THE SENTENCE.

1. A sentence expresses a thought, or judgment, of the mind, and always consists of at least two parts; as ' time flies;' 'the sea lashes the shore.'

A single name will not constitute a thought, or judgment, although it may suggest a notion: time,' 'sea,'' shore,' 'come,' taken separately, are notions, but not judgments.

The tests of a thought or judgment are action and belief; and as it may be shown that a reference to action is contained in belief, it follows that action is the final criterion of a thought as expressed in a sentence. The following are sentences:

Enter the house; the house is large.

Behold the sun; the sun is bright.

Ascend the mountain; the mountain is near.

When we say enter the house,' we dictate an action; when wo say 'the house is large,' we present something for belief or disbelief, and also something that can be acted on; for to believe that the house is large means that we are prepared to put into it a great multitude of objects.

2. A Sentence may take one of three forms.

(1.) It may contain a verb in the imperative mood, and thereby command, entreat, or direct.

(2.) It may ask a question.

In both these cases action is directly indicated.

(3.) It may make an affirmation, or a denial, and thereby afford matter for belief or for disbelief.

1. Avoid the dog,' 'allow me to pass,' 'turn to the right,' are imperative sentences, and each is intended to originate some action. 2. Are you sure?' is an interrogative sentence. This is an abbreviation of I desire to know a certain fact,' namely, the fact that 'you are sure.' Now desire is a state of mind that also has a bearing on action.

3. Gold is heavy,' is an affirmation; the report is not true,' is a denial. These are matters to be believed or disbelieved, and in the final reference, to be acted on or not acted on. 'Gold is heavy,' means that we may distinguish a good sovereign by the weight, and in other ways involves actions; and to be ready to perform these actions is the test of the belief.

It will be seen that in no case can there be a sentence without two things named. There may be more than two, but there cannot be less. When a direction is apparently given by a single word, as

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'come,' 'go,' 'give,' there is something left unexpressed, which the hearer is able to supply-come ye.'

We cannot make a sentence merely by joining two or more words: 'heavy gold,' 'wise men,' the sun, moon, and stars,' are not sentences. They all want some word that shall convey or declare action or affirmation, or inform us that we may act in some way, or believe or disbelieve something, which word is called a verb: gold is heavy,' 'wise men exist,' the sun, moon, and stars shine,' behold the moon.'

The imperative sentence is considered as resolvable into the sentence of affirmation or denial, by supplying an omission: 'come hither,' means it is my wish, or command, that you come hither,' which is an affirmation: tell me,' is the same as 'I have a desire to know.'

3. The two essential parts of a Sentence are called the Subject and Predicate.

The Subject is what is spoken about; or the thing put in action, or declared to be acting or acted on.

The Predicate is what is said about the Subject, the action that it undergoes, or the quality that it possesses.

'A fish swims,' is a complete sentence. A fish' is the thing spoken about and declared to be acting or acted on, or possessed of some active quality, and is the subject. 'Swims' is the thing said about fish, the action that it undergoes, or the active quality belonging to it, and is the predicate. All men are mortal;' 'all

men,' subj., ‘are mortal,' pred.

In every sentence we may make the division into subject and predicate by considering what is spoken about, or affirmed to have some active power or quality, and what is the power or quality so affirmed or declared. Sometimes a great many words are employed in expressing the one or the other. But in all cases the two parts can be exhibited separately.

Subject.

A small leak

The pain of death

They that have the greatest gifts, and are of the greatest usefulness

Predicate. will sink a great ship.

- is most in apprehension.

are the most humble.

Although the general rule in sentences of affirmation and denial is to place the subject first, the order is sometimes inverted: short was his triumph;' how long he will remain, no one can say;' it is a law of nature, that disuse diminishes the capabilities of things.' On restoring the regular order, these may be written thus:

SUBJECT AND PREDICATE.

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In such a sentence as they that sow shall reap accordingly,' the division accord⚫ ing to the above plan is, subj. they that sow,' pred. shall reap accordingly; but, for the purposes of Grammar, a more limited view is taken of the subject and predicate. The grammatical subject is the simple nominative they,' and the addition 'that sow' is considered as enlarging, extending, or qualifying it; the grammatical predicate is the verb shall reap,' which is enlarged, extended, or qualified, by accordingly.' The full or enlarged subject and predicate are called the logical subject and predicate, because they give the full and entire description of what is spoken of, and what is said about it.

In imperative sentences, the subject is the person or thing addressed and put in motion, the predicate is the action imposed or indicated believe it not;' subj. 'you' (the person addressed) understood; pred. 'believe it not.' When a sentence cannot be reduced in this way to a single subject and single predicate, it is because in reality two or more sentences are mixed together; as the sun gives light by day, and the moon by night.' Here there are

two sentences: (1) the sun (subj.) gives light by day (pred.); (2) the moon (subj.) gives light by night (pred.).'

In many sentences the subject and predicate are linked together by some part of the verb 'be' the rose is red;' they were lucky;' 'we shall be there.' This part is called in Logic the copula. The verb 'be' is considered as the universal binding word in assertions, inasmuch as propositions of any form whatsoever may be resolved into others connected by this verb. For the sun shines,' we may say the sun is shining: Wren built St. Paul's,' Wren was the builder, the man that built, St. Paul's. But in Grammar this reference to the copula is not required. We may consider,' says Mr. C. P. Mason, that the grammatical copula in every sentence consists of the personal inflections of the verb.' This is the same as to say that the verb is the real copula, since the inflections for number, person, and time constitute the criterion of the verb (finite), or of the word that does not simply name, but also declares, affirms, propounds for belief or disbelief, or indicates action. Consequently the grammatical copula is inseparable from the predicate; and when 'is,'' are,' &c., occur, we are to treat them as part of the predicate: subj. 'rose,' pred. is red.' This 'verb' then, like many others, is to be considered a verb of incomplete predication. The other auxiliaries are of the same character: 'he will come;' he can do better;' come' is the completion of the predicate, not the enlargement of it, for 'will' does not make a meaning without 'come.'

Because the verb in such forms as the sun shines,' contains within itself the whole predicate or quality affirmed, such verbs were called adjective verbs, and by contrast, be,' whose parts,-' is.' 'are,' &c., do not of themselves indicate the quality predicated, was called the substantive verb, a name often applied to it in the grammar of other languages as well as the English. The comparison is by no means a correct or relevant one; and the distinction of the two kinds of verbs is best expressed as above, by 'complete' and 'incomplete' predication.

4. As the grammatical subject and the grammatical predicate determine two of the parts of speech-the Noun and the Verb,-the extension or enlargements of these give the other parts of speech.

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A simple sentence, like the sun warms,'' time flies,' is sometimes spoken of as a skeleton sentence, because it contains all the essentials of a sentence, while by expanding it through the addition of qualifying words, we may attain to sentences of any degree of fullness or complexity. The subject and the predicate are called the principal elements of the sentence; and the sentence is said to be developed, or enlarged, by means of additions, or adjuncts, which are the secondary elements.

5. The Predicate is enlarged when the sense requires us to name an object acted on; as 'the sun warms the earth; the ancients worshipped many gods.'

This construction does not bring out any new part of speech; the object, like the subject, is a noun or some form equivalent to a noun. But we thereby determine a distinction among verbs: those that are thus followed by an object are called transitive verbs, because the action is supposed to pass over to some particular thing. Those that give a complete meaning without an object ('the sun shines,' 'time flies') are intransitive.

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6. The Subject is enlarged by having attributes attached to it; as the distant sun warms the earth;' 'the sun, at noon, gives the greatest heat;' the summer sun, at noon, is very hot.' This mode of enlarging the Subject brings into play the part of speech called the Adjective. The Object of a sentence may be enlarged in the same manner: the sun warms the remote planets.'

The simplest enlargement of the subject and object is by a single word, as distant,' 'remote,' which, when joined to a noun to limit its application, is called an adjective. The phrase at noon,' has the same effect as an adjective, and hence is called an adjective phrase. Summer sun' exemplifies a case very common in our language, where a word that is of itself a noun may be employed to limit another noun, and so act the part of the adjective. The reasons of this will be given afterwards.

7. The Predicate is still farther extended by means of words expressing some attributes or circumstances of the action; as 'the sun persistently warms the earth;' 'the summer sun at noon is intensely hot;' he acted fairly. The words 'persistently,' 'intensely,' 'fairly,' belong to the part of speech called the Adverb.

The adverb is employed to qualify both the predicate and the attributes of the subject and object: a very great man once said;' he made a desperately hard fight.' In other words, adverbs qualify adjectives as well as verbs.

The predicate may be qualified by phrases of greater or less length, which, from serving the same end as the adverb, are called adverbial phrases: he left on the first opportunity.'

We thus see that the subject and predicate and their extensions bring to light four classes of words, called parts of speech,-the Noun, the Verb, the Adjective, the Adverb. These are the main parts of speech as far as the expression of real things, or notions, is concerned; the Pronoun, Preposition, and the Conjunction are em

ORIGIN OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH.

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ployed in connecting together these other parts in the development of sentences; whence the one group-noun, verb, adjective, adverb-is sometimes called the notional, and the other-pronoun, preposition, and conjunction-the relational parts of speech.

It belongs to Syntax to follow out the development of sentences, and explain the different sorts of sentences thence arising.