Subordinating Conjunction - Examples and Definition

Definition of Subordinating Conjunction
Subordinating conjunction is a form of conjunction and a part of speech in grammar. It connects the main clause (unbiased clause) to the subordinate clause (structured clause) by means of introducing the subordinate clause. It additionally describes a relationship among those clauses. A subordinating conjunction seems at the beginning of a sentence, or within the middle of clauses, with or without the usage of commas.

For example, “As the deliver moved towards the equator, the weather changed … Sailors and porters hustled and halloaed their manner through the crowd even as passengers vainly tried to preserve their baggage together and in sight.” (Master of the Game, by way of Sidney Sheldon). In this sentence, Sheldon has used two subordinating conjunctions (in ambitious) that add in addition meaning, as well as concord to the text.

Types of Subordinating Conjunction
There are three forms of subordinating conjunction, including:

Simple Subordinating Conjunction – Uses simply one word, such as: although, as, if, on account that, until, except, that, whereas, and even as, etc. For example, “You are in no way going to win except you get little crazy.”
Complex Subordinating Conjunction – Consists of two or greater words, such as: “such that, assuming that, so that, so as that, in up to now as, granted that, and in case.” For example, “Always try to do what you cannot do, in order that you can analyze the way to do it.”
Correlative Subordinating Conjunction – Uses a couple of words that relate two elements of a sentence, such as: As … so, if … then, or scarcely … when. For example, “If absolutely everyone demanded peace rather than another LCD screen, then there might be peace.”
Examples of Subordinating Conjunctions in Literature
Example #1: Skeptical Essays (with the aid of Bertrand Russell)
“Every man, anywhere he goes, is encompassed via a cloud of comforting convictions, which circulate with him like flies on a summer season day.”

In this sentence, Russell has connected the first three clauses through including the easy subordinating conjunction “wherever.” The use of this conjunction has delivered to the that means of the sentence as a whole.

Example #2: The High Window (by Raymond Chandler)
“I had a funny feeling as I noticed the house disappear, as though I had written a poem and it changed into excellent and I had misplaced it and could never take into account it again.”

In those lines, Raymond Chandler has used a correlative subordinating conjunction, wherein a pair of phrases (“as,” and “as though”) seems between two clauses, playing the position of connectors.

Example #3: To the Lighthouse (by way of Virginia Woolf)
“She went from the dining-room, retaining James through the hand, considering the fact that he could no longer go with the others … Holding her black parasol very erect, and moving with an indescribable air of expectation, as if she have been going to meet someone spherical the corner … There he stood within the parlour of the poky little house in which she had taken him, waiting for her, even as she went upstairs a moment to look a woman. …”

Here, Woolf has used both easy and complicated subordinating conjunctions, illustrated in bold. Here, “as if” is a complicated subordinating conjunction, and other ambitious phrases are easy subordinating conjunctions.

Example #4: Ode to a Nightingale (through John Keats)
“My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as even though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains …”

In the above lines, Keats has used a correlative subordinating conjunction, in which a couple of words, “as even though” and “or,” relates the second one and 1/3 lines, adding glide and rhythm to the poem.

Example #5: The Old Man and the Sea (through Earnest Hemingway)
“Just earlier than it turned into dark, as they passed a tremendous island of Sargasso weed that heaved and swung within the light sea as even though the ocean had been making love with something underneath a yellow blanket, his small line turned into taken with the aid of a dolphin.”

These lines gift an example of correlative subordinating conjunction. Hemingway has used pairs of phrases to join three clauses in a unmarried however lengthy sentence. These conjunctions have advanced cohesion, and made experience of the lines.

Function
Subordinating conjunction is an essential part of speech in each written and verbal forms. It improves brotherly love among extraordinary clauses, and allows a author to construct lengthy sentences without giving them an awkward feel. It also gives experience and adds rhythm to the text. Basically, it performs two capabilities in a sentence. First, subordinating conjunctions reveal the importance of the main clause. Second, they enable a shift or transition of ideas inside a sentence. This transition constantly suggests time, place, cause, effect, or relationship.