How to Speak and Write Correctly Part 6

_but_, a conjunction.

_alas_, an interjection, expressing pity or sorrow.

_he_, a personal p.r.o.noun, 3rd person singular, masculine gender, nominative case, subject of verb has walked.

_has walked_, a regular, intransitive verb, indicative mood, perfect tense, 3rd person singular to agree with its nominative or subject _he_.

_with_, a preposition, governing the noun difficulty.

_much_, an adjective, positive degree, qualifying the noun difficulty.

_difficulty_, a common noun, 3rd person singular, neuter gender, objective case governed by the preposition _with_.

N.B.--_Much_ is generally an adverb. As an adjective it is thus compared:

Positive Comparative Superlative much more most

CHAPTER III

THE SENTENCE

Different Kinds--Arrangement of Words--Paragraph

A sentence is an a.s.semblage of words so arranged as to convey a determinate sense or meaning, in other words, to express a complete thought or idea.

No matter how short, it must contain one finite verb and a subject or agent to direct the action of the verb.

"Birds fly;" "Fish swim;" "Men walk;"--are sentences.

A sentence always contains two parts, something spoken about and something said about it. The word or words indicating what is spoken about form what is called the _subject_ and the word or words indicating what is said about it form what is called the _predicate_.

In the sentences given, _birds_, _fish_ and _men_ are the subjects, while _fly_, _swim_ and _walk_ are the predicates.

There are three kinds of sentences, _simple_, _compound_ and _complex_.

The _simple sentence_ expresses a single thought and consists of one subject and one predicate, as, "Man is mortal."

A _compound sentence_ consists of two or more simple sentences of equal importance the parts of which are either expressed or understood, as, "The men work in the fields and the women work in the household," or "The men work in the fields and the women in the household" or "The men and women work in the fields and in the household."

A _complex sentence_ consists of two or more simple sentences so combined that one depends on the other to complete its meaning; as; "When he returns, I shall go on my vacation." Here the words, "when he returns"

are dependent on the rest of the sentence for their meaning.

A _clause_ is a separate part of a complex sentence, as "when he returns"

in the last example.

A _phrase_ consists of two or more words without a finite verb.

Without a finite verb we cannot affirm anything or convey an idea, therefore we can have no sentence.

Infinitives and participles which are the infinite parts of the verb cannot be predicates. "I looking up the street" is not a sentence, for it is not a complete action expressed. When we hear such an expression as "A dog running along the street," we wait for something more to be added, something more affirmed about the dog, whether he bit or barked or fell dead or was run over.

Thus in every sentence there must be a finite verb to limit the subject.

When the verb is transitive, that is, when the action cannot happen without affecting something, the thing affected is called the _object_.

Thus in "Cain killed Abel" the action of the killing affected Abel. In "The cat has caught a mouse," mouse is the object of the catching.

ARRANGEMENT OF WORDS IN A SENTENCE

Of course in simple sentences the natural order of arrangement is subject--verb--object. In many cases no other form is possible. Thus in the sentence "The cat has caught a mouse," we cannot reverse it and say "The mouse has caught a cat" without destroying the meaning, and in any other form of arrangement, such as "A mouse, the cat has caught," we feel that while it is intelligible, it is a poor way of expressing the fact and one which jars upon us more or less.

In longer sentences, however, when there are more words than what are barely necessary for subject, verb and object, we have greater freedom of arrangement and can so place the words as to give the best effect. The proper placing of words depends upon perspicuity and precision. These two combined give _style_ to the structure.

Most people are familiar with Gray's line in the immortal _Elegy_--"The ploughman homeward plods his weary way." This line can be paraphrased to read 18 different ways. Here are a few variations:

Homeward the ploughman plods his weary way.

The ploughman plods his weary way homeward.

Plods homeward the ploughman his weary way.

His weary way the ploughman homeward plods.

Homeward his weary way plods the ploughman.

Plods the ploughman his weary way homeward.

His weary way the ploughman plods homeward.

His weary way homeward the ploughman plods.

The ploughman plods homeward his weary way.

The ploughman his weary way plods homeward.

and so on. It is doubtful if any of the other forms are superior to the one used by the poet. Of course his arrangement was made to comply with the rhythm and rhyme of the verse. Most of the variations depend upon the emphasis we wish to place upon the different words.

In arranging the words in an ordinary sentence we should not lose sight of the fact that the beginning and end are the important places for catching the attention of the reader. Words in these places have greater emphasis than elsewhere.

In Gray's line the general meaning conveyed is that a weary ploughman is plodding his way homeward, but according to the arrangement a very slight difference is effected in the idea. Some of the variations make us think more of the ploughman, others more of the plodding, and still others more of the weariness.

As the beginning and end of a sentence are the most important places, it naturally follows that small or insignificant words should be kept from these positions. Of the two places the end one is the more important, therefore, it really calls for the most important word in the sentence.

Never commence a sentence with _And_, _But_, _Since_, _Because_, and other similar weak words and never end it with prepositions, small, weak adverbs or p.r.o.nouns.

The parts of a sentence which are most closely connected with one another in meaning should be closely connected in order also. By ignoring this principle many sentences are made, if not nonsensical, really ridiculous and ludicrous. For instance: "Ten dollars reward is offered for information of any person injuring this property by order of the owner."

"This monument was erected to the memory of John Jones, who was shot by his affectionate brother."

In the construction of all sentences the grammatical rules must be inviolably observed. The laws of concord, that is, the agreement of certain words, must be obeyed.

(1) The verb agrees with its subject in person and number. "I have,"

"Thou hast," (the p.r.o.noun _thou_ is here used to ill.u.s.trate the verb form, though it is almost obsolete), "He has," show the variation of the verb to agree with the subject. A singular subject calls for a singular verb, a plural subject demands a verb in the plural; as, "The boy writes," "The boys write."

The agreement of a verb and its subject is often destroyed by confusing (1) collective and common nouns; (2) foreign and English nouns; (3) compound and simple subjects; (4) real and apparent subjects.