use of varied sentence types in writing should be systematic. Too many clauses in a sentence may lead to a run-on sentence or a risk of missing out some important elements of the sentence.
Lateef Iyanda Kugbayi, PhD
Senior Lecturer
Department of English Language
Zamfara State University
Talata Mafara
[email protected]/+2347032985052
