Analysis of Sentence Structure in James Joyce's Grace
Paratactic sentence structure that demonstrates movements towards the verse:
The man, without answering, began to twirl the ends of his mustache. He made light of his accident. It was nothing, he said: only a little accident. He spoke very thickly.
No one knew; a voice said:
'Give him air. He's fainted.'
Hypotactic structure because that demonstrates subordination in a complex sentence:
As it passed the Ballast Office the clock showed half-past nine.
Parataxis in the use of short, simple prose that maintain a rhythmic nature through the paragraph:
His collar was unfastened and his necktie undone. He opened his eyes for an instant, sighed and closed them again. One of the gentlemen who had carries him upstairs held a dinged silk hat in his hand. The manager asked repeatedly did no one knew who the injured man was or where had his friends gone...
Compound sentence with elliptical construction:
His inexplicable debts were a byword in his circle; he was a debonair young man.
I notice that in the hypotaxis you quote in Joyce he makes it feel paratactic by leaving out the punctuation. The compound sentence is a great example of two halves having nothing whatever to do with each other. Your posts are brief and studious. You don't gotta be so formal, really: you can include more of your own non-grammatical commentary. Although your catalog of sentence types in Lolita is interesting. It kind of shows how VN is mocking traditional ways of saying things. Joan Didion is the epitome of a good crafstwoman, but not showy - exceptionally clear. Maybe you could use her prose style for your presentation. Your reading of Bellow, that the tension in the style mirrors that in the story, is well-observed. You're a senior already? Time...
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