the "(al)though . . . , yet . . ." construction

[Annabel Lee]

There is a construction I have long been fond of but have never been able to bring myself to use. I call it the (al)though . . . yet/still . . . construction. It's the same type of construction that is found with if . . ., then . . .; when . . ., then . . .; where . . ., there . . .; and I believe also with because . . ., therefore/consequently . . . (e.g., "Because I cannot hope to turn again / Consequently I rejoice, having to construction something / Upon which to rejoice" from Ash Wednesday, by T. S. Eliot).

The usage of each of the above types in modern English is doubtless debateable, and they surely fall along a spectrum of acceptability, with if . . . then . . . beating all the others hands-down. My interest is just with (al)though . . . yet . . . , which nobody seems to use any longer. I can't tell whether people no longer use it because it's no longer viable or whether they no longer use it because most people have simply forgotten about it or never learned that it was possible.

Examples abound in the King James Bible, many of them involving inversion in the main clause. Here's one that's sung right after the Hallelujah chorus in Handel's Messiah: "And though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God." As we move forward from 1611, inversion following yet/still in the main clause becomes far less common. Consider the following inversion-free example from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's preface to his long poem Christabel, published in 1816:

"I have only to add that the metre of Christabel is not, properly speaking, irregular, though it may seem so from its being founded on a new principle: namely, that of counting in each line the accents, not the syllables. Though the latter may vary from seven to twelve, yet in each line the accents will be found to be only four" (emphasis mine).​

Would it be acceptable in modern English to write, word for word, the second sentence of that quotation, or would we need to delete the word yet? If you do find it acceptable in modern English to use the construction in a sentence like that one, do you think it would also be acceptable if there were not a fronted element within the main clause, following the fronted subordinate clause. That is, would this work, as well?

Though the latter may vary from seven to twelve, yet the accents will be found to be only four in each line.​

Thank you.

 

[emsr2d2]

It depends on what you mean by acceptable. I'd understand the construction but I'd wonder why the speaker used such old-fashioned speech. It would sound affected. I certainly wouldn't use either of the "Though ... yet ..." sentences (notwithstanding the outdatedness of the rest of the sentence!) I'd start with "Although" and omit "yet".

 

[jutfrank]

Yes, the main issue is with the word 'yet' instead of 'still', contributing to its sounding old-fashioned. The 'though' is fine for me, though I'd prefer 'although'. I'd also want to use a 'there-be' in the main clause:

Although the latter may vary from seven to twelve, there will still only be four accents in each line.

 

[Annabel Lee]

My thanks to you both. I find it fascinating that this use of "yet" is found to be overly old-fashioned nowadays. Jutfank, I like your solution of changing "yet" to "still" and using mid-position rather than initial position within the main clause. That works for me, too. Interestingly, it wasn't so very long ago that the construction could be found in grammar textbooks. For example, in the second edition Pence and Emery's A Grammar of Present-Day English, published in 1963, I find the following example with a sentence diagram to boot:

Although there is much in his favor, yet I do not feel entirely certain about him. (p. 396)​

I had assumed that Quirk et al. (1985) did not address the construction; however, upon checking just now, I found that I was mistaken about that. They do mention the construction and give an illuminating explanation. Here's their example:

Though he is poor, yet he is satisfied with his situation. (p. 644)​

They call this type of phenomenon "correlation" (by means of "conjunct" adverbials) for "emphatic endorsement" (as distinct from tautology), giving a "more explicit orientation" to certain conjunctions or to other conjunct adverbials (page 642). It even occurs within main clauses: "But yet, even so, she has nevertheless done well" (p. 643) They write: "While emphasis by such means is more characteristic of loose informal talk than formal writing, the converse holds for a related type of endorsement. This is the introduction of a conjunct in a main clause correlating with a conjunction introducing a preceding subordinate clause. For the most part, this belongs to a rather mannered and formal style of writing" (p. 643). However, as they note, there are exceptions. There's nothing particularly mannered or formal, for example, about a sentence like "If you knew this all along, then you could have told me" (p. 643).