"For a moment they Indian-wrestled, then with a quick flick, Tony jerked Riff off balance."

[Phaedrus]

"For a moment they Indian-wrestled, then with a quick flick, Tony jerked Riff off balance" (Irving Shulman, West Side Story: A Novelization, Chapter 2).

Greetings,

I am preparing a test for my intermediate-high ESL students in a reading and composition class in which grammar forms a prominent side-focus. Half the test is devoted to having them identify sentences as simple, compound, complex, or compound-complex, or as fragments or run-ons. I am taking all the sentences from the novelization of West Side Story, which we are reading as a class this semester. The sentence quoted above is one of two that I am considering using with "run-on" as the answer.

That said, I realize that the answer is debatable. I shall probably award credit for the question if "run-on" is selected or if "compound sentence" is selected, the choice between "run-on" and "compound" here being dependent on whether one accepts "then" as a coordinating conjunction that can conjoin two independent clauses. I know I've debated "then" here before, but I've forgotten whether the debate concerned the use of "then" to conjoin independent clauses or just verb phrases.

What do you think? Do you view the sentence in question as compound or as a run-on? Please rest assured that I am not attached to either answer.

Thank you.

 

[jutfrank]

If I were in your class, I'd choose 'compound', not 'run-on'.


(Way to choose a sentence including 'jerk off', by the way! )

 

[Phaedrus]

If I were in your class, I'd choose 'compound', not 'run-on'.


(Way to choose a sentence including 'jerk off', by the way! )

Thanks, Jutfrank. I'd noticed that, too!

The passage only reminds one of that phrasal verb, of course. Tony wasn't jerking Riff off. Tony was causing Riff, by means of jerking, to be off balance.

I'm not sure if that phrasal verb existed as such in 1961, the year Irving Shulman published this novelization.

In any case, Shulman was fond of using "then" as a coordinating conjunction. Here's another case of its coordinating two independent clauses:

• "Rung by rung he pulled himself up the ladder until a knee touched the first crossbar, then he ascended rapidly until he reached the third story, where he began to climb slowly" (Chapter 4).

I assume we're all OK with that one, too. It's not a run-on sentence but a compound-complex sentence. "Then" has FANBOYS status. Does that sit well with everyone?

 

[jutfrank]

Tony wasn't jerking Riff off. Tony was causing Riff, by means of jerking, to be off balance.

Just make sure you don't neglect to include the final word balance, then.

Does that sit well with everyone?

It does with me, yes.