An English Grammar Part 75

It will be noticed that all these complements have a double office,--completing the predicate, and explaining or modifying the subject.

[Sidenote: _Of a transitive verb_.]

As complement of a _transitive_ verb,--

(1) _Noun_: "I will not call you _cowards_."

(2) _Adjective_: "Manners make beauty _superfluous_ and _ugly_;"

"Their tempers, doubtless, are rendered _pliant_ and _malleable_ in the fiery furnace of domestic tribulation." In this last sentence, the object is made the subject by being pa.s.sive, and the words italicized are still complements. Like all the complements in this list, they are adjuncts of the object, and, at the same time, complements of the predicate.

(3) _Infinitive_, or _infinitive phrase_: "That cry which made me _look a thousand ways_;" "I hear the echoes _throng_."

(4) _Participle_, or _participial phrase_: "I can imagine him _pus.h.i.+ng firmly on, trusting the hearts of his countrymen_."

(5) _Prepositional phrase:_ "My antagonist would render my poniard and my speed _of no use_ to me."

Modifiers.

I. Modifiers of Subject, Object, or Complement.

351. Since the subject and object are either nouns or some equivalent of a noun, the words modifying them must be adjectives or some equivalent of an adjective; and whenever the complement is a noun, or the equivalent of the noun, it is modified by the same words and word groups that modify the subject and the object.

These modifiers are as follows:--

(1) _A possessive_: "_My_ memory a.s.sures me of this;" "She asked her _father's_ permission."

(2) _A word in apposition_: "Theodore Wieland, the _prisoner_ at the bar, was now called upon for his defense;" "Him, this young _idolater_, I have seasoned for thee."

(3) _An adjective_: "_Great_ geniuses have the _shortest_ biographies;" "Her father was a prince in Lebanon,--_proud_, _unforgiving_, _austere_."

(4) _Prepositional phrase_: "Are the opinions _of a man on right and wrong on fate and causation_, at the mercy of a broken sleep or an indigestion?" "The poet needs a ground _in popular tradition_ to work on."

(5) _Infinitive phrase_: "The way _to know him_ is to compare him, not with nature, but with other men;" "She has a new and unattempted problem _to solve_;" "The simplest utterances are worthiest _to be written_."

(6) _Participial phrase_: "Another reading, _given at the request of a Dutch lady_, was the scene from King John;" "This was the hour _already appointed for the baptism_ of the new Christian daughter."

Exercise.--In each sentence in Sec. 351, tell whether the subject, object, or complement is modified.

II. Modifiers of the Predicate.

352. Since the predicate is always a verb, the word modifying it must be an adverb or its equivalent:--

(1) _Adverb:_ "_Slowly_ and _sadly_ we laid him down."

(2) _Prepositional phrase_: "The little carriage is creeping on _at one mile an hour_;" "_In the twinkling of an eye_, our horses had carried us _to the termination of the umbrageous isle_."

In such a sentence as, "He died like a G.o.d," the word group _like a G.o.d_ is often taken as a phrase; but it is really a contracted clause, the verb being omitted.

[Sidenote: _Tells how._]

(3) _Participial phrase:_ "She comes down from heaven to his help, _interpreting for him the most difficult truths_, and _leading him from star to star_."

(4) _Infinitive phrase:_ "No imprudent, no sociable angel, ever dropped an early syllable _to answer his longing_."

(For participial and infinitive phrases, see further Secs. 357-363.)

(5) _Indirect object:_ "I gave _every man_ a trumpet;" "Give _them_ not only n.o.ble teachings, but n.o.ble teachers."

These are equivalent to the phrases _to every man_ and _to them_, and modify the predicate in the same way.

[Sidenote: _Retained with pa.s.sive; or_]

When the verb is changed from active to pa.s.sive, the indirect object is retained, as in these sentences: "It is left _you_ to find out the reason why;" "All such knowledge should be given _her_."

[Sidenote: _subject of pa.s.sive verb and direct object retained._]

Or sometimes the indirect object of the active voice becomes the subject of the pa.s.sive, and the direct object is retained: for example, "She is to be taught _to extend the limits of her sympathy_;"

"I was shown an immense _sarcophagus_."

(6) _Adverbial objective._ These answer the question _when_, or _how long_, _how far_, etc., and are consequently equivalent to adverbs in modifying a predicate: "We were now running _thirteen miles an hour_;"

"_One way_ lies hope;" "_Four hours_ before midnight we approached a mighty minster."

Exercises.

(_a_) Pick out subject, predicate, and (direct) object:--

1. This, and other measures of precaution, I took.

2. The pursuing the inquiry under the light of an end or final cause, gives wonderful animation, a sort of personality to the whole writing.

3. Why does the horizon hold me fast, with my joy and grief, in this center?

4. His books have no melody, no emotion, no humor, no relief to the dead prosaic level.

5. On the voyage to Egypt, he liked, after dinner, to fix on three or four persons to support a proposition, and as many to oppose it.

6. Fas.h.i.+on does not often caress the great, but the children of the great.

7. No rent roll can dignify skulking and dissimulation.

8. They do not wish to be lovely, but to be loved.