Whether a sentence only has a single subordinate clause or several subordinate clauses, there definitely are rules for linking them with the main or independent clause. Remember that by definition, a subordinate or dependent clause is a clause that augments an independent clause with additional information, but which cannot stand alone as a sentence. In a particular sentence, a subordinate clause either modifies the main (independent) clause or serves as a component of it. The subordinate clause will typically be introduced by a subordinating conjunction, as what “when” does in the sentence “The workers decided to strike
when management rejected their demand for higher pay,” or by a relative pronoun, as what “who” does in “The military academy dismissed the cadet
who came to class two minutes late.” In the first sentence, the main clause is “the workers decided to strike” and the subordinate clause is “when management rejected their demand for higher pay”; in the second sentence, the main clause is “the military dismissed the cadet” and the subordinate clause is “who came to class two minutes late.”
IMAGE CREDIT: PROWRITING.AIDNow, depending on the additional information needed to put a sentence in the proper context, it’s perfectly possible for a sentence to have two or more subordinating clauses. For example, the first sentence presented above could take this expanded form: “The workers decided to strike
when management swiftly rejected their demand for higher pay and
when labor officials summarily ignored their union’s demand for arbitration.” Note that in the expanded sentence, the addition of the second subordinate clause “when labor officials summarily ignored their union’s demand for arbitration” didn’t require any punctuation after the first subordinate clause “when management swiftly rejected their demand for higher pay.”
The second sentence, on the other hand, could take this expanded form: “The military academy dismissed the cadet
who came to class two minutes late,
who allegedly lied about the reason why, and
who later questioned the harsh punishment meted him by an honor committee.” In this expanded sentence, the three relative clauses—“who came to class two minutes late,” “who allegedly lied about the reason why,” and “who later questioned the harsh punishment meted him by an honor committee”—are each set off by commas for structural soundness and clarity. Based on how this expanded sentence was structured, we can say that one rule to follow when there are two or more relative clauses in a sentence is that they must be properly punctuated for grammatical and structural correctness.
Now we are in a position to analyze the sentence that you quoted from a weekly newspaper: “Bronchial asthma is common among children but adults are not exempted
although the latter can deal with it more responsibly than the former.” This sentence actually doesn’t fit the bill of a sentence with more than one subordinate clause; in fact, it only has one subordinate clause, “although the latter can deal with it more responsibly than the former.” The clause “but adults are not exempted” is not a subordinate clause but a coordinate clause that uses the coordinating conjunction “but” to link it to the main clause “bronchial asthma is common among children.” This linkage means that the clause “bronchial asthma is common among children” and “adults are not exempted” are coordinate clauses; together, they form a compound clause, “bronchial asthma is common among children but adults are not exempted,” which becomes a compound-complex sentence when the subordinate clause “although the latter can deal with it more responsibly than the former” is linked to them.
For clarity, however, I would think that it would be highly advisable to punctuate the compound-complex linkage with a comma, as follows: “Bronchial asthma is common among children but adults are not exempted, although the latter can deal with it more responsibly than the former.” Even with this correction, though, I must say that the sentence suffers from a wrong word choice. “Exempted” is definitely not the right word; “immune from it” would be closer to the intended sense. I would therefore rewrite that sentence this way: “Bronchial asthma is common among children but adults are not immune to it, although the latter can deal with it more responsibly than the former.”
Having answered your specific question, I don’t wish to leave the subject giving the impression that this is all there is to know about subordinating clauses, whether there’s only one or multiples of them. I therefore would like to show two more examples of how punctuation plays a major role in the construction of sentences with two or more subordinate clauses.
To begin with, a subordinate clause introduced by a subordinating conjunction can be positioned either after or before the main clause.
Here’s an example of subordinating clauses positioned after the main clause: “The foreign student was denied admission to law school
even after she passed the entrance exams and
although she had already paid the school fees.” If the subordinating clauses are positioned before the main clause, here’s how that sentence would be structured: “
Even after she passed the entrance exams, and
although she had already paid the school fees, the foreign student was denied admission to law school.” It’s perfectly all right not to punctuate the two subordinate clauses with a comma, but as we can see, the statement becomes more emphatic if the subordinate clauses are punctuated with a comma.
Admittedly, subordinate clauses introduced by the relative pronouns “who,” “whose,” “which,” and “that” are much tougher to handle than those introduced by subordinating conjunctions. The need for a comma to punctuate the link between the main clause and the relative clause or clauses is dependent on whether those clauses are
restrictive (essential) or
nonrestrictive (nonessential). As this is a pretty complicated grammar aspect, I won’t attempt to take up the matter in detail here; instead, I would like to refer you to the very comprehensive discussion of relative clauses in the following earlier postings of mine in the Forum:
Getting to know the relative clauses better - IGetting to know the relative clauses better - III trust that this has adequately clarified the matter of handling multiple subordinate clauses for you.
