The Complex Sentence

The Complex Sentence

A complex sentence is a sentence that contains a main clause together with one or more subordinate clauses. The main clause stands on its own; the subordinate clause does not, and within the sentence it fills the role of a single part of speech.

In English, subordination is almost always marked by a conjunction — “when”, “because”, “so that”, “which”. In Middle Egyptian there is usually no marker at all: the clause follows the main clause, and the relation between them is learned from the verb form and the context.

A subordinate clause fills one of three roles, and is named accordingly:

In all the examples in this chapter the main clause appears in red and the subordinate clause in blue.

The Adverbial Clause

The four types in this section — circumstance, time, cause and purpose — are all adverbial clauses: all of them complement the main clause as an adverb. The difference between them lies not in function but in marking:

• The circumstantial clause — has no conjunction at all; the relation is learned from the verb form and the context.

• Time, purpose and cause — the relation is marked explicitly: by a preposition, or by a dedicated verb form (sḏm.t=f, prospective).

A. The circumstantial clause (unmarked)

The clause describes the circumstances in which the action of the main clause takes place. Depending on context it is translated “while”, “when”, “because”, “although”.

	Hieroglyphs
jw rꜥ m p.t s.t m pr	Transliteration
“[The] sun was in the sky, [while the] woman [was] in the house.”	English
“[The] sun was in [the] sky, [when the] woman was in [the] house.”	English

An important rule: a suffix pronoun cannot open a clause. Therefore, when the subject of the circumstantial clause is a pronoun, jw comes in as a support. This is the only case in which jw opens a subordinate clause:

	Hieroglyphs
jw rꜥ m p.t jw=s m pr	Transliteration
“[The] sun was in the sky, [while] she [was] in the house.”	English
“[The] sun was in [the] sky, [when] she was in [the] house.”	English

A pseudoverbal construction (ḥr or m + infinitive) also serves as a circumstantial clause, and then it denotes an ongoing action accompanying the action of the main clause:

	Hieroglyphs
jw nsw m ḫnt.t rꜥ ḥr ꜥq	Transliteration
“[The] king sailed south [while the] sun was setting.”	English
“[The] king was sailing upstream [as the] sun was setting.”	English

	Hieroglyphs
jw ḥm.t n.t ḥꜣ.tjj-ꜥ m ꜥq jw=f m pr.t	Transliteration
“The wife of [the] nomarch came in [while] he was going out.”	English
“[The] nomarch’s wife was going in [as] he was coming out.”	English

B. Temporal clauses

For an explicit temporal relation a preposition is used, followed by a clause (usually prospective sḏm=f or an infinitive):

Hieroglyphs	Word	Meaning
	m-ḫt	“after”
	ḫft	“when”
	ḏr	“since”, “because”
	r-sꜣ	“after”
	tp-ꜥ	“before”
	r	“until”

	Hieroglyphs
mdw=k ḫft wšd=f ṯw	Transliteration
“You shall speak when he turns to you.”	English
“You shall speak when he addresses you.”	English

	Hieroglyphs
jw nšnj pr.w tp-ꜥ sꜣḥ=n tꜣ	Transliteration
“A storm broke out before we reached land.”	English
“A tempest broke out before we reached land.”	English

“Before” and “until” — the form sḏm.t=f. The form sḏm.t=f (“until he has heard”) is used in two constructions: n sḏm.t=f “before he heard” (literally: “he has not yet heard”), and r sḏm.t=f “until he heard”. After ḏr it means “since, because”.

	Hieroglyphs
jw ḫpr.n rn=k n msjj.t rmṯ n ḫpr.t nṯr.w	Transliteration
“Your name came into being before people were born, before the gods came into being”	English
“Your name evolved before people were born, before [the] gods came into being.”	English

	Hieroglyphs
ḏd rn=f ḏr rḫ.t=k sw	Transliteration
“Say his name, since you know it.”	English
“Say his name, since you know him.”	English

C. The purpose clause

A purpose clause answers the question “what for?”. There are three ways to express it: prospective sḏm=f without a conjunction, when the action has its own subject (“so that he may hear”); r + infinitive, when there is no separate subject (“in order to hear”); and n-mrw.t + infinitive or relative form — literally “for love of”, i.e. “for the sake of”.

	Hieroglyphs
jw dmj.n=f mnḏ=s n-mrw.t sn=f sw	Transliteration
“He touched her breast in order to kiss her.”	English
“He touched her breast in order to kiss her.”	English

The verb has no causative form in s-, so “to cause that” is expressed by rdj followed by a purpose clause with prospective sḏm=f:

	Hieroglyphs
dj=j mrj=k sš.w r mw.t=k	Transliteration
“I will cause you to love books more than your mother.”	English
“I will bring it about that you love books more than your mother.”	English

D. The causal clause

Cause is expressed in two ways: an ordinary circumstantial clause (mainly circumstantial sḏm.n=f, denoting a prior circumstance), or a preposition followed by a noun clause — ḥr or n followed by nominal sḏm=f or a relative form. For a full clause after ḥr nt.t / ḏr nt.t “because” see Chapter “The Relative Clause”.

	Hieroglyphs
jw qnj.n=f sw ḥr mrr=f sw	Transliteration
“He embraced him because he loves him.”	English
“He embraced him because he loves him.”	English

	Hieroglyphs
ꜥꜣg=j sw ḏr jrj=f ḫ.t nb.t r=j	Transliteration
“I will strike him because he does all sorts of things against me.”	English
“I shall beat him since he does all sorts of things against me.”	English

The Noun Clause

A noun clause fills the role of a noun: the object of a verb, the subject of a sentence with an adjectival predicate, or the object of a preposition. Verbs of wishing, perceiving, knowing and saying take such a clause:

Hieroglyphs	Verb	Meaning
	wḏ	“to command that”
	mrj	“to wish that”
	rḫ	“to know, to find that”
	mꜣꜣ	“to see that”
	ḏd	“to say that”

	Hieroglyphs
jw rḫ.n=j qnn=f	Transliteration
“I found that he was brave.”	English
“I discovered that he was brave.”	English

	Hieroglyphs
jw mrj.n=f mrr=s sw	Transliteration
“He wished that she would love him.”	English
“He wished that she love him.”	English

	Hieroglyphs
jw wḏ.n nṯr jw.t=f r Wꜣs.t	Transliteration
“[The] god commanded that he come to Thebes.”	English
“[The] god ordered that he come to Thebes.”	English

	Hieroglyphs
ḏd.n=f jn.t=f ḥfꜣ.w	Transliteration
“He said that he would bring snakes.”	English
“He said that he would fetch snakes.”	English

In the first two examples the action is simultaneous, so the form is nominal (qnn=f, mrr=s); in the last two it is subsequent, so the form is prospective (jw.t=f, jn.t=f).

A noun clause as the subject of a sentence with an adjectival predicate

The subject of an adjectival predicate can be a whole clause in the nominal form, and the predicate evaluates the entire action:

	Hieroglyphs
bjn jrr=ṯ st	Transliteration
“It is bad that you do this.”	English
“It is bad that you do it.”	English

bjn is the adjectival predicate, and its subject is the whole clause — jrr=ṯ st. The verb is in the nominal form (jrr, with gemination), because the clause here fills the role of a noun.

The Conditional Sentence

A conditional sentence consists of two clauses: the condition clause (“if”) and the result clause (“then”). The condition clause is the subordinate one; it opens with the particle jr — originally the preposition r “as for” — followed by prospective sḏm=f. The result clause is the main clause, and it can be of any type: a prospective of wish, an imperative, or a future (jw=f r sḏm).

Main clause in red, subordinate clause in blue.

	Hieroglyphs
jr qn=k mꜣ=k pr=k sn=k ḥm.t=k	Transliteration
“If you are brave, you will see your house [and] kiss your wife.”	English
“If you are brave, you will see your house [and] kiss your wife.”	English

	Hieroglyphs
jr jw.t=k r=j m ḥfꜣ.t nb.t mwt Rꜥ	Transliteration
“If you come against me as any snake, Ra will die.”	English
“If you come against me as any kind of snake, Rē will die.”	English

	Hieroglyphs
jr dꜣr=k jb=k mḥ=k qnj=k m ẖrd.w=k	Transliteration
“If you restrain your heart, you will fill your embrace with your children.”	English
“If you temper your heart, you will fill your embrace with your children.”	English

“Whether … or …”: two consecutive clauses, each with prospective sḏm=f: mꜣ=sn p.t mꜣ=sn tꜣ “whether they saw sky or saw land”.

The Relative Clause — Summary

The relative clause is the third subordinate clause: it fills the role of an adjective and describes a noun (the antecedent). The topic is treated in full in Chapter “The Relative Clause”; here is only a summary, to complete the picture of the complex sentence.

1. Virtual relative clause — no marker at all. After an undefined antecedent the relative clause follows with no linking word, and English supplies “who/which/that”:

	Hieroglyphs
sr pw ꜥꜣ n=f ḫ.t	Transliteration
“He was a nobleman [who] had much property.”	English
“He was [a] nobleman [who] had much property.”	English

2. The relative adjective nt.jj. After a defined antecedent the relative clause opens with the relative adjective, which agrees with the antecedent in gender and number:

	Hieroglyphs
pr=f nt.jj m njw.t	Transliteration
“his house which is in the town”	English
“His house which is in [the] city”	English

3. Participle. When the antecedent is the subject of the action, the verb appears as a participle — an uninflected form functioning as an adjective:

	Hieroglyphs
s sḏm mdw	Transliteration
“[the] man [who] hears speech”	English
“[The] man who hears speech”	English

4. Relative form. When the antecedent is not the subject of the action but its object or another complement, the verb appears in the relative form, which has its own subject:

	Hieroglyphs
s.t mꜣ.t.n=j	Transliteration
“[the] woman [whom] I saw”	English
“[The] woman [whom] I saw”	English

In the last two examples the clause is not a complete sentence in itself but a noun phrase, so the table has no “main clause” in the full sense: the antecedent (s, s.t) is the noun the clause describes.

Chapter Summary

In English every relation between clauses is marked by a conjunction. Middle Egyptian has no conjunction for most relations; they are expressed by the verb form, by a preposition, or by the order of the clauses. The table shows, for each English conjunction, the means we have seen in this chapter:

Chapter New Vocabulary

Hieroglyphs	Transliteration	Type	English
	ꜥꜣg	Verb	To thrash
	ꜥq	Verb	To enter; to set
	wšd	Verb	To address, question
	mnḏ	Noun	Breast
	mrw.t	Noun	Love, desire
	n-mrw.t	Phrase	In order that
	ḥfꜣ.w	Noun	Snake
	ḫntj	Verb	To sail upstream, southward
	sn	Verb	To kiss
	qnj	Adjective / verb	Brave; to embrace
	dꜣr	Verb	To subdue, control
	dmj	Verb	To touch