An English Grammar Part 81

376. Adjective clauses may modify--

(1) _The subject_: "The themes _it offers for contemplation_ are too vast for their capacities;" "Those _who see the Englishman only in town_, are apt to form an unfavorable opinion of his social character."

(2) _The object_: "From this piazza Ichabod entered the hall, _which formed the center of the mansion_."

(3) _The complement_: "The animal he bestrode was a broken-down plow-horse, _that had outlived almost everything but his usefulness_;"

"It was such an apparition _as is seldom to be met with in broad daylight_."

(4) _Other words_: "He rode with short stirrups, _which brought his knees nearly up to the pommel of the saddle_;" "No whit antic.i.p.ating the oblivion _which awaited their names and feats_, the champions advanced through the lists;" "Charity covereth a mult.i.tude of sins, in another sense than that _in which it is said to do so in Scripture_."

Exercise.

Pick out the adjective clauses, and tell what each one modifies; i.e., whether subject, object, etc.

1. There were pa.s.sages that reminded me perhaps too much of Ma.s.sillon.

2. I walked home with Calhoun, who said that the principles which I had avowed were just and n.o.ble.

3. Other men are lenses through which we read our own minds.

4. In one of those celestial days when heaven and earth meet and adorn each other, it seems a pity that we can only spend it once.

5. One of the maidens presented a silver cup, containing a rich mixture of wine and spice, which Rowena tasted.

6. No man is reason or illumination, or that essence we were looking for.

7. In the moment when he ceases to help us as a cause, he begins to help us more as an effect.

8. Socrates took away all ignominy from the place, which could not be a prison whilst he was there.

9. This is perhaps the reason why we so seldom hear ghosts except in our long-established Dutch settlements.

10. From the moment you lose sight of the land you have left, all is vacancy.

11. Nature waited tranquilly for the hour to be struck when man should arrive.

Adverbial Clauses.

377. The adverb clause takes the place of an adverb in modifying a verb, a verbal, an adjective, or an adverb. The student has met with many adverb clauses in his study of the subjunctive mood and of subordinate conjunctions; but they require careful study, and will be given in detail, with examples.

378. Adverb clauses are of the following kinds:

(1) TIME: "_As we go_, the milestones are grave-stones;" "He had gone but a little way _before he espied a foul fiend coming_;" "_When he was come up to Christian_, he beheld him with a disdainful countenance."

(2) PLACE: "_Wherever the sentiment of right comes in_, it takes precedence of everything else;" "He went several times to England, _where he does not seem to have attracted any attention_."

(3) REASON, or CAUSE: "His English editor lays no stress on his discoveries, _since he was too great to care to be original_;" "I give you joy _that truth is altogether wholesome_."

(4) MANNER: "The knowledge of the past is valuable only _as it leads us to form just calculations with respect to the future_;" "After leaving the whole party under the table, he goes away _as if nothing had happened_."

(5) DEGREE, or COMPARISON: "They all become wiser _than they were_;"

"The right conclusion is, that we should try, so far _as we can_, to make up our shortcomings;" "Master Simon was in as chirping a humor _as a gra.s.shopper filled with dew_ [is];" "_The broader their education is_, the wider is the horizon of their thought." The first clause in the last sentence is dependent, expressing the degree in which the horizon, etc., is wider.

(6) PURPOSE: "Nature took us in hand, shaping our actions, _so that we might not be ended untimely by too gross disobedience_."

(7) RESULT, or CONSEQUENCE: "He wrote on the scale of the mind itself, _so that all things have symmetry in his tablet_;" "The window was so far superior to every other in the church, _that the vanquished artist killed himself from mortification_."

(8) CONDITION: "_If we tire of the saints_, Shakespeare is our city of refuge;" "Who cares for that, _so thou gain aught wider and n.o.bler_?"

"You can die grandly, and as G.o.ddesses would die _were G.o.ddesses mortal_."

(9) CONCESSION, introduced by indefinite relatives, adverbs, and adverbial conjunctions,--_whoever_, _whatever_, _however_, etc.: "But still, _however good she may be as a witness_, Joanna is better;"

"_Whatever there may remain of illiberal in discussion_, there is always something illiberal in the severer aspects of study."

These mean _no matter how good, no matter what remains_, etc.

Exercise.

Pick out the adverbial clauses in the following sentences; tell what kind each is, and what it modifies:--

1. As I was clearing away the weeds from this epitaph, the little s.e.xton drew me on one side with a mysterious air, and informed me in a low voice that once upon a time, on a dark wintry night, when the wind was unruly, howling and whistling, banging about doors and windows, and twirling weatherc.o.c.ks, so that the living were frightened out of their beds, and even the dead could not sleep quietly in their graves, the ghost of honest Preston was attracted by the well-known call of "waiter," and made its sudden appearance just as the parish clerk was singing a stave from the "mirrie garland of Captain Death."

2. If the children gathered about her, as they sometimes did, Pearl would grow positively terrible in her puny wrath, s.n.a.t.c.hing up stones to fling at them, with shrill, incoherent exclamations, that made her mother tremble because they had so much the sound of a witch's anathemas.

3. The spell of life went forth from her ever-creative spirit, and communicated itself to a thousand objects, as a torch kindles a flame wherever it may be applied.

a.n.a.lYZING COMPLEX SENTENCES.

379. These suggestions will be found helpful:--

(1) See that the sentence and all its parts are placed in the natural order of subject, predicate, object, and modifiers.

(2) First take the sentence _as a whole_; find the princ.i.p.al subject and princ.i.p.al predicate; then treat noun clauses as nouns, adjective clauses as adjectives modifying certain words, and adverb clauses as single modifying adverbs.

(3) a.n.a.lyze each clause as a simple sentence. For example, in the sentence, "Cannot we conceive that Odin was a reality?" _we_ is the princ.i.p.al subject; _cannot conceive_ is the princ.i.p.al predicate; its object is _that Odin was a reality_, of which clause _Odin_ is the subject, etc.

380. It is sometimes of great advantage to map out a sentence after a.n.a.lyzing it, so as to picture the parts and their relations. To take a sentence:--

"I cannot help thinking that the fault is in themselves, and that if the church and the cataract were in the habit of giving away their thoughts with that rash generosity which characterizes tourists, they might perhaps say of their visitors, 'Well, if you are those men of whom we have heard so much, we are a little disappointed, to tell the truth.'"

This may be represented as follows:--

I cannot help thinking ____________________ | _______________________| | | (_a_) THAT THE FAULT IS IN THEMSELVES, AND | | (_b_) [THAT] THEY MIGHT (PERHAPS) SAY OF THEIR VISITORS | ___________________ | | | _____________________________|_________________________________ | | | | | (_a_) We are (a little) disappointed | | O| ___________________________ | O| b| ________________________| | b| j| M| | j| e| o| (_b_) If you are those men | e| c| d| ___ | c| t| i| _________________________| | t| | f| M| | | | i| o| Of whom we have heard so much. | | | e| d. | | r | | _____________________________________________________| | M| | o| (_a_) If the church and ... that rash generosity | d| __________ | i| | | f| _______________________________________________| | i| | | e| | (_b_) Which characterizes tourists.

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