The compound sentence is a composite sentence, where its clauses are structurally and semantically organized on the principle of coordination, expressed either syndetically (by means of coordinate connectors) or asyndetically (sentence order, punctuation, intonation). It is important to note that the functional property of coordination is determined by the semantic relations between the clauses, namely, copulative (e.g. I offered her a nice job and she did not dare to turn it down. The furniture won’t go with the carpet nor will it go with the walls), disjunctive (e.g. His remarks were witty, or so they seemed to us. Either you didn’t read the document carefully, or you didn’t see the point), adversative (e.g. I am seeking the truth, but I am on the wrong track, I am afraid. You knew it, yet you didn’t say!), consequential (e.g. He tapped his forehead significantly, so we changed the topic at once. I’ve quite forgotten how she looks, therefore I might not recognize her in the crowd), explanatory (e.g. There was nothing offensive in her words, that is she did not mean to hurt you. The pace of changes in technology is enormous, in other words, innovations seem to be speeding up).
From the semantico-syntactic point of view, the coordinating connectors or coordinators are divided into conjunctions proper and semi-functional clausal connectors of adverbial character: (1) and, but, or, nor, neither, for, either…or, neither…nor, both…and; (2) then, yet, so, thus, consequently, nevertheless, however, hence, therefore, accordingly, namely, such as, for example. It is easily seen that the semantic relations between the clauses, making up the compound sentence, depend partly on the lexical meaning of the coordinator uniting them as well as on the meanings of the words constituting these clauses.
