Diagramming Double Coordinators

Some coordinating conjunctions come in pairs: both/and, either/or, neither/nor, not only/but also, and others.   Such coordinators can interfere with the neat appearance of the structural tree.   We must resort to drawing "bridges" to connect the two parts of the coordinator and to make clear the internal structures of the ICs that are being coordinated.

Here is an example.

Sometimes, the tree diagram can grow very messy-looking; and though the structure of the sentence can be traced from the diagram more or less laboriously, no one would accuse the model of presenting the structure perspicuously.  Consider the following somewhat inelegant solution.

Note that even more bridging becomes necessary because the but and the also, although separated in the sentence, are being treated here as a single member of the double coordinator not only/but also.  Another bridge results from the fact that the did and the lose, although part of the same verb form, are separated in the sentence by the subject we.  This problem is discussed more fully under verbs with auxiliaries.

Another interesting construction in English is the the . . . the coordination, as in The more the merrier.  This construction survives from Old English.  Here the is treated not as an article, as is usual, but instead as a coordinator.

Notice that this last compound sentence also exhibits in each of its clauses the phenomenon of inversion: that is, deviation from the normal order of subject-verb-complement.  In the first clause, the subjective complement bigger comes before the subject, and in the second clause harder is separated from the verb it modifies and comes before the subject.

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