Wednesday, February 29, 2012

What are the simple sentences in the first chapter of Robinson Crusoe?

Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe was published in 1719. No one can deny that writing styles, especially in fiction, have changed dramatically in the last three hundred years. The first chapter of this work contains more than five thousand words, and among all those words, very few "simple sentences" occur. Among modern authors, the short sentence is often preferred. Not so in Defoe's day.
A simple sentence is defined as a sentence with one clause; it could have a dual subject or a dual verb, but it cannot have two or more dependent or independent clauses. A reader will notice immediately Defoe's penchant for semicolons. Any sentence with clauses joined by a semicolon cannot be a simple sentence. Any sentence that has a relative clause (beginning with who, which, or that) is complex or compound-complex sentence rather than simple. The great majority of Defoe's sentences are compound-complex.
The rare simple sentences from this chapter include:

Being the third son of the family and not bred to any trade, my head began to be filled very early with rambling thoughts.
Then all hands were called to the pump.
Perhaps this has all befallen us on your account, like Jonah in the ship of Tarshish.
I would not set my foot in the same ship with thee again for a thousand pounds.

Although Defoe's syntax is challenging, his story is nevertheless gripping. Readers who make it through the first chapter will no doubt want to continue reading despite the complicated sentence structure.

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