PART SECOND SYNTAX I. THE SIMPLE SENTENCE. DEFINITIONS SYNTAX treats of the relations and arrangement of Syntax words in sentences. It involves order, agreement, and Definitions government. Order has to do with the position and sequence of words. Agreement expresses the relation of an adjective to its noun or pronoun; of a pronoun to its antecedent; of a verb to its subje; and of a predicate or an appositive to the word modified. Government expresses the relation of a verb or a preposition to its object, and of a noun to a possessive modifier. A sentence is the expression of a complete thought Sentence in words. A thought is the product of the mental connection of ideas-usually the idea of a person or thing with the idea of another person or thing, quality, action, or condition. The elements entering into the sentence are principal Principal and subordinate. elements The principal elements are, the subject, or the Subject name of that about which something is asserted, as Predicate is given; and the predicate, expressing the assertion, The Subordinate elements assumption, question, exclamation, or command. predicate may consist of a verb alone, or a verb accompanied by modifiers of various kinds. The subordinate elements are, words, phrases, and clauses modifying or limiting the meaning of either Connecting principal or other subordinate elements; connecting elements joining words, phrases, and clauses; and independent elements, not entering into the structure of the sentence, but logically connected with some other element of the sentence. Phrase A phrase is a preposition and its object, or a participle or an infinitive together with governed words and modifiers. Clause Independent Analysis A clause is an expression having a subject and predicate, expressing less than a complete thought. Independent elements are words of address, interjections, words of specification, and pleonasms. Grammatical analysis consists in separating sentences into their component parts, and explaining the relations of the parts to one another and to the whole sentence. Parsing Parsing is the description of the words in a sentence, and involves classification, derivation or composition, Diagram inflection, properties, and relations. The diagram is a graphic method of exhibiting by means of conventional lines or positions the relations of the various parts of a sentence to one another. On the basis of use, or the manner in which sentences Declarative present thought, they are, - declarative, making asser tions or assumptions; interrogative, asking questions; Interrogative imperative, expressing commands, demands, wishes; Imperative exclamatory, expressing thought accompanied by emo- Exclamative tion; and mixed, combining two or more of these uses. On the basis of the number and kinds of clauses, sentences are simple, compound, complex, and compoundcomplex. The declarative sentence being taken as typical, sentences may be thus defined : statement. A simple sentence contains a single independent Simple It may have a compound subject, or a compound predicate, but must be equivalent to a single assertion. A compound sentence contains two or more inde- Compound pendent statements. A complex sentence contains one independent state- Complex ment, and one or more clauses used adjectively, adverbially, or substantively. complex A compound-complex sentence has two or more inde- compoundpendent statements, at least one of which is complex. An independent statement along with all its modifying elements may be called a member. A member of a compound or a compound-complex Member sentence, is one of its largest coördinate, independent divisions. A member may consist of a single clause or a group of clauses set over against a part — single clause or group of clauses— of equal importance. Subject and predicate II. SUBJECT AND PREDICATE Since the verb is the only part of speech tha asserts or declares, i.e. predicates, every sentence mus contain a verb. It must also contain the name of that -the person or thing- concerning which the assertion is made. This name will be a noun or a substitute for a noun, a pronoun, an adjective, an adverb, an infinitive, or any expression used substantively. The word or expression naming that concerning which an assertion is made, is called the subject of the sentence, or subject of the verb; and the verb making the assertion is called the predicate. Bare elements Complete or logical elements Order The single word or expression thus used as subject is called the bare or grammatical subject; and the verb alone is called the bare or grammatical predicate. Very few sentences are made of subject and verb only. Each of these elements may be enlarged or modified in many ways. Yet, however long the sentence may become, it can always be separated into subject and predicate. The complete subject is the noun or equivalent with all modifiers; and the complete predicate, the verb with all its modifiers. These are also called the logical subject and logical predicate. The natural order of words in the English sentence is, first, the subject and its modifiers; second, the verb and its modifiers: any other order makes an in verted sentence. case English nouns have no special form to be used as Nominative subject of a verb, nor have most substitutes for nouns. The personal pronouns, however, and the relative and interrogative pronoun who, which are declined to show the subjective and objective relation, use only the nominative form as subject of a finite verb, — I, thou, he, she, we, they, who: I am (not me am). He and she will visit us (not him and her will visit us). The subject of a sentence is in the nomi- Rule of verb Nouns only of the third person, singular or plural, Agreement are used as subject of a sentence; but a pronoun of the first, second, or third person, and of the singular or plural, may be thus used. The verb, then, so far as it has different forms for person and number, must correspond to its subject : He goes (not he goest). We love (not we loves). Men live (not men lives). RULE II. A verb agrees with its subject in person Rule and number. Some special cases needing notice are: The impersonal expressions, Special constructions |