Too many clauses chained in one sentence

clause-chainon by default (info)Japanese

A Japanese sentence that chains clause after clause with て, が, ので and commas

Example

Flagged

資料を調べて、内容をまとめ、課長に報告したが、返事がないので、もう一度送ってみたところ、翌日に返事が来て、修正を頼まれた。

What chaff prints

1:1 一文に節が 6 つつながっています（5 つまで）

Fixed

資料を調べて内容をまとめ、課長に報告しました。返事がないのでもう一度送ると、翌日に返事が来ました。修正を頼まれています。

What chaff prints

no finding

How to fix

Split the sentence at one of the joins, and say how the parts relate with a connective at the start of the next sentence.

Why it matters

In Japanese, chaining clause after clause with て, が, ので or a comma after a verb makes the reader hold how each one attaches until the end of the sentence, even when the sentence is within the length limit. Conjunctive particles and verbs or adjectives stopped by a comma are counted; て joining a helper verb (調べている) is one predicate and is not. Anything in 「」 is not counted.

What it does not flag

Joins to a helper verb, anything quoted in 「」, and clauses up to the limit are not counted. Not used on English documents.

Turning it off or relaxing it

Silence this one spot (in the document)

Relax it for the team (the reason is kept as a comment in chaff.yaml)

npx chaffjs relax clause-chain --why "reason"

Turn it off for the team (chaff.yaml)

rules: clause-chain: off

Technical details

Layer: L3
Status: stable
Severity: info
Languages: ja
Suited to: business, technical, blog, legal, docs, academic, literature, speech
Reads from the document: pos

Levels

Set a level for this rule under rules in chaff.yaml. With nothing set, it runs at the level its genre gives it (see By genre below).

strict	up to 4 clauses in one sentence
normal	up to 5 clauses in one sentence
relaxed	up to 7 clauses in one sentence

These genres set their own numbers for the levels (npx chaffjs explain shows them): legal

By genre

Runs by default in: technical/spec, technical/readme, blog/tech, blog/essay, blog/owned-media, business/proposal, business/report, business/email, business/press-release, business/meeting-notes, legal/contract, legal/statute, legal/judgment, legal/patent, docs/manual, docs/faq, docs/glossary, academic/paper, speech/address, speech/transcript
Turned off by the genre in: literature/fiction, literature/essay, literature/poetry, literature/play

Genres

Message

{count} clauses chained in one sentence (limit {limit})

Rewrite depth (chaff fix-plan --depth): light — words and sentences; the structure and the voice stay

This page is built from the rule's definition file:packages/chaff/rules/clause-chain.yaml