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§ 5. The number of predicative parts in a semi-compound sentence 
is balanced against the context in which it is used, and, naturally, is 
an essential feature of its structure. This number may be as great as 
seven, eight, or even more. 
The connection-types of multi-base semi-compound sentences are 
syndetic, asyndetic, and mixed. 
The syndetic semi-compound sentences may be homo-syndetic 
(i.e. formed by so many entries of one and the same conjunctive) 
and heterosyndetic (i.e. formed by different conjunctives). The 
most important type of homosyndetic semi-compounding is the 
and-type. Its functional meaning is enumeration combined with 
copulation. E.g.: 
A harmless young man going nowhere in particular was knocked 
down and trodden on and rose to fight back and was punched in 
the head by a policeman in mistake for someone else and hit the 
policeman back and ended in more trouble than if he had been on 
the party himself (M. Dickens). 

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A series of successive events is intensely rendered by a homosyn-
detic construction formed with the help of the conjunctive then. 
E.g.: You saw the flash, then heard the crack, then saw the smoke 
ball distort and thin in the wind (E. Hemingway). 
Another conjunctive pattern used in homosyndetic semi-
compounding is the or-type in its different variants. E.g.: 
After dinner we sat in the yard of the inn on hard chairs, or paced 
about the platform or stumbled between the steel sleepers of the 
permanent way (E. Waugh). Babies never cried or got the wind or 
were sick when Nurse Morrison fed them (M. Dickens). 
By heterosyndetic semi-compounding the parts of the sentence are 
divided into groups according to the meanings of the conjunctives. 
Cf.: 
A native woman in a sarong came and looked at them, but van-
ished when the doctor addressed her (S. Maugham). Ugly sat in the 
bow and barked arrogantly at passing boats, or stood rockily peer-
ing in the river (M. Dickens). 
The asyndetic connections in semi-compound sentences, within 
their range of functions, are very expressive, especially when mak-
ing up long enumerations-gradations. E.g.: 
He had enjoyed a sharp little practice in Split, had meddled before 
the war in anti-Serbian politics, had found himself in an Italian 
prison, had been let out when the partisans briefly "liberated" the 
coast, had been swept up with them in the retreat (E. Waugh). 
In the mixed syndetic-asyndetic semi-compound sentence various 
groupings of coordinated parts are effected. E.g.: He spun com-
pletely round, then fell forward on his knees, rose again and 
limped slowly on (E. Waugh). 
In cases where multi-base semi-compound sentences are formed 
around one and the same subject-predicate combination, they are 
very often primitivised into a one-predicate sentence with coordi-
nated secondary parts. Of these sentences, a very characteristic 
type is presented by a construction with a string of adverbial 
groups. This type of sentence expresses an action (usually, though 
not necessarily, a movement) or a series of actions continued 
through a sequence of consecutive place- and time situations. E.g.: 
Then she took my hand, and we went down the steps of the tower 

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together, and through the court and to the walls of the rock-place 
(D. du Maurier). 
The construction is very dynamic, its adverbial constituents pre-
serve clear traces of the corresponding predications, and therefore 
it approaches the genuine semi-compound sentence of predicate 
coordination by its semantic nature.