complex or compound-complex?

[df2006]

Will someone be kind enough to help me analyse the following sentences? Are they complex or compound-complex sentences?

1. What you say AND what you do are two different things.
(my analysis:)
‘what you say’ = dependent noun clause
‘what you do’ = dependent noun clause
… are two different things = independent clause (?)

2. To do this, you will be able to determine whether you are making progress OR if you need to adjust your plan.
(my analysis:)
‘to do this’ = to-infinitive phrase
‘you will be able to determine’ = independent clause
‘whether you are making progress’ = dependent noun clause
‘if you need to adjust your plan’ = dependent noun clause

Both look like a COMPLEX SENTENCE to me since there isn’t more than one independent clause. But do the coordinating conjunctions ‘AND’ and ‘OR’ make them compound-complex?

Many thanks,
donna

[philo2009]

Originally Posted by df2006

Will someone be kind enough to help me analyse the following sentences? Are they complex or compound-complex sentences?

1. What you say AND what you do are two different things.
(my analysis:)
‘what you say’ = dependent noun clause
‘what you do’ = dependent noun clause
… are two different things = independent clause (?)

2. To do this, you will be able to determine whether you are making progress OR if you need to adjust your plan.
(my analysis:)
‘to do this’ = to-infinitive phrase
‘you will be able to determine’ = independent clause
‘whether you are making progress’ = dependent noun clause
‘if you need to adjust your plan’ = dependent noun clause

Both look like a COMPLEX SENTENCE to me since there isn’t more than one independent clause. But do the coordinating conjunctions ‘AND’ and ‘OR’ make them compound-complex?

Many thanks,
donna

In a word, no. The simple presence of a coordinator in a sentence does not automatically make it compound. All that these do is link nominal phrase elements within the subject or predicate of a single independent clause.

[gabber]

"What you say and what you do" is the subject here; "are two different things" is the predicate. It's just a declarative sentence that happens to have a subject realized by two conjoined nominal relative clauses. The sentence is neither compound nor complex.


Sentence 2) is not acceptable English: an initial to-infinitive clause like this is often preceded by "in order' or "so as" and is used used to explain why something is done:
<to succeed, you'll have to work very hard>. If you read sentence 2) carefully, you'll see that it makes no sense. Perhaps the writer meant to write "have" instead of " be able."
//In sentence 2), everything after the adjectrive "able" is a complement of that adjec tive. //