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§ 3. Of all the diversified means of connecting base sentences into 
a semi-compound construction the most important and by far the 
most broadly used is the conjunction and. Effecting the unmarked 
semi-compounding connection of sentences, it renders the widest 
possible range of syntactic relational meanings; as for its frequency 
of occurrence, it substantially exceeds that of all the rest of the 
conjunctives used for semi-compounding taken together. 
The functional meanings expressed by the and-semi-compound 
patterns can be exposed by means of both coordinative and subor-
dinative correlations. Here are some basic ones: 
The officer parked the car at the end of the terrace and went into 
the Mission. → The officer parked the car ..., 

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then went into the Mission. (Succession of events, inviting a co-
ordinative exposition) Suddenly the door burst open and Tommy 
rushed in panting for breath.→ As the door burst open, Tommy 
rushed in ...("Successive simultaneity" of actions, inviting a subor-
dinative exposition) Patterton gavelled for attention and speedily 
disposed of several routine matters. → Patterton gavelled for atten-
tion so that he could dispose and did dispose of several routine 
matters. (Purpose in successive actions, inviting a subordinative 
exposition) Her anger and emotion grew, and finally exploded. → 
Her anger and emotion grew to the degree that they finally ex-
ploded. (Successive actions in gradation, inviting a subordinative 
exposition) He just miscalculated and won't admit it. —» Though 
he miscalculated, he won't admit it. (Concession in opposition, in-
viting a subordinative exposition) Mary promised to come and he 
was determined to wait. → He was determined to wait because 
Mary had promised to come. (Cause and consequence, inviting a 
subordinative exposition) 
Among the various connective meanings expressed by the conjunc-
tion and in combination with the corresponding lexemic constitu-
ents of the sentence there are two standing very prominent, due to 
the regular correlations existing between such constructions and 
semi-complex patterns with verbid phrases — infinitival and parti-
cipial. 
The first construction expresses a subsequent action of incidental 
or unexpected character: 
He leaped up in time to see the Colonel rushing out of the door (H. 
E. Bates). → He leaped up in time and saw the Colonel rushing out 
of the door. Walker woke in his bed at the bourbon house to hear a 
strange hum and buzz in the air (M. Bradbury). → Walker woke in 
his bed at the bourbon house and heard a strange hum and buzz in 
the air. 
In these constructions the leading clause, as a rule, includes verbs 
of positional or psychological change, while the expansion, corre-
spondingly, features verbs of perceptions. As is seen from the ex-
amples, it is the semi-compound pattern that diagnoses the mean-
ing of the pattern with the infinitive, not the reverse. The infinitive 
pattern for its part makes up an expressive stylistic device by virtue 
of its outward coincidence with an infinitive pattern of purpose: the 
unexpectedness of the referent action goes together with the con-
textual unexpectedness of the construction. 

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The participial construction expresses a parallel attendant event 
that serves as a characteristic to the event rendered by the leading 
clause: 
He sat staring down the gardens, trying to remember whether this 
was the seventh or eighth day since the attack had begun (H. E. 
Bates). → He was sitting and staring down the gardens, and was 
trying to remember... Rage flamed up in him, contorting his own 
face (M. Puzo). →Rage flamed up in him and contorted his own 
face. 
With the participial pattern, the same as with the infinitival one, the 
diagnostic construction is the semi-compound sentence, not vice 
versa. 
The nature of the shown correlations might be interpreted as a rea-
son for considering the relations between the head-verb and the 
verbid in the tested patterns as coordinative, not subordinative. 
However, on closer analysis we must admit that diagnosis of this 
kind is called upon to expose the hidden meanings, but not to level 
up the differences between units of opposed categorial standings. 
The verbid patterns remain part of the system of semi-complex 
sentences because of the hierarchical ranking of their notional posi-
tions, while the correlation with semi-compound sentences simply 
explain their respective semantic properties.