LESSON 3. SIMPLE SENTENCES. A noun or pronoun with its preposition, forming a prepositional phrase, may be brought into the sentence and perform the office of (1) an adjective modifier; as, Vibrations of ether cause light; or (2) an adverb modifier; as, For this, time is required. Without its preposition the noun may be used adverbially and become (1) a so-called dative object; as, Hull refused Charles I. admittance; and (2) a noun of measure or direction; as, He returned home. An infinitive phrase, to with its verb, may be brought into the sentence, and become (1) a subject; as, To err is human; (2) a complement; as, The command is to forgive, The Bible teaches us to forgive, The teacher made the pupil (to) forgive; (3) an adjective modifier; as, The way to be forgiven is revealed; (4) an explanatory modifier; as, This duty, to obey, is recognized; (5) an adverb modifier; as, Strive to do your duty; (6) the principal term of another phrase; as, He was about to speak; and (7) it may be independent; as, To tell the truth, he haunted counting-rooms. A participle may be brought into the sentence, and become (1) an adjective modifier; as, Air, expanding, rises; (2) a complement; as, The gladiator lay bleeding, Mirza saw people crossing the bridge; (3) the principal word of a prepositional phrase; as, By losing its privacy, benevolence loses its charm; (4) the principal word in a phrase used as subject; as, Casting out the 9's will prove the operation; (5) the principal word in a phrase used as complement; as, Pardon my forgetting your request; and (6) it may be independent; as, Speaking plainly, Hamlet wasn't mad. - Directions. (1) Justify the punctuation in the illustrations above. (2) Write sentences illustrating all the points made above, but use no words in other relations than those explained in this and in the preceding Lesson. Let no word have more than a single modifier, and, if possible, let no modifier be modified. In writing observe these rules also: Comma.- Set off by the comma (3) a phrase that is placed out of its natural order and made emphatic, or that is loosely connected with the rest of the sentence; and (4) a participle used as an adjective modifier, with the words belonging to it, unless restrictive. Use the comma (5) whenever it will prevent ambiguity or make the meaning clearer. Apostrophe. Use the apostrophe (2) to mark the omission of letters, and (3) in the pluralizing of letters, figures, and characters. Hyphen. Use the hyphen (1) to join the parts of compound words, and (2) between the syllables when a word is divided. LESSON 4. SIMPLE SENTENCES - COMPOUND SUBJECT AND COMPLEX MODIFIERS. Compound Modifiers. -Two or more nouns, each modified by one or more adjectives, may be used in a sentence, in the several offices indicated in Lesson 2; and any verb or adjective in the sentence may be modified by more than one adverb. Direction. — Point out the offices of the parts of speech in the sentences below, and justify the punctuation: 1. The greedy grubs and insects devour tender potato-vines, beans, beets, corn, and other plants. 2. The Roman amusements were the stage, the circus, and the arena. 3. Despair not, soldier, statesman, citizen. 4. Macaulay, essayist, historian, and statesman, died in 1859. 5. Shakespeare's and everybody's ideal, Portia, was amiable and noble, and loved her husband truly and passionately. 6. The times made Brutus an assassin and a traitor. Several nouns with their prepositions, forming phrases, may be used as adjective modifiers of the same word, and, with or without their prepositions, as adverb modifiers. Direction. - Describe the phrase modifiers in the sentences below, tell what they modify, and justify the punctuation : 1. The tersest simplicity and a pregnant brevity of question and of reply were characteristics of the Spartans. 2. From every bush, from every fence, from cannon and muskets, a pitiless storm poured upon the retreating British. 3. At Cape May, the coast wears away nine feet a year. Direction. Write simple sentences illustrating the points just made. Several infinitive phrases or participles may be used in the various offices indicated in Lesson 3. Direction. - Point out the infinitive phrases and participles in the sentences below, tell their functions, and justify the punctuation : I. To spare the submissive and to war down the proud was to recognize and obey the teaching of Rome. 2. After his acquittal, Warren Hastings amused himself with embellishing his grounds, riding fine Arab horses, and trying to rear Indian animals and vegetables in England. 3. A longing to dictate, to intermeddle, and to make others feel his power made Frederic the Great unwilling to ask counsel, to confide important secrets, or to delegate ample powers. 4. The world saw Marie Antoinette decorating and cheering her elevated sphere. 5. The queen's horses, saddled and bridled, and about to start and follow the chase, stood pawing the earth and champing their bits. 6. Obeying the precept, to watch and to pray, and overlooking our neighbors' speaking ill of us and doing us wrong constitute the severest test of Christian virtue. 7. To tell the truth and not to exaggerate, speaking honestly and not dissembling, no man has ever stood this test perfectly. 8. The highest proof of virtue is to possess boundless power without abusing it. Direction. - Write simple sentences illustrating all these points. Keep the sentences, if possible, perfectly clear of complex modifiers. Complex Modifiers. The nouns and verbs of phrase modifiers and all other modifiers may themselves be modified. Direction. Point out and describe the modifiers in the sentences below, particularly all those which modify other modifiers or parts of them, and justify the punctuation : 1. Cromwell was bitterly opposed to all jurisdiction in matters of religion. 2. According to Marsh, the irregularity of the spelling in early English is very frequently chargeable almost wholly to the thoughtless printer's desire to fill out the line. 3. Could is said by Earle to have acquired its by associating with those little words, or auxiliaries, would and should. 4. The Saxon words in English are short, in great part monosyllabic, and full of consonants. 5. Yeast is added to dough merely to convert, or, putting it in other words, to change, by chemical action, some of the starch into sugar, and to raise and lighten the loaf by thus dispersing the liberated carbonic acid gas equally throughout the mass. 6. A well constituted tribunal, sitting regularly six days in the week and nine hours a day, would have brought Hastings' trial, lasting eight years, to a close in three months. 7. Addison's friends stood greatly amazed to see young Alexander Pope persistently maligning their chief, and yet giving himself out as a candidate for Addison's favor. Direction. In these sentences you see that nouns as subjects, as complements, as possessive and explanatory modifiers, and nouns in adjective or adverb modifiers; that adjectives denoting qualities assumed or asserted; that adverbs; that verbs as predicates and verbs in infinitive phrases used independently or as adjective, explanatory, or adverb modifiers; and that participles used independently or as adjective modifiers, as complements, and as principal words in prepositional phrases that these are all modified. You see also by what they are modified. Write simple sentences illustrating all these points. In writing observe these rules also: — Comma. Separate by the comma (6) connected words and phrases, unless all the conjunctions are expressed; and (7) connected predicates and other phrases, when long and differently modified, though no conjunction is omitted. Set off by the comma (8) a term connected to another by or and having the same meaning. Period.-Place the period (4) after Arabic figures used to enumerate. |