THE STRUCTURE
OF THE
ENGLISH SENTENCE

BY

LILLIAN G. KIMBALL

INSTRUCTOR IN ENGLISH, STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, OSHKOSH, WISCONSIN

NEW YORK

CINCINNATI

CHICAGO

AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY

Copyright, 1900
By Lillian G. Kimball

Eng. Sentence
E-V 20

PREFACE

It has long seemed to me both unfortunate and wrong that many pupils leave school with no keen delight in the study of English grammar, and with the mistaken idea that it is mainly a study of rules and definitions based upon the forms of mere words. Far from this, it should be from the beginning a study of thought. Words should be examined solely from the point of view of their function in the sentence, the part they play in the communication of thought. Always the sentence should be the unit of study, and it should be looked at, not primarily as expressing a thought that was once in the mind of its author, but rather as forever communicating thought to the minds of its readers. For men would neither speak nor write without an audience. Their aim is not to get their thought into words for satisfaction to themselves, but to convey thought by means of words to their fellow-men. Therefore it is that in all language study, in all language teaching, the governing idea should be, not expression, but communication, of thought.

It is now universally conceded that the purposes of grammar study are three; namely, and in the order of their importance and their realization,—1. to discipline the mind; 2. to aid in the interpretation of speech and literature; 3. to facilitate the correct expression of thought. It cannot, then, be denied that a rational investigation of the structure of English sentences is far more important than any other phase of grammar study, and for three reasons:—1. it is a study of thought, and as such must discipline the mind; 2. it trains the student through practice, which is the most effective way, to interpret the thought of others; 3. by presenting to him the best models for imitation, it aids him in communicating clearly his own thoughts.

Believing this, and knowing from much experience that not until students have examined the structure of sentences in relation to the thought embodied, do they have any vital or useful knowledge of etymology and syntax, I have long thought that a book was needed which should deal only with the analysis of sentences, the culminating phase of grammar study, for which all previous work is a preparation. The book that I have prepared is not intended to supplant any text-book in grammar, but rather to provide for a profitable continuation of grammar study in high schools and normal schools. It is based upon the English sentence as it has been written during the present century. No attempt has been made to criticize any form or variation of sentence structure. Instead, sentences are examined as they have been constructed by reputable authors, with a view to determining the adequacy of their structure to the communication of thought.

My highest aim and my sincerest hope have been to present worthy matter in such a way as to require and stimulate good thinking on the part of students, and to make them marvel and rejoice at the perfect adaptability of the English sentence to the noble burden that it bears, that of communicating thought.

L. G. K.

Oshkosh, Wis., May, 1900.

CONTENTS

THE
STRUCTURE OF THE ENGLISH SENTENCE

CHAPTER I

THE PROPOSITION

In the mind of every human being there are innumerable ideas, or mental pictures, gathered from previous experience. Whenever we perceive a relation between any two of these ideas, we form a judgment, or, in other words, have a thought. If we wish to communicate our thought we ordinarily express it in words, and this verbal expression of a thought we call a sentence.

For example, I have an idea of children and an idea of the activity called play; I see a relation between them, that of agent and thing done; I affirm this relation, and have the sentence, Children play. Or I detect a relation between flower and whiteness, and say, The flower is white. Or I fail to establish such a relation and so deny the former statement by saying, The flower is not white. In each case my sentence serves the great purpose of communicating thought; and it does this by calling up in the mind of the reader the same combination of ideas that exists in my mind.

Another name for sentences like those just formed, is proposition, a proposition being the expression of one thought. But since a proposition is the statement of a judgment, it must contain two ideas. One of these, denoting that of which something is asserted, we call the subject; the other, denoting what is said of the subject, we call the predicate. The relation between these two ideas cannot always be expressed by means of two words. If we wish to assert a relation between water and freshness, we must use at least three words, Water is fresh; the word is contains little, if any, meaning, but is necessary for the grammatical expression of the thought.

Although a proposition must contain at least two ideas, it may contain any number of them. For example, I may expand the proposition, Children play, by additional ideas, telling (1) whose children, (2) a characteristic of the children, (3) what they play, (4) where they play, (5) when they play,—My neighbor’s little children play hide and seek in their yard every evening. Still I have only one proposition, for the number of propositions in a sentence depends on the number of judgments, or thoughts, expressed,—in other words, on the number of assertions made; and here there is but one, that made essentially by the verb play.

All sentences, however, are not single propositions, for in building sentences we often go a step further than seeing the relation between ideas, that is, we see the relation between thoughts; and so, instead of combining mere words, we combine whole propositions into one sentence. Take, for example, the two propositions, Children play, and Children enjoy play. I may see that the second fact is a cause of the first, and, by combining the two so as to bring out this relation of cause and effect, get the sentence, Children play because they enjoy it, wherein I substitute the pronouns they and it for the already known words children and play.

Or take the two propositions, The lion roared, and The hyena laughed. I may wish to tell some one that these two actions were related in time, occurring simultaneously; I do this by saying, The lion roared and the hyena laughed, where I have one sentence, but made of two propositions, because conveying two thoughts. I might put in other thoughts, telling (1) which lion, (2) why he roared, (3) how long the hyena laughed,—The lion that was kept in the cage near the door roared because the keeper did not bring his food, and the hyena laughed till he had set all the animals around him in an uproar. Here I have one sentence containing five thoughts, therefore made up of five propositions.

However, it is not with composition, the building up of sentences, that we are to concern ourselves, so much as with an examination into the structure of the finished product. Now, when we study the structure of the human body, we look upon it first as a symmetrical whole, then we separate it into its largest, most distinct members,—the head, the trunk, the arms, the legs. After we have noted the relations of these parts, we take up each part as a whole and proceed again in the same way. In analyzing sentences we shall pursue the same method.

Every sentence is a unit just as the body is; like the body, too, it is made up of smaller units. In studying its structure we should first of all find the units which compose the sentence-unit. If the sentence is a single proposition, the constituent units are, of course, the subject and the predicate. But if the sentence is a combination of propositions, as is oftener the case, then its chief units are these propositions. Therefore, as a foundation for the analysis of sentences, we must be able to determine readily how many propositions a given sentence contains. Our first exercise will be devoted to this end.

Exercise 1

Resolve the following sentences into single propositions. Remember that the number of propositions depends on the number of assertions made.

1. There are thousands of years between the stone hatchet and the machine shop.—C. W. Eliot.

2. All along the Atlantic, the country is bordered by a broad tract, called the tierra caliente, or hot region, which has the usual high temperature of equinoctial lands.—Prescott.

3. Times grew worse and worse with Rip Van Winkle as years of matrimony rolled on; a tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use.—Irving.

4. Every thing around me wore that happy look which makes the heart glad.—Longfellow.

5. I came from India as a child, and our ship touched at an island on the way home, where my black servant took me a long walk over rocks and hills, until we reached a garden where we saw a man walking.—Thackeray.

6. As a painter may draw a cloud so that we recognize its general truth, though the boundaries of real clouds never remain the same for two minutes together, so, amid the changes of feature and complexion, brought about by commingling of race, there still remains a certain cast of physiognomy, which points back to some one ancestor of marked and peculiar character.—Lowell.

7. Our eyes are holden that we cannot see things that stare us in the face, until the hour arrives when the mind is ripened.—Emerson.

8. The burning sun of Syria had not yet attained its highest point in the horizon, when a knight of the Red Cross, who had left his distant northern home and joined the host of the Crusaders in Palestine, was pacing slowly along the sandy deserts which lie in the vicinity of the Dead Sea, where the waves of the Jordan pour themselves into an inland sea from which there is no discharge of waters.—Scott.

9.

Through the black Tartar tents he passed which stood,

Clustering like bee hives on the low, flat strand

Of Oxus, where the summer floods o’erflow

When the sun melts the snow in high Pamere.

—M. Arnold.

10. On a fine, breezy forenoon I am audaciously skeptical, but, as twilight sets in, my credulity grows steadily, till it becomes equal to anything that could be desired.—De Quincey.

11. Although it was now well on towards dark and the sun was down an hour or so, I could see the robbers’ road before me in a trough of the winding hills, where the brook plowed down from the higher barrows, and the coving banks were roofed with furze.—Blackmore.

12. In one place the poet describes a congregation gathered to listen to a preacher in a great unillumined cathedral at night.—Wm. James.

CHAPTER II

THE CLASSIFICATION OF PROPOSITIONS

How Propositions differ in Nature.—In studying the human body we cannot help seeing that all the prominent members are not equally important. Some could exist independently of others, while some are joined directly to a more important part, and, if separated from it, would have no use or life. So, in studying a sentence, we notice that all the propositions are not equal in rank. Some are complete sentences in themselves; others would not make sense if they were obliged to stand alone. Hence there arise two classes of propositions,—principal and subordinate, or independent and dependent.

In every sentence there is at least one primary thought which it is the author’s main purpose to communicate, and this will always be found in the principal proposition. There may be modifying circumstances of time, place, manner, condition, etc., which he wishes to embody in his sentence, but he brings these in by means of words and phrases, which are elements of the principal proposition, or else, if the language affords no adequate words and phrases, by means of subordinate propositions.

In the following sentence from Carlyle,—“How true is that old fable of the Sphinx, who sat by the wayside propounding her riddle to the passengers,” there are plainly two propositions. It is also plain that the thought which the author wished most to convey is this,—The old fable of the Sphinx is true. In fact, it was the prime importance of this thought that led him to put it in the principal proposition. He chose to add the thought expressed in the second proposition, but he showed its minor importance by constructing the proposition so that it serves as a mere modifier of the word Sphinx. From a grammatical point of view the first proposition is complete,—it could stand alone and make sense; hence it is called independent. On the other hand, the second proposition, if separated from the first, would lose its meaning; it is therefore said to be dependent.

Consider these sentences:

1. The Mohawk hardly feels the scalping-knife while he shouts his death song.—Macaulay.

2. No success is worthy of the name unless it is won by honest industry and a brave breasting of the waves of fortune.—Huxley.

3. That country is the fairest which is inhabited by the noblest minds.—Emerson.

If we separate each of these sentences into its two propositions and apply the test,—which proposition is by itself grammatically complete? we shall see that the first proposition in each sentence is independent and the second dependent. But it may be said that in each case the dependent proposition is necessary for the truth of the sentence, that its thought must have been in the author’s mind not as an addition to the main thought but as something indispensable. This is perfectly true; logically the truth of the independent proposition does depend on the thought in the dependent proposition, but grammatically the dependence is the other way. Notice that in each of these sentences the second proposition denotes a modifying circumstance of the main thought, and therefore takes rank in the sentence merely as an idea,—telling in the first sentence when the Mohawk hardly feels the scalping knife, in the second under what condition success is unworthy, in the third which country is the fairest. Now, had the author so chosen, these modifications might all have been expressed by phrases, though possibly not so clearly.

Tests for Independent and Dependent Propositions.—From the foregoing we may deduce the following tests for propositions.

1. For the independent proposition.—(a) It contains the main thought that the author wished to convey. (b) It is so expressed that it is grammatically complete when standing alone.

2. For the dependent proposition.—(a) It expresses a modifying thought of some word or words in the independent proposition. (b) It may be changed to a simpler element, a word or phrase, provided there is a word or phrase in the language to express the same meaning. (c) It is not so expressed that it would make sense standing alone.

Function of the Dependent Proposition.—From what has already been said it may be inferred that the dependent proposition is employed (1) for variety, in the place of a word or phrase, (2) for the adequate expression of what we have no word or phrase capable of saying. But this is not all. Every dependent proposition can be changed into an independent proposition, and so might have been brought into the sentence in that form. For example,—

The Mohawk shouts his death song, and he hardly feels the scalping knife.

That country is inhabited by the noblest minds and it is the fairest.

Success should be won by honest industry and a brave breasting of the waves of fortune, and no other success is worthy of the name.

By comparing these recasted sentences with the originals we perceive why the authors employed the dependent proposition; by means of it they have shown what the recasted sentences do not show—(1) what is the main thought and what is subordinate; (2) the special relation existing between the principal and the subordinate thought. This second point is very important. If we had to tell a story in sentences of one proposition each, how difficult it would be to give the reader an idea of the various relations between these propositions. Besides, how tedious is a succession of single propositions. Compare, for instance, the following six sentences with the one smooth, compact, clear sentence into which they may be combined.

The jay hoards up nuts for winter use.
This is a general belief among country people.
This belief has probably some foundation in fact.
Where can the jay safely place his stores?
One is at a loss to know this.
His stores are apt to be pilfered by the mice and squirrels.
The general belief among country people that the jay hoards up nuts for winter use has probably some foundation in fact, though one is at a loss to know where he could place his stores so that they would not be pilfered by the mice and squirrels.—Burroughs.

The Combination of Independent Propositions.—This comes about when we wish to put related thoughts into one sentence in such a way as to show that they are equally important, and that, although they are related, neither is to be considered as denoting some modifying circumstance of any idea in the other. For example,—

1. There must be work done by the arms or none of us could live.—Ruskin.

2. Misfortune could not subdue him and prosperity could not spoil him.—Dickens.

3. You may talk of the tyranny of Nero and Tiberius; but the real tyranny is the tyranny of your next door neighbor.—Bagehot.

Notice that the connectives in these sentences, while indicating a relation between the propositions as wholes, belong to one proposition no more than to the other, hence are not a grammatical part of either; also that neither proposition is a modifier of any idea in the other.

It has been well said that often when we combine two independent propositions into one sentence, we are really conveying three thoughts,—the thought in each proposition and the thought suggested by the relation between the two propositions. In sentence 3 just quoted, we have not only the two propositions expressed, but two more implied; viz., the tyranny of Nero and Tiberius is not the real tyranny; and, the real tyranny is not talked about.

We are now ready to take the second step in studying the structure of a given sentence, that is, to determine whether its component propositions are independent or dependent.

Exercise 2

Select each proposition in the following sentences. State whether it is independent or dependent, and give the grounds for your decision.

1. Children play the part in the household which the king’s jester, who very often had a mighty long head under his cap and bells, used to play for a monarch.—Holmes.

2. Already I breathed gales of the everlasting mountains, that to my feelings blew from the garden of Paradise.—De Quincey.

3. The waterfall is comparatively narrow at the top of the precipice; but it widens as it descends, and curves a little as it widens, so that it shapes itself, before it reaches the first bowl of granite, into the charming figure of the comet that glowed on our sky some years ago.—King.

4. He, who, in an enlightened and literary society, aspires to be a great poet, must first become a little child.—Macaulay.

5. One has only to sit down in the woods or fields, or by the shore of the river or lake, and nearly everything of interest will come round to him,—the birds, the animals, the insects,—and presently, after his eye has got accustomed to the place and to the light and shade, he will probably see some plant or flower that he had sought in vain for, and that is a pleasant surprise to him.—Burroughs.

6. If their lantern had been in its place, they would scarce have failed to descry me, unless indeed I had seen the gleam before I turned the corner.—Blackmore.

7. The whole town knew and kindly regarded Miss Betsey Barker’s Alderney; therefore great was the sympathy and regret when, in an unguarded moment, the poor cow tumbled into a lime-pit.—Mrs. Gaskell.

8.

That was the grandest funeral

That ever passed on earth,

But no one heard the tramping,

Or saw the train go forth.

9. There were rows of houses which he had never seen before, and those which had been his familiar haunts had disappeared.—Irving.

10. In the morning I arose with the lark, and at night I slept where sunset overtook me.—Longfellow.

11. Kala Nag, which means Black Snake, had served the Indian Government in every way that an elephant could serve it for forty-seven years.—Kipling.

12. Your dull unhurried worker gets over a great deal of ground because he never goes backward or breaks down.—Wm. James.

CHAPTER III

THE CLASSIFICATION OF SENTENCES ACCORDING TO
STRUCTURE

We have seen that a sentence may consist of one proposition or of several, and that all its propositions may be independent or one or more of them may be dependent. This freedom of combination gives rise to three distinct types of sentences, classified according to the number and the kind of propositions they contain. These are simple, complex, and compound.

1. A simple sentence is one that consists of one independent proposition.—“Lightness of touch is the crowning test of power.”—Higginson.

2. A complex sentence is one that contains at least one dependent proposition. It usually contains a complete independent proposition also, and it may contain any number of dependent propositions.

(a) With the independent proposition complete,—“What inspiration gilds his features as he descends the mount with the Tables in his hand.”—Lord.

(b) With the independent proposition incomplete because the dependent proposition is its subject.—“That Chaucer, being at Milan, should not have found occasion to ride across so far as Padua for the sake of seeing the most famous literary man of the day, is incredible.”—Lowell.

3. A compound sentence is one that contains at least two independent propositions. It may also contain one or more dependent propositions. In that case it is often called complex-compound.

(a) Compound sentence,—“It is a strange tale, but it hath the recommendation of brevity.”—Jerrold.

(b) Complex-compound.—“Times of heroism are generally times of terror, but the day never shines in which this element may not work.”—Emerson.

Difficulty in Classifying Sentences.—It is sometimes difficult for a beginner to determine whether a sentence is complex or compound, that is, whether a certain one of its propositions is independent or dependent. Take, for instance, two such sentences as the following: “The ground is wet this morning because it rained last night”; and, “The ground is wet this morning, hence it rained last night.” Out of each of these expressions we get a statement of cause and effect, but the two sentences are not therefore alike, for a sentence is to be considered not only logically but grammatically, before we can decide what kind it is. It is clear that in each sentence the first proposition is independent, so we shall examine only the second.

Now, in the first sentence the second proposition is intended to tell why the ground is wet, just as the words this morning tell when it is wet. Why a certain state exists may be told by a phrase as well as by a proposition, because it is only a modifying circumstance. It might be told here by the prepositional phrase from last night’s rain. If this second proposition, then, is put into the sentence merely to tell something about some part of the independent proposition, it is clearly subordinate, and therefore dependent.

In the second sentence the second proposition does not express any modification of any idea in the first proposition. It states a conclusion drawn from the fact stated in the first proposition, and in the author’s mind the conclusion is of equal importance with the fact that supports it. We may even supply the conjunction and before hence, which shows that the two propositions are coördinate, so if one is independent the other must be.

It may be said that if the conjunction hence is taken as a part of the following proposition, the proposition cannot stand alone any more than can the proposition introduced by because. But because must be taken as a part of its proposition because it indicates the special modifying circumstance—not time, or place, but cause—which the author intended that proposition to denote, whereas hence is not a part of the following proposition because that proposition is not intended, as we have shown, to be a modifier of any part of the preceding proposition, but a conclusion drawn from the whole of it. Because, indicating subordination is a subordinating conjunction and always a part of the proposition it introduces. Hence, indicating equality, or grammatical coördination, is a coördinating conjunction and never a part of the proposition following it.

The Partially Compound Sentence.—Since there are three well defined types of sentences, it is natural that there should be forms lying in between any two of these types and partaking of the nature of both. One of these forms, the complex-compound sentence, we have already spoken of. Another form is found in the following sentence,—“The diseases, the elements, fortune, gravity, lightning, respect no persons.”—Emerson.

Here there are several subjects but only one assertion made, hence only one proposition. The sentence resembles both the compound sentence and the simple sentence, but is, strictly speaking, neither one. It is called partially compound, and may be considered a fifth kind of sentence. Sometimes it contains only one subject but two or more predicates,—“He shook his head, shouldered the rusty firelock, and, with a heart full of trouble and anxiety, turned his steps homeward.”—Irving.

Exercise 3

Classify the following sentences according to structure, giving in each case the grounds for your decision.

1. I could never fathom how a man dares to lift up his voice to preach in a cathedral.—Stevenson.

2.

Great feelings hath she of her own,

Which lesser souls may never know;

God giveth them to her alone,

And sweet they are as any tone

Wherewith the wind may choose to blow.—Lowell.

3. When you emerge from the portals of St. Mark’s, you enter upon spaces of such sunny length and breadth, set round with such exquisite architecture that it makes you glad to be living in this world.—Howells.

4. Education, to accomplish the ends of good government, should be universally diffused.—Webster.

5. If a country finds itself wretched, sure enough that country has been misguided.—Carlyle.

6. These winds in the winter season frequently freshen into tempests, and, sweeping down the Atlantic coast and the winding Gulf of Mexico, burst with the fury of a hurricane on its unprotected shores, and on the neighboring West India islands.—Prescott.

7. The Puritan prostrated himself in the dust before his Maker; but he set his foot on the neck of his king.—Macaulay.

8. You get entangled in another man’s mind, even as you lose yourself in another man’s grounds.—Lamb.

9.

Not what we think, but what we do,

Makes saints of us. —Alice Cary.

10.

He reeled, and staggering back sank to the ground;

And then the gloom dispersed, and the wind fell,

And the bright sun broke forth, and melted all

The cloud. —M. Arnold.

11. Only the learned, who were very few, could read Latin; hence there came to be great ignorance of the Bible, and all sorts of superstitions and false beliefs took possession of the people, and the Bible came to be almost a forgotten and unused book.—Munger.

12. Wherever the Anglo-Saxon race goes, there law, industry, and safety for life and property are certain to arise.—Dickens.

13. The islands of the lagoons seemed to rise and sink with the light palpitations of the waves like pictures on the undulating fields of banners.—Howells.

14.

The heights by great men reached and kept

Were not attained by sudden flight,

But they, while their companions slept,

Were toiling upward in the night. —Longfellow.

15. Sweet funeral bells from some incalculable distance, wailing over the dead that die before the dawn, awakened me as I slept in a boat moored to some familiar shore.—De Quincey.

16. Terror, not love, was the spring of education with the Aztecs.—Prescott.

17. As night set in, the wind whistled in a spiteful, falsetto key, and the rain lashed the old tavern as if it were a balky horse that refused to move on.—Aldrich.

18. Feudalism was an institution of the Middle Ages, which grew out of the miseries and robberies that succeeded the fall of the Roman Empire.—Lord.

19. Tennyson delights to sing of heroic deeds and to celebrate noble souls.

CHAPTER IV

THE CLASSIFICATION OF SENTENCES ACCORDING TO FORM

We have classified sentences according to their structure as simple, complex, compound, partially compound, and complex-compound. There is another classification made on the basis of form, which gives us three kinds of sentences,—declarative, interrogative, imperative. These three forms arise from the fact that there are three modes of communicating thought; viz., by assertion, by question, by command.

The Declarative Sentence.—A declarative sentence is one that states or declares something,—“Aunt Celia has an intense desire to improve my mind.”—Mrs. Wiggin.

This is the commonest kind of sentence, especially in books, for it is the business of an author to inform his readers of his own thoughts, not to inquire after theirs. It is the style of sentence best fitted for relating events, describing objects, or making clear any difficult subject. Its order is usually the natural one, first the subject and then the predicate. Variations from this order will be taken up as they present themselves in connection with different sentence-elements.

The Interrogative Sentence.—An interrogative sentence is one that asks a question,—“Who now reads the ancient authors?”—F. Harrison.

This kind of sentence is used often in conversation, both oral and written. It is also common in addresses, such as sermons and lectures, where the speaker asks questions of his audience, not for the purpose of getting an answer, but that he may make a more direct appeal to them.

In books we often meet such an interrogative sentence as this,—“What courage can withstand the ever-during and all-besetting terrors of a woman’s tongue?”—Irving.

The purpose of this sentence is not to inquire, to ask a question of anybody, but to give emphatic expression to a thought. It is a rhetorical device for making an assertion forcible. The author of the sentence quoted was so positive of the truth of his thought that, instead of declaring it, he put it in the form of a question, meaning, however,—“There is no courage that can withstand, etc.”

Interrogative sentences are of two kinds:

1. Those that can be answered by yes or no,—“Can a man weigh off and value the glories of dawn against the darkness of hurricane?”—De Quincey.

These sentences put in question the whole thought, and are usually in the inverted order, the auxiliary of the predicate verb coming before the subject.

2. Those that cannot be answered by yes or no,—“Why should the trees be so lovely in Japan?”—Hearn.

These sentences put in question only one point, either the subject, the object, an attribute of the subject or object, or some circumstance of time, manner, place, cause, etc. They usually begin with an interrogative word, such as the pronouns who, which, what, or the adverbs how, when, why, where.

Interrogative sentences have sometimes the same order and arrangement of words as declarative sentences. It is only by hearing them spoken or noting their punctuation that we know they are interrogative; for example, “Scrooge knew he was dead?”—Dickens. This is equivalent to—“Did Scrooge know that he was dead?”

Before analyzing an interrogative sentence, its order, if inverted, should be changed to that of the declarative sentence. Motley’s question,—“When did one man ever civilize a people?” becomes for analysis,—“One man did ever civilize a people when?” Notice that the time of an action is the point in question here, and the desired answer will be this very same sentence with only two changes, the omission of ever and the substitution of a word or phrase signifying a definite time, for the word when.

The Imperative Sentence.—An imperative sentence is one that conveys a command,—“Tell me why you have brought me to this place.”—Caine.

The command is frequently so mild that it becomes more a request or piece of advice,—“Speak as you think, be what you are, pay your debts of all kinds.”—Emerson.

Sometimes it is even an entreaty,—“Give us this day our daily bread.”

A very common form of the imperative sentence is that introduced by the imperative word let,—“Let the dessert be served and the fruit brought.” This generally expresses more of a wish than a command. The same idea is brought out in such a sentence as the following,—“Come, sit we down and talk.” Here the present subjunctive sit is employed. Both of these sentence-forms may be considered as substitutes for the first and third person imperative, which is lacking in English.

In imperative sentences we use the imperative mood of the verb and so usually dispense with the subject, the verb becoming thus the first word in the sentence. For analysis the subject is to be supplied. It is always a personal pronoun of the second person, you, thou, or ye. The verb may be a simple imperative, as go; an emphatic imperative, do go; or a progressive imperative, be going, or do be going.

The Exclamative Sentence.—Any one of the three forms of sentences may become exclamative by mode of utterance, but the exclamative sentence does not communicate thought in a way different from the other three sentences, nor is it different in form, hence it should not be considered a fourth kind of sentence.

A declarative sentence made exclamative.—“Alas! the silence which was then settling on that aged ear was an everlasting silence!”—De Quincey.

An interrogative sentence made exclamative.—“Who could have imagined the whirlwind of passion that was going on within me as I reclined there!”—Jefferies.

An imperative sentence made exclamative.—“Sit down, all of you, and listen to me!”—Lewis Carroll.

Exercise 4

Classify the following sentences both as to structure and as to form. A sentence compound in structure may have members different in form, that is, one member may be declarative and another interrogative.

1. A wide-spreading, hopeful disposition is your only true umbrella in this vale of tears.—Aldrich.

2. What is it to be a gentleman? Is it to have lofty aims, to lead a pure life, to keep your honor virgin; to have the esteem of your fellow citizens, and the love of your fireside; to bear good fortune meekly; to suffer evil with constancy; and through evil or good to maintain truth always?—Thackeray.

3. Stay, stay with us—rest, thou art weary and worn.—Campbell.

4. It is so tedious to live only in one circle and have only a genteel acquaintance.—Higginson.

5. Take Winter as you find him, and he turns out to be a thoroughly honest fellow with no nonsense in him.—Lowell.

6. In a word, if the world were actually all civilized, wouldn’t it be too weak even to ripen?—Warner.

7. Who blows to-day such a ringing trumpet-call to the study of language as Luther blew?—C. W. Eliot.

8. With what interest do we look upon any relic of early human history!—Agassiz.

9. Do not delude yourself with the idea that you can practice punctuality by and by, when the necessity of it will be more cogent.

10.

Boy as I am, I have seen battles too—

Have waded foremost in their bloody waves,

And heard their hollow roar of dying men;

But never was my heart thus touched before.

Are they from Heaven, these softenings of the heart?

O thou old warrior, let us yield to Heaven.

Come, plant we here in earth our angry spears,

And make a truce, and sit upon this sand,

And pledge each other in red wine, like friends,

And thou shalt talk to me of Rustum’s deeds.

—M. Arnold.

11. Whither can I take wing from the oppression of human faces?—Lamb.

12. But the third sister, who is also the youngest—Hush! whisper whilst we talk of her!—De Quincey.

13. But after all what religion knits people so closely as a common sport?—Stevenson.

14. Shut now the volume of history and tell me, on any principle of human probability, what shall be the fate of this handful of adventurers?—Everett.

15. The self-made man is the funniest windbag after all!—Stevenson.

16. There! if the trout has a right to his grasshopper, have I not a right to the trout!—Beecher.

17. Let us trace a river to its source.—Tyndall.

18. Go face the fire at sea, or the cholera in your friend’s house, or the burglar in your own, or what danger lies in the way of duty, knowing you are guarded by the cherubim of Destiny.—Emerson.

19. Oh, child of France! shepherdess, peasant girl! trodden under foot by all around thee, how I honor thy flashing intellect, quick as God’s lightning and true as God’s lightning to its mark, that ran before France and laggard Europe by many a century, confounding the malice of the ensnarer, and making dumb the oracles of falsehood!—De Quincey.

20.

Who could guess

If ever more should meet those mutual eyes,

Since upon night so sweet such awful morn could rise?

—Byron.

CHAPTER V

THE ADJECTIVE CLAUSE

Function.—A common form of the dependent proposition is the adjective clause, so called not because it is equivalent to an adjective, but because it performs the office of an adjective, that is, modifies a substantive. It is true that some adjective clauses may be changed to adjectives, participles, or prepositional phrases, but there are many more whose meaning cannot be conveyed by any adjective, participle, or phrase at our command. For example, in this sentence from Macaulay,—“In climates where wine is a rarity, intemperance abounds,” there is no equivalent simpler adjective element into which the clause could be changed.

Moreover, a clause gives more dignity and importance to the thought conveyed by it than a shorter adjective element gives. Often, too, a sentence loses in definiteness by the abridgment of an adjective clause. For example, the sentence,—“The statue that was made of marble pleased me most,” may be changed to,—“The marble statue pleased me most.” But, whereas the first sentence means that the marble statue pleased me more than the other statues, the second may mean either the same or that the statue pleased me more than some other objects, not statues. In other words, it is clear that the clause is restrictive, while in the abridged sentence it is impossible to decide whether marble is used to restrict or to describe.

Another advantage of the clause is, that it does not require to be so near the word that it modifies as does an adjective or a participle. Take the following sentence,—“No act of oppression has ever been imputed to him which has not a parallel in the annals of the Tudors.”—Macaulay. Here the clause is separated from act by the entire predicate of the principal proposition.

Classification.—There are two kinds of adjective clauses, according to the purpose for which they are used in the sentence.

1. The restrictive adjective clause.—This is one which restricts, or narrows, the application of the noun it modifies to some particular individual or class.—“He who never changed any of his opinions never corrected any of his mistakes.”—Hall. Here the clause points out the particular individual designated by the pronoun he.

A restrictive clause is doubly expressive;—it says one thing directly and another by implication. In the sentence quoted the clause implies that there are people who do change their opinions.

Usually the restrictive clause is near the word it modifies, is not set off by a comma, and is introduced by the relative pronoun that, or a conjunctive adverb, or such a phrase as in which, by which, etc. No adjective clause, however, should be tested by any or even all of these accidents, but rather solely by the purpose for which the author used it.

2. The unrestrictive adjective clause.—This is one that merely adds a thought to some idea already expressed. The additional thought is often valuable, but it is never necessary.—“The window of the little parlor looked down upon the water, which had made friends with its painted ceiling, and bestowed tremulous golden smiles upon it when the sun shone.”—Howells. The clause here is evidently not used to point out which water is meant, but to tell something further about the water, something unnecessary to the truth of the sentence, but valuable in giving the reader a beautiful picture. Such a clause is sometimes merely a definition or expansion of a term already used; for example, “Style, which is the peculiar manner in which a writer expresses his thoughts, depends to some extent upon the age in which he lives.”

Introductory Word.—The adjective clause, being a dependent proposition and modifying a substantive, needs some word to indicate its subordination and join it to its substantive. This word may be several parts of speech.

1. A relative pronoun,—who, which, that. This pronoun, besides serving as a connective, is a necessary element of the clause. It may be—

(a) Subject of the verb,—“The nature of his subject compelled him to use many words that would have made Quintilian stare and gasp.”—Macaulay.

(b) Direct object of a verb,—“So I had arrived in Venice, and I had felt the influence of that complex spell which she lays upon the stranger.”—Howells.

(c) Indirect object of a verb,—“We must be as courteous to a man as we are to a picture, which we are willing to give the advantage of a good light.”—Emerson.

(d) Object of a preposition,—“Other men are lenses through which we read our own minds.”—Emerson.

(e) Subjective complement,—“He will never be the hero that his brother was.”

(f) Possessive modifier,—“Its members are inflexible men, whose ability has been as frequently manifested as their patriotism.”—Howells.

Note.—To ascertain the use of a relative pronoun in a clause, substitute the antecedent for the pronoun, and observe how the antecedent is used. Sometimes this substitution requires a slight change in the arrangement of the words of the clause. For example, in (e) above, the clause that his brother was becomes his brother was hero.

That, when used as object of a preposition, must precede the preposition; as, “Have you ever heard the Lady—the one that I sit next to at the table—say anything about me?”—Holmes.

That is frequently omitted when object of a verb or preposition; as, “One of the shop windows he paused before was that of a second-hand book-shop.”—George Eliot.

As and but are sometimes used as relative pronouns; the former after such, same, as many, and a few other expressions, the latter after an interrogative or negative antecedent, and as an equivalent of the relative that plus not; as, “There is nothing born but has to die.”

The relative pronoun as may be—

(a) Subject of a verb,—“I went up from the cabin followed by as many as could mount the gangway.”

(b) Object of a verb,—“Chaucer has left us such a picture of contemporary life as no man ever painted.”—Lowell.

(c) Object of a preposition,—“He was such a schoolboy as a discerning master delights in.”—Mrs. Ward.

(d) Subjective complement,—“I shall probably never see just such another day as yesterday was.”—Burroughs.

Notes.—1. When as introduces an adjective clause, the verb of the clause is frequently omitted; as, “Their military code bore the same stern features as their other laws (bore).”—Prescott.

2. The use of the relative pronoun as after as many has been extended so that we find it after as few, as much, as little; as, “She was done for and bought for ten pounds by the landlord of the Drummond Arms, Crieff, who had been taking as much money out of her, and putting as little corn into her, as was compatible with life.”—Dr. John Brown.

3. The word such, which usually precedes a noun modified by an as-clause, may follow the noun instead; as, “The walls did not flow or subside to the valley in charming curve-lines, such as I have seen in the wildest passes of the New England mountains.”—King. Instead of transposing such, which would alter the meaning slightly, we may say that it is a pronominal in apposition with curve-lines and modified by the restrictive adjective clause as I have seen, etc.

2. A conjunctive adverb.—This is equivalent to a phrase consisting of a preposition and a relative pronoun, and is used interchangeably with such a phrase. Its function in the clause is the same as that of the phrase, that is, it modifies the verb. The commonest of these adverbs are when (= in which or on which), where (= in which or on which), whither (= toward which), whence (= from which). Others less used are wherein, whereon, whereof, wherethrough, wherefrom, wherewith, whereupon, wherefore, whereby, whereat. For example,—

Our works are the mirrors wherein the spirit first sees its natural lineaments.—Carlyle.

Some day you may reach that time when a man lives in greater part for memory and by memory.—Lushington.

Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough

Gleams that untraveled world whose margin fades

Forever and forever when I move.—Tennyson.

3. The subordinating conjunction that.—This is often used to introduce restrictive clauses modifying a word denoting time. It is equivalent to a phrase like in which; for example, “At last the season comes that the sixtieth minute is due.”

This connective is sometimes used instead of why after the word reason. It is frequently omitted; as, “The instant he understood my meaning, he obeyed.”

What the Adjective Clause modifies.—The adjective clause may modify a noun used in any relation, a personal pronoun, a pronominal adjective, or any other substantive. Sometimes, instead of modifying any single word, it modifies the thought expressed by the whole of the preceding sentence, or by a portion of it. In such a case the clause is introduced by the relative pronoun which. For example, “They had comported themselves with such singular wisdom and propriety that they were never either heard or talked of,—which, next to being universally applauded, should be the object of ambition of all ages, magistrates, and rulers.”—Irving. Here the clause modifies that they were never either heard or talked of. In the sentence,—“His body was of an oblong form, particularly capacious at bottom; which was wisely ordered by Providence, seeing that he was a man of sedentary habits, and very averse to the idle labor of walking,” the clause modifies all of the sentence preceding it.

Sometimes in sentences of this kind the thought to be modified by the adjective clause is summed up in one noun which is used as a part of the clause, while the relative pronoun which becomes a relative adjective modifying the noun; as, “In 1835, Longfellow became Professor of Modern Languages and Belles Lettres in Harvard University, which position he held for fourteen years.”

An adjective clause modifying a whole statement is sometimes placed before that statement instead of after it. The clause is then usually introduced by the pronoun what; as, “What was worse, he every week lost more and more by bad money.”—Jerrold.

Note.—The adjective clause may modify a noun or pronoun in the possessive case; as, “The world is his who has money to go over it.”—Emerson.

Position of the Adjective Clause.—Usually it follows closely the word it modifies, but there is a type of sentence in which the clause modifies the subject and yet comes next to the subjective complement. The following sentence is an example,—“It was coffee and not wine that I drank.”—Howells. It is here a personal pronoun standing for beverage and modified by the restrictive adjective clause that I drank. The sentence means,—The beverage that I drank was coffee and not wine.

Peculiar sentences sometimes arise from this construction; for example, “It is only birds of prey that fear danger from below more than from above.” Here the clause modifies the subject it, and the sentence transposed reads, “It that fear danger from below more than from above is only birds of prey.” This sounds ungrammatical, but it is the interpretation of the original sentence.

In regard to the position of the connective, it is commonly the first word in the clause; but when who or which is object of a preposition, the preposition leads, and sometimes the subject of the clause precedes the preposition and the relative; thus, “The largest class of vessels is the full-rigged ship, the distinctive mark of which is that it has three masts, all square-rigged.” This arrangement of words arises from the objection that some authors have to using whose as the possessive of which. If whose were substituted for of which in the sentence above, the clause would read, whose distinctive mark is, etc.

Sometimes the antecedent of a relative pronoun is omitted, especially if it is a personal pronoun; thus,

“Who drove

Planted both feet upon the leaping share

To make the furrow deep.”—E. Arnold.

Exercise 5

Select all adjective clauses in the following sentences. Tell classification of each clause, what it modifies, its introductory word, and use of that word (if any) in the clause.

1. Boy! bring to us the dish the like of which is not found among the viands of kings.

2. How babies will poke those wonderful little fingers of theirs into every hole and crack and crevice they can get at.—Holmes.

3. Who that sees the meanness of our politics, but inly congratulates Washington that he is long already wrapped in his shroud, and forever safe.—Emerson.

4. Immediately the small son of Shem ran off into the next room, whence his voice was heard in rapid chat.—George Eliot.

5. The parts and sails of the foremast and mainmast of a ship bear the same names as those of the brig.

6. I said the other day that he had good solid prejudices, which is true, and I like him none the worse for it.—Holmes.

7. They habitually ascribed every event to the will of the Great Being, for whose power nothing was too vast, for whose inspection nothing was too minute.—Macaulay.

8. Such of these holidays as related to the victories and pride of the Republic naturally ended with her fall.—Howells.

9.

I live to learn their story

Who suffered for my sake.—Banks.

10. Tennyson began to write tales and verse from the time that he could use a pen.

11. There was a certain very dry land, the people whereof were in sore need of water.—Bellamy.

12. They have rights who dare maintain them.—Lowell.

13. The Greek drama, on the model of which the Samson was written, sprang from the Ode.—Macaulay.

14. It is hard to realize that our remote ancestors were mere barbarians, who by the force of numbers overran the world.—Lord.

15. He pretended to pour out some wine, and drank the first glass, after which he poured out another for his guest.

16. There lies before you for your pleasure the spectacle of such singular beauty as no picture can ever show you or book tell you.—Howells.

17.

Who goes that way must take no other horse

To ride, but Sleipnir, Odin’s horse, alone.—M. Arnold.

18. Is there nothing you are acquainted with which they (clouds) resemble?—Tyndall.

19. Is it dark meat or white meat you will be helped to?—Holmes.

20. Lady Carbery happened to be down at the seaside, whither my letter had been sent after her.—De Quincey.

21. Several slaves instantly appeared, whom he ordered to set out the table and serve the dinner.

22.

The wild thing,

Living or dead, is his who fetched it down.

—E. Arnold.

23. Daguerre invented the process of taking daguerreotypes upon metallic plates, which invention soon developed into the process of taking photographs on paper.

24. Not one of us, however busy or hard, but once or twice in our lives has passed an evening with Goldsmith, and undergone the charm of his delightful music.—Thackeray.

25. It’s faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes life worth looking at.—Holmes.

26.

Who asks does err,

Who answers, errs; say naught.—E. Arnold.

27. It is those who remain indoors, therefore, who are exposed to the utmost rigor of the winter.—Howells.