Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

7. There are seven kinds of Subjects

(i) A Noun, as, England is our home.
(ii) A Pronoun, as, It is our fatherland.

(iii) A Verbal Noun, as, Walking is healthy.

(iv) A Gerund, as, Catching fish is a pleasant pastime. (v) An Infinitive, as, To swim is quite easy.

(vi) An Adjective, with a noun understood, as, The prosperous are sometimes cold-hearted.

66

(vii) A Quotation, as, Ay, ay, sir!" burst from a

thousand throats.

(a) The verbal noun, as we have seen, originally ended in ung.
(b) Catching is a gerund, because it is both a noun (nominative to
is) and a verb, governing fish in the objective.

8. The Predicate in a sentence is what we say about the subject. If we say anything, we must use a saying or telling word. But a telling word is a verb.

Therefore the Predicate must always be a verb, or

some word or words equivalent to a verb.

9. There are five kinds of Predicates

(i) A Verb, as, God is. The stream runs.
(ii) "To be " + a noun, as, He is a carpenter.
(iii) "To be " + an adjective, as, They are idle.
(iv) "To be " + an adverb, as, The books are there.

(v) "To be " + a phrase, as, She is in good health.

10. When the predicate consists of an active-transitive verb, it requires an object after it to make complete sense. This object is called either the object or the completion. As we must name the object, it is plain that it must always, like the subject, be a noun, or some word or words equivalent

to a noun.

11. As there are seven kinds of Subjects, so there are seven kinds of Objects or Completions. These are :—

(i) A Noun, as, All of us love England.

(ii) A Pronoun, as, We saw him in the garden.

(iii) A Verbal Noun, as, We like walking.

(iv) A Gerund, as, The angler prefers taking large fish. (v) An Infinitive, as, We hate to be idle.

(vi) An Adjective with a noun understood, as, Good men love the good.

(vii) A Quotation, as, We heard his last "Goodbye, Tom!"

12. Verbs of giving, promising, offering, handing, and many such, take also an indirect object, which is sometimes called the dative object.

13. There are two kinds of Indirect Objects:

(i) A Noun, We gave the man a shilling.

(ii) A Pronoun, We offered him sixpence.

The indirect or dative object may be construed with to. Thus we can say, "We offered it to him." But, in such instances, to him is still the indirect object and it the direct object.

14. The Subject or the Object is always a Noun.

A Noun may have going with it any number of adjectives or adjectival phrases. An adjective or adjectival phrase that goes with a subject or with an object is called, in Analysis, an Enlargement.

It is so called because it enlarges our knowledge of the subject. Thus, if we say, "The man is tired," we have no knowledge of what kind of man is spoken of; but, if we say, "The poor old man is tired," our notion of the man is enlarged by the addition of the facts that he is both poor and old.

15. There are seven kinds of Enlargements :

(i) An Adjective-one, two, or more-That big old red book is sold.

(ii) A Noun (or nouns) in apposition, William the Conqueror defeated Harold.

(iii) A Noun (or pronoun) in the Possessive Case, His hat flew off.

(iv) A Prepositional Phrase, The walk in the fields was pleasant.

(v) An Adjectival Phrase, The boy, ignorant of his duty, was soon dismissed.

(vi) A Participle (a), or Participial Phrase ()— Sobbing and weeping, she was led from the room (a). The merchant, having failed, gave up business (b).

(vii) A Gerundial Infinitive—Anxiety to succeed (= of succeeding) wore him out. Bread to eat (= for

eating) could not be had anywhere.

16. It is plain that all these seven kinds of Enlargements may go with the Object as well as with the Subject.

17. An Enlargement, being a word or phrase that goes with a noun, must always be an adjective or equivalent to an adjective.

18. The Predicate is always a verb.

The word that goes with a verb is called an adverb.

Therefore the word or words that go with the predicate are either adverbs or words equivalent to adverbs.

19. The adverbs or adverbial phrases that go with the predicate are called, in Analysis, the Extensions of the Predicate. 20. There are six kinds of Extensions :

(i) An Adverb, as, The time went slowly.

(ii) An Adverbial Phrase, as, Mr Smith spoke very

well indeed.

(iii) A Prepositional Phrase, as, Mr Smith spoke with great effect.

(iv) A Noun Phrase, as, We walked side by side.

(v) A Participial Phrase, as, The mighty rocks came bounding down.

(vi) A Gerundial Phrase, as, He did it to insult us (for insulting us).

Under (v) may come also the Absolute Participial Phrase, such as, The clock having struck, we had to go."

[ocr errors]

21. Extensions of the predicate are classified in the above section from the point of view of grammar; but they are also frequently classified from the point of view of distinction in thought.

In this latter way Extensions are classified as extensions of—

(i) Time, as, We lived there three years.

(ii) Place, as, Go home! We came from York.

(iii) Manner, as, We scatter seeds with careless hand.

(iv) Magnitude, as, The field measured ten acres.

(v) Cause, as, The clerk was dismissed for idleness.

Under (iv) may also come the idea of weight and price, as, The parcel weighed four pounds. It cost sixpence.

II. CAUTIONS IN THE ANALYSIS OF SIMPLE SENTENCES.

22. The following cautions are of importance :—

(i) The Noun in an absolute clause cannot be the Subject of a simple sentence. We can say, "The train having started, we returned to the hotel." Here we is the subject.

The phrase "the train having started" is an adverbial phrase modifying returned, and giving the reason for the returning.

(ii) The direct object may be compound.

say,

Thus we can

"I saw the ship sink ;" and "the ship sink" is

a compound direct object.

If it is necessary to analyse the phrase "the ship sink," then we must say that sink is the direct object of saw; and that ship is the subject of the infinitive verb sink. (In English, as well as in Latin, the subject of an infinitive is in the objective or accusative case.)

(iii) A subject may be compound, and may contain an object, as, "To save money is always useful." Here

the subject is to save money, and contains the object money-the object of the verb to save.

An object may also contain another object, which is not the object of the sentence. Thus we can say, "I like to save money," when the direct object of like is to save, and money is a part only of that direct object.

(iv) The Nominative of address cannot be the subject of a sentence. Thus, in the sentence, "John, go into the garden," the subject of go is not John, but you understood.

III. THE MAPPING-OUT OF SIMPLE SENTENCES.

23. It is of the greatest importance to get the eye to help the mind, and to present to the sight if possible—either on paper or on the black-board-the sentence we have to consider. This is called mapping-out.

Let us take two simple sentences :

(i) "From the mountain-path came a joyous sound of some person whistling."

(ii) 'In the Acadian land, on the shores of the Basin of Minas,
Distant, secluded, still, the little village of Grand-Pré
Lay in the fruitful valley."

24. These may be mapped out, before analysing them, in the following way :

[blocks in formation]

Grand-Pré the Acadian land the shores of the Basin, etc.

« VorigeDoorgaan »