"Keep your car doors locked, and your windows rolled up..."

[birgit33]

"Keep your car doors locked, and your windows rolled up at all times." Is this a command which makes it a compound sentence with 2 hidden subjects (you) inside the sentence ? Or is it a simple sentence ? I think it's a compound sentence.

[TheParser]

[QUOTE=birgit33;811150]"Keep your car doors locked, and your windows rolled up at all times."


NOT A TEACHER


(1) I most respectfully and humbly suggest that this sentence is a simple sentence.

(2) Let's simplify it for easier analysis:

(You) + keep + doors (locked) and windows (rolled up).

(3) You = subject.

(4) keep = verb.

(5) doors = object ("locked" is objective complement of "doors," describing the state of the door).

(6) windows = object ("rolled up" is objective complement of "windows," describing the ...).

(7) doors and windows = compounded object.

(8) I respectfully suggest that the comma after "locked" should not be there. It has

given the false impression of the sentence being a compound one, which -- IMHO -- it

definitely is not.

(9) It is similar to any other command with a compounded object:

Eat up all your broccoli and tomatoes!

(10) It could be analyzed as a compound sentence only if the speaker's intention was

to order:

You keep your doors locked, and you keep your windows rolled up at all times!

Of course, I do not know the intentions of the speaker, but I humbly suggest that the

speaker was saying:

Keep doors locked and windows rolled up!

(Of course, if a teacher shows my analysis to be flawed, I shall immediately delete this post. We non-teachers are warned against misleading readers.)

[BobK]

My view is that as there are two verb-object pairs the comma is unexceptionable. If it were 'Keep your doors and windows shut' on the other hand there'd be no need for a comma. But I don't really see the value of calling the original sentence compound.

PS I'm happy for TP's analysis to remain.

b