Part 25

We have finished our study of the different parts of speech and are going to enter upon the work of sentence building. In the next few lessons we will gather up all that we have been studying in these lessons so far. This is a good time to give this work a thorough review. Perhaps there have been a number of things in the lessons which you have not thoroughly understood, or perhaps there have been some rules for which you have not seen the reason. Now as we begin to construct our sentences, all of this will fit into its place. We shall find the reason for many of the things which may not have seemed thoroughly clear to us.

There _is_ a science in language as in everything else, and language, after all, is governed by the will of the people. This has seemed so self-evident to those who make a special study of the language and its development that they have given this power a special name. They speak of the "Genius of the Language" as though there was some spirit guiding and directing the developing power of language.

There is a spirit guiding and directing the developing power of language. That spirit is the creative genius of the people. It is the same spirit that would guide and direct all phases of life into full and free expression, if it were permitted to act. There being no private profit connected with the control of the language, the creative genius of the people has had fuller sway.

The educator sitting in his study cannot make arbitrary rules to change or conserve the use of words. The people themselves are the final arbiter in language. It is the current usage among the masses which puts the final stamp upon any word. Think what this same creative genius might do if it were set free in social life, in industrial life. It would work out those principles which were best fitted to the advance of the people themselves. But those who would profit by the enslavement of the people have put stumbling blocks,--laws, conventions, morals, customs,--in the way of the people.

Their creative genius does not have full sway or free sweep, but let us rejoice that in language, at least, we are free. And let us, as we realize the power of the people manifest in this phase of life, determine that the same power shall be set free to work out its will in all life. Some day the revolution will come. The people will be free to rule themselves, to express their will, not in the realms of words alone, but in their social and economic life; and as we become free within, dare to think for ourselves and to demand our own, we each become a torch of the revolution, a center of rebellion--one of those who make straight the path for the future.

Yours for the Revolution,

THE PEOPLE'S COLLEGE.

SENTENCE BUILDING

+400.+ Every expression of a complete thought is a sentence. A sentence is the unit in language. Words are the material out of which we build our sentences, so we have been studying the various parts of speech that are used in sentence building. Now we are ready to use these parts of speech in the building of sentences. We have found that there are eight parts of speech, though the interjection, which is termed the eighth part of speech, is not in reality a part of the sentence; but is a complete, independent construction. So in your sentences all of the many hundreds of words which we use can be grouped into seven divisions; _nouns_, _pronouns_, _adjectives_, _verbs_, _adverbs_, _prepositions_ and _conjunctions_.

+401.+ You remember in our first lesson we found that there were just three kinds of sentences. The _assertive_, the _interrogative_ and the _imperative_; or in other words, sentences which state a _fact_, ask a _question_ or give a _command_. We also found that these three kinds of sentences could all be expressed in _exclamatory_ form.

THREE KINDS OF SENTENCES

+Assertive.+ Makes a statement. +Interrogative.+ Asks a question. +Imperative.+ Gives a command.

+Assertive sentence;+ _I remember the day._ +Interrogative sentence;+ _Do you not remember the day?_ +Imperative sentence;+ _Remember the day._

In Exclamatory Form

+Assertive;+ _Nonsense! I remember the day._ +Interrogative;+ _What! Do you not remember the day?_ +Imperative;+ _Oh come! Remember the day._

ANALYSIS--SIMPLE SENTENCES

+402.+ Now that we have finished the study of the various parts of speech, we are ready for sentence building and for sentence analysis. Sentence analysis is the breaking up of the sentence into its different parts in order to find out how and why it is thus put together. To analyze anything is to break it up or separate it into its different parts. We speak of analyzing a sentence when we pick out the subject and the predicate and their modifiers, because we thus unloosen them or separate them from one another.

These parts of the sentence are called the elements of the sentence. The elements of a sentence consist of the words, phrases and clauses used in forming the sentence.

+403.+ Let us begin from the simplest beginning and build up our sentences, using the various parts of speech as we have studied them. Let us take the simplest form of sentence which we can consider. For example:

Men work.

There are only three parts of speech which can be used to make a simple sentence in this manner, and these are, either the noun and the verb, or the pronoun and the verb. We might say instead of _Men work_, _They work_, and have a complete sentence.

In the sentence _Men work_, _men_ is the subject and _work_ is the predicate. The subject and the predicate are the two principal elements in a sentence. No sentence can be formed without these two parts and these two parts can express a thought without the help of other elements. Now we may begin to enlarge the subject by adding modifiers.

You remember we have found that a noun may be modified by an adjective. So we add the adjective _busy_, and we have:

Busy men work.

Our simple subject is still the noun _men_, but the complete subject is the noun with its modifier, _busy men_. We may add other adjectives and say:

The busy, industrious men with families work.

Here we have our simple subject _men_ modified by the adjectives, _the_, _busy_ and _industrious_, and also by the adjective phrase, _with families_. So the complete subject of the sentence now is, _the busy, industrious men with families_.

Our predicate is still the single verb _work_. Let us now enlarge the predicate. We have found that adverbs are used to modify verbs, and so we may say:

The busy, industrious men with families work hard. The busy, industrious men with families work hard in the factory.

Our simple predicate, _work_ is now enlarged. It is modified by the adverb, _hard_ and the adverb phrase, _in the factory_. So our complete predicate is now, _work hard in the factory_.

+404.+ These sentences with the simple subject and the simple predicate and their modifying words and phrases form simple sentences.

+A simple sentence is one which expresses a single statement, question or command.+

+405.+ A simple sentence, therefore, will contain but one subject and one predicate. The subject may be a compound subject and the predicate may be a compound predicate, but still the sentence expresses a single thought. For example: _The boys sing_. This is a simple statement with a simple subject and a simple predicate. Then we may say: _The boys sing and play_. We still have a single statement, but a compound predicate, _sing and play_.

Now we may make a compound subject, and say, _The boys and girls sing and play_, but we have still a single statement, for both predicates are asserted of both subjects. So, _The boys and girls sing and play_, is a simple sentence.

If we say, _The boys sing and the girls play_, we have a compound sentence, composed of two simple sentences, _The boys sing_, _The girls play_.

If we say, _The boys sing while the girls play_, we have a complex sentence formed of the simple sentence, _The boys sing_, and the dependent clause, _while the girls play_.

+406.+ Now let us sum up our definitions:

+Every sentence must contain two parts, a subject and a predicate.+

+The subject of a sentence is that part about which something is said.+

+The predicate is that part which asserts something of the subject.+

+The simple subject of a sentence is a noun, or the word used in place of a noun, without modifiers.+

+The simple predicate is the verb or verb phrase without its modifiers.+

+The complete subject of a sentence is the simple subject with all of its modifiers.+

+The complete predicate of a sentence is the simple predicate with all of its modifiers.+

+A simple sentence is one which expresses a single statement, question or command.+

+A complex sentence is one containing an independent clause and one or more dependent clauses.+

+A compound sentence is one containing two or more independent clauses.+

+A clause is a part of a sentence containing a subject and a predicate.+

Exercise 1

In the following sentences the simple subject and the simple predicate are printed in _italics_. Find all of the modifiers of the subject and all of the modifiers of the predicate, and draw a single line under the complete subject and two lines under the complete predicate.

1. Beautiful _pictures hang_ on the wall. 2. Those elm _trees grow_ rapidly every year. 3. A terrible _storm broke_ unexpectedly at sea. 4. The clear, crystal _water runs_ swiftly to the sea. 5. The beautiful _flowers fade_ quickly in the heat. 6. The happy, boisterous _children play_ at school every day. 7. The sturdy _oak_ in the forest _stands_ bravely through every storm. 8. Their arching _tops_ almost _speak_ to us. 9. A _cry_ of joy _rings_ through the land. 10. The _leaves_ of the trees _flutter_ in the wind. 11. Great _clouds_ of smoke _float_ in the air.

Exercise 2

Note carefully the following simple sentences. Each of these groups of two words will suggest ideas and pictures to you. Lengthen each sentence by adding modifiers to the simple subject and to the simple predicate so as to make a fuller and more definite statement. For example: _Ships sail_. This is a simple subject and simple predicate. We add adjectives and an adjective phrase and adverbs and an adverb phrase as modifiers and we have, as follows:

The stately _ships_ in the bay _sail_ proudly away to foreign shores.

Snow melts. Winds blow. House stands. Boys run. Soldiers fight. Tides flow. Children play. Ships sail. Guns boom. Women endure.

ANOTHER ELEMENT

+407.+ You will note that all of these verbs which we have used in these sentences have been complete verbs as _hang_, _grow_, _runs_, _fade_, etc. A complete verb, you will remember, is a verb that does not need an object or a complement. It is complete within itself. It may be modified by an adverb or an adverb phrase, but when you leave off these modifiers you still have complete sense.

In any of the sentences above you may cross out the adverb or the adverb phrase which modifies the verb and you will still have complete sentences. For example:

Great clouds of smoke float in the air.

Here, the adverb phrase, _in the air_, may be omitted and still we have complete sense, thus:

Great clouds of smoke float.

+408.+ The incomplete verbs, however, require either an object or complement to complete their meaning.

Incomplete verbs are of two kinds; those that express _action_ and those that express _state_ or _condition_.

An incomplete verb that expresses action requires an object which is the receiver of the action expressed in the verb, so we have another element which enters into the simple sentence, when we use an incomplete verb. For example:

The busy man makes shoes.

In order to complete the sentence, we must use an object with the incomplete verb _makes_. To say, _The busy man makes_, is not enough. We must have an object which is the receiver of the action expressed in the verb, _makes_. Verbs of action often have two objects. One object names the _thing_ that _receives_ the action and the other names the _thing_ indirectly _affected_ by the action. For example:

The tailor made him a coat.

+409.+ _Coat_ is the _direct_ object of the verb _made_. But we have another object in the pronoun _him_. We do not mean that the tailor made _him_, but that the tailor made him a _coat_. _Coat_ is the direct object and _him_ is the indirect object. The indirect object is always placed before the direct object. The indirect object may be used as the object of the preposition _to_ or _for_. As for example, this sentence might be rewritten to read, _The tailor made a coat for him_. In this sentence, _him_ is not the indirect object of the verb, but is the object of the preposition _for_.

+410.+ The direct object of the verb always answers the question _what?_ As for example, the tailor made _what?_--_a coat_. The indirect object of the verb names the person or thing _to_ or _for_ which the act is done,--_the tailor made a coat for whom?_--for _him_.

The direct and indirect object become a part of the complete predicate of the sentence. There may be other modifiers also, as adverbs or adverb phrases, and all of these taken together form the complete predicate in the sentences where you have used an incomplete verb. As for example:

The tailor gladly made him a coat for the occasion.

The complete predicate is, _gladly made him a coat for the occasion_, formed of the verb _made_, the direct object, _coat_, the indirect object _him_, the adverb modifier, _gladly_, and the phrase modifier, _for the occasion_.

Exercise 3

In the following sentences, underscore the direct object with one line and the indirect object with two lines. The verb is in italics.

1. He _gave_ her a book. 2. He _wrote_ me a long letter. 3. Her father _bought_ her a watch. 4. The nurse _gave_ the patient his medicine. 5. The mother _gave_ her daughter a present. 6. _Give_ me time to think. 7. The clerk _sold_ her a dress. 8. The teacher _read_ the children a story. 9. The company _furnishes_ the men food and shelter. 10. The man _showed_ us his wounds.

Exercise 4

In the following sentences underscore the complete subject and the complete predicate. Notice especially the direct and the indirect objects of the incomplete verbs. The simple subjects and the direct objects are in italics.

1. A great many _miles_ separate _us_ from our friends. 2. The merry _shouts_ of the children fill the _air_ with music. 3. A gentle _breeze_ brings us the _perfume_ of the flowers. 4. A careless _druggist_ gave the unfortunate man the wrong _medicine_. 5. His admiring _friends_ gave him a beautiful _ring_. 6. _Soldiers_ obey _orders_ from their superiors. 7. This terrible _war_ claims _thousands_ of victims. 8. The _power_ of hunger drives the _unemployed_ to rebellion. 9. The _workers_ of the world produce _enough_ for all. 10. The retiring _secretary_ showed us a _letter_ from the president. 11. The old sea _captain_ told them an interesting _story_ of life at sea. 12. _Labor_ produces all _wealth_.

COPULATIVE VERBS

+411.+ We have another class of incomplete verbs which require a complement to complete their meaning. These are the copulative verbs. The number of copulative verbs is small. They are: all forms of the verb _be_; also, _like_, _appear_, _look_, _feel_, _sound_, _smell_, _become_, _seem_, etc. These verbs require a noun or an adjective or a phrase as a complement, to complete their meaning. They are really connective words serving to connect the noun or adjective or phrase used in the predicate with the noun which they modify. The noun or adjective or phrase used to complete the meaning of the copulative verb is called a predicate complement. For example:

The man is a hero.

Here we have a noun, _hero_, used as a predicate complement after the copulative verb, _is_, to describe the noun _man_.

The man is class-conscious.

In this sentence, we have an adjective, _class-conscious_, in the predicate to modify the subject, _man_. It is connected with the subject by the copulative verb _is_.

The man is in earnest.

Here we have a phrase, _in earnest_, used in the predicate to modify the noun _man_, and connected with the subject by the copulative verb _is_.

+412.+ So in the predicate with the copulative verbs--incomplete verbs which express state or condition--we may use a noun or an adjective or a phrase. A noun used as the predicate complement may have modifiers. It may be modified by one or more adjectives or adjective phrases. These adjectives in turn may be modified by adverbs. The complete predicate, then, is the copulative verb with its predicate complement and all its modifiers. For example:

Grant was the most famous general of the Civil war.

In this sentence, _Grant_ is the complete subject, _was the most famous general of the Civil war_ is the complete predicate. _Was_ is the copulative verb; _general_ is the noun used as the predicate complement; _the_ and _famous_ are adjectives modifying _general_; _most_ is an adverb modifying the adjective _famous_, and, _of the Civil war_ is an adjective phrase modifying _general_, so our complete predicate is, _was the most famous general of the Civil war_.

When an adjective is used in the predicate complement it, too, may have modifiers and more than one adjective may be used. For example:

The man is very brave and loyal to his class.

Here we have two adjectives used in the predicate complement, _brave_ and _loyal_. _Brave_ is modified by the adverb _very_, and _loyal_ is modified by the adverb phrase, _to his class_. The complete predicate is, _is very brave and loyal to his class_.

When we use a phrase as a predicate complement, it, too, may have modifiers and more than one phrase may be used. For example:

The man is in the fight and deeply in earnest.

In this sentence, two phrases are used in the predicate complement, _in the fight_ and _in earnest_. The second phrase, _in earnest_ is modified by the adverb _deeply_. The complete predicate is, _is in the fight and deeply in earnest_.

Exercise 5

Fill the blanks in the following sentences with a noun and its modifiers used as predicate complement. Name all of the parts of speech which you have used in the predicate complement as we have done in the sentences analyzed above:

The men are _loyal members of the Union_. Slavery is....... Liberty will be....... War is....... The machine is....... The children were.......

Fill the blanks in the following sentences with one or more adjectives and their modifiers used in the predicate complement.

The work is _hard and destructive to the children_. The history will be....... Labor has been....... Peace will be....... Poverty is.......

Fill the blanks in the following sentences with a phrase used in the predicate complement.

His service was _for his class_. Socialism is....... The workers are....... The message shall be....... The government is....... The opportunity is.......

VERB PHRASES

+413.+ Note that in most of the sentences which we have used, we have used the simple form of the verb, the form that is used to express _past_ and _present_ time. In expressing other time forms we use verb phrases. Note the summary given in section 145, which gives the different time forms of the verb.

+414.+ Sometimes in using the verb phrase you will find that other words may separate the words forming the phrase. When you analyze your sentence this will not confuse you. You will easily be able to pick out the verb phrase. For example:

I shall very soon find out the trouble.

Here the adverbs, _very_ and _soon_, separate _find_ from its auxiliary _shall_. The verb phrase is, _shall find_. The negative _not_ very often separates the words forming a verb phrase. For example:

I will not go.

In this sentence, _will go_ is the verb phrase.

When we use the auxiliary verb _do_ to express emphasis, and also the negative _not_, _not_ comes between the auxiliary verb _do_, and the principal verb. For example:

I do not obey, I think.

In this sentence, _do obey_ is the verb phrase.

In interrogative sentences, the verb phrase is inverted and a part of the verb phrase is placed first and the subject after. For example:

Will you go with us?

_You_ is the subject of this interrogative sentence and _will go_ is the verb phrase; but in order to ask the question, the order is inverted and part of the verb phrase placed first. In using interrogative adverbs in asking a question, the same inverted order is used. For example:

When will this work be commenced?

In this sentence, _work_ is the subject of the sentence and _will be commenced_ is the verb phrase. If you should write this in assertive form, it would be:

This work will be commenced when?

By paying close attention we can easily distinguish the verb phrases even when they are used in the inverted form or when they are separated by other parts of speech.

LET US SUM UP

+415.+ The elements of a sentence are the words, phrases or clauses of which it is composed.

+A simple sentence is one which contains a single statement, question or command.+

+A simple sentence contains only words and phrases.+ It does not contain dependent clauses. The elements of a simple sentence are:

{The simple subject--the noun, or the The complete subject { word used in place of the noun--and { all its modifiers.

The complete predicate {The simple predicate--the verb, and { all its modifiers.

Exercise 6

In the following sentences, the simple subjects and the simple predicates of the principal clauses are printed in italics. Locate all the modifiers of the subjects and predicates, and determine the part of speech of each word in the sentence.

Sentences Nos. 1, 5, 6, 14, 15, 16, 18, 30, 31, 32 and 37 are simple sentences.

Sentences Nos. 2, 4, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 22, 26, 28, 33, 34 and 36 are complex.

Sentences Nos. 3, 10, 12, 21, 23, 24, 25, 29 and 35 are compound.

No. 8 is incomplete, having neither subject nor predicate.

No. 9 is incomplete, there being no predicate in the principal clause.

No. 20 is a simple sentence, with a complex sentence in parenthesis.

No. 27 consists of two dependent clauses.

In the complex sentences, draw a line under the dependent clauses.

"Br--r--r--r--r--r--r--r--r--."