In order to clearly determine the meaning of the term juxtaposed sentence, which we are now dealing with, it is important that we proceed to establish its etymological origin. In this sense, we can say that both words that give it shape are derived from Latin:
• Prayer comes from “oratio”, which means “speech”, and that in turn comes from the Latin verb “orare”, which is synonymous with “speak solemn".
• Juxtaposed, on the other hand, is the result of the sum of two components of Latin: “iuxta”, which can be translated as “union”, and “positus”, which is the participle of the verb “ponere” (“to put”).
The prayers are in grammatical sense, meaning units formed by one or more words. There are no smaller syntactic constituents that are in a position to convey logical propositions. Juxtaposed, on the other hand, is an adjective that names what is located immediately or next to a certain thing.
The conjoined sentences, therefore, are those whose propositions share a syntactic value but are not linked or joined, but appear a row to other. The comma, the semicolon and the colon are the most frequent symbols to separate (and, in turn, link) the propositions that make up this class of sentences.
Let's look at an example. The expression “It's already late; Let's go home ” is a juxtaposed sentence made up of two parts ( “ It's already late ” and “ Let's go home ” ). Both propositions have complete meaning (that is, they could be understood even when they appear isolated). The semicolon allows you to juxtapose and shape the juxtaposed sentence.
What is meant is that the ideas of each proposition come together, but without having to use a nexus. It must also be said that the aforementioned propositions can not only be independent of each other but can also form compound sentences. And all this without the juxtaposition being affected at all.
Some clear examples of this are the following: “Eva was late to class, the teacher was offended. In all probability she will be expelled ”or“ Manuel is going on vacation in fifteen days. When I return we will make a getaway together to the beach ”.
We can say, therefore, that juxtaposed sentences are one of the three types of compound sentences that exist. The other two are:
• Coordinated, which use union links, shaping five classes of sentences within them: disjunctive, adversative, copulative, explanatory and distributive.
• Subordinate, which are those that depend on another sentence that is considered main.
"It's hot, I'm going to turn on the air conditioning" is another example of a juxtaposed sentence. "It's hot" and "I'm going to turn on the air conditioning" are the two successive propositions that, in this case, form the sentence juxtaposed through a comma.
With the use of the colon, we can find juxtaposed sentences like the following: "Tension in Gaza: the Israeli government announced that it will carry out new bombings . " As can be seen, the two points link to the juxtaposed propositions "Tension in Gaza" and "The Israeli government announced that it will carry out new bombings . "