III.

SYNTAX.

184. SYNTAX teaches the Nature, Construction, and Punctuation of Sentences.

The term Syntax is derived from two Greek words, signifying a joining together, as it shews how words should be connected and arranged in the formation of sentences.

NATURE OF SENTENCES.

185. A sentence is a series of words so arranged as to make complete sense, conveying an assertion, a question, a command, or a wish; as-He comes. Does he come? Let him come. O that he would come!

186. Every sentence consists of two principal parts—the Subject and the Predicate.

187. The Subject is the person or thing about which the assertion, question, or wish is expressed, or the person to whom the command is given. The Predicate is that which is said concerning the subject.

The subject is generally a substantive or pronoun; but almost any word, or combination of words, may be used substantively as the subject. Thus an adjective, or even adverb, with the, may be the subject-The rich too often despise the poor.' Or an infinitive mood, with or without dependent words, and sometimes a sentence introduced by a conjunction, or by an interrogative pronoun or an adverb To err is human; to forgive, divine.' That Cato should have said this, is incredible.' Whether this problem is a possible one, remains to be seen.' 'One thing at a time is the general rule for getting through business well.' The subject, which always stands in the nominative case, is called by English grammarians the nominative case to the verb. Sometimes the verb to be is used to join the predicate to the subject, and in such case it is called the Copula or link. In fact, every sentence divided logically has three parts: the subject (the thing spoken of); the predicate (that which is said of it); and the copula (that which

S.

C.

P.

joins the subject to the predicate). Thus-Virtue | is happiness." Some sentences must be resolved thus-"Temperance preserves health,' is equivalent to 'Temperance | is preserving health.' But the grammatical predicate contains the logical predicate and copula.—(See Whately's Logic, p. 62.)

188. The subject may be attended by one or more words, called adjuncts; so may the predicate; thus

SUB.

PRE.

Temperance preserves health.-ADDISON.
Virtue alone is happiness below.-POPE.

A small leak will sink a great ship.-FRANKLIN.
The sense of death is most in apprehension.-SHAKS.

The condition of the nervous man is the most emphatically miserable.

-ADDISON.

189. The order of a sentence may be direct or inverted; and in resolving a sentence-that is, shewing the elements that enter into its construction-it is necessary to reduce it from the inverted to the direct form; thus

Inverted. Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight.

The glimmering landscape fades on the sight now; or, Direct. The glimmering landscape now fades on the sight. Inverted. Thee the voice, the dance obey.

Direct.
Inverted. Slow melting strains their queen's approach declare.
Direct. Slow melting strains declare their queen's approach.

The voice, the dance obey thee.

190. Every sentence is either simple or compound. It is simple, if it conveys a single statement, question, or command; as He goes. Does he go? Go.

191. It is compound if it contains two or more predicates; as-He goes to town, while his brother remains in the country. 'Alexander wept,' is a simple sentence, and of the simplest form, having no modifying words. 'Alexander the Great is said to have wept bitterly,' is also a simple sentence, though both the subject and predicate are accompanied by modifying terms or adjuncts. But, When Alexander the Great had conquered the world, he wept for other worlds to conquer,' is a compound sentence, having two predicates-conquered and wept.

192. When a compound sentence is so framed that the meaning is suspended till the whole is finished, it is called a complex period; thus-'If Hannibal had not wintered at Capua, by which circumstance his troops were enervated, but, on the contrary, after the battle of Cannæ, had proceeded to Rome, it is not improbable that the great city would have fallen.' In such a sentence, the various members or clauses are dependent on each other, one especially appearing as the main clause, which in this case is, it is not improbable that the great city would have fallen.'

The introductory clause, if Hannibal had not wintered at Capua,' is the condition on which the main clause depends. But had proceeded to Rome,' is an adversative clause to this conditional one; while, ‘by which circumstance his troops were enervated,' is explanatory of the condition, shewing its connection with the main clause. Each clause or member of a compound sentence is grammatically complete within itself, and may be reduced to a simple one by omitting the connecting words, or substituting independent ones for them.

Clauses have been denominated as conditional, adversative, conjunctive, &c., from the words by which they are introduced; and also as introductory, parenthetical, or accessory, according to the position which they occupy; but these terms are of little importance. The principal object is to ascertain which is the leading member of a complex sentence or period, and to see the relative bearing of the rest upon it, or upon each other.

193. On the other hand, there may be a chain of sentences so strung together that the construction is complete before the full stop is reached. Such may be called a catenated or loose period. Thus He must divest himself of the prejudices of his age and country; he must consider right and wrong in their abstracted and invariable state; he must disregard present laws and opinions, and rise to general and transcendental truths, which will always be the same; he must, therefore, content himself with the slow progress of his name, contemn the praise of his own time, and commit his claims to the justice of posterity.'-JOHNSON.

194. A phrase consists of two or more words thrown into a sentence, but not grammatically necessary to it; nor yet conveying any complete sense in themselves, as they include no finite verb; as-To confess the truth, I was wrong; he has done it, no doubt.

Exercises.

Divide the following sentences into subject and predicate:

Continued gloom and depression during childhood debilitate as well the body as the mind.-J. TAYLOR. The emperor approved.-JOHNSON. The arrow passes through the air, which soon closes upon it, and all again is tranquil.-R. HALL. The Vandals were masters of Africa; the Suevi held part of Spain; the Visigoths possessed the remainder; the Burgundians occupied the provinces watered by the Rhône and Saône.-HALLAM. This seeming affront sat deep on his mind. He meditated revenge. A single victim could not satisfy his malice.LOGAN. He hears the tumult, and is still. He is not able to mend it. He reads the clouds, he looks at the stars, he watches the return of the seasons.-HAZLITT. His verses possess all the property of extemporaneous eloquence.-KNOWLES.

The scene was changed. A royal host a royal banner bore,

And the faithful of the land stood round their smiling queen once more;

She stayed her steed upon a hill-she saw the marching by-
She heard their shouts-she read success in every flashing eyc.

Reduce the following from inverted to direct order:—

Now came still evening on, and twilight gray
Had in her sober livery all things clad.-MILTON.

H. G. BELL.

From tent to tent the impatient warrior flies.-Darwin.

Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note,

As his corse to the ramparts we hurried;

Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot

O'er the grave where our hero we buried.-WOLFE.

Whilst light and colours rise and fly,

Lives Newton's deathless memory.-MITFORD.

And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,

And through it there rolled not the breath of his pride.-BYRON. Not with the hunter's bow and spear he came.-HEMANS.

Silent and mournful sat an Indian chief.-HEMANS.

'Twas in autumn, and stormy and dark was the night,
And fast were the windows and door.-SOUTHEY.

Then shook the hills with thunder riven!
Then rushed the steed to battle driven !
And louder than the bolts of heaven,

Far flashed the red artillery.-CAMPBELL.

Render the following compound sentences into simple ones:There was a little old gentleman who lived in the parsonage-house, and had resided there (so they learned afterwards) ever since the death of the clergyman's wife, which had happened fifteen years before.DICKENS. We proceed, because we have begun; we complete our design, that the labour already spent may not be vain.-JOHNSON. Age, that lessens the enjoyment of life, increases our desire of living. -GOLDSMITH. If we travel, they stop our way.-BURKE. The old man looked about him with a startled and bewildered gaze, for these were the places that he hoped to shun.-DICKENS.

Underline the secondary clauses in the following sentences:

Parties, too, would come to see the church; and those who came, speaking to others of the child, sent more; so that, even at that season of the year, they had visitors almost daily. Eight or nine of the ships immediately ahead of the Victory, and across her bows, fired single guns at her, to ascertain whether she was yet within their range.

Underline the leading clauses in the following:

On the right, amid a profusion of thickets, knolls, and crags, lay the bed of a broad mountain lake, lightly curled into tiny waves by the breath of the morning breeze, each glittering in its course under the influence of the sunbeams.-SCOTT's Rob Roy. The last attack, which seemed to endanger the reviving monarchy of Spain, was that of Almanzor, the illustrious vizier of Hacham II., towards the end of the tenth century, wherein the city of Leon, and even the shrine of Compostella, were burned to the ground.-HALLAM. At length, after a wretched voyage of six months, they made land in 28 degrees south, not knowing where they were.-SOUTHEY. The singular energy of his intellect and will, through which he had mastered so many rivals and foes, and overcome what seemed insuperable obstacles, inspired a consciousness of being something more than man.-CHANNING.

In man or woman, but far most in man,
And most of all in man that ministers
And serves the altar, in my soul I loathe
All affectation.-CowPER.

CONSTRUCTION OF SENTENCES.

195. The Construction of Sentences includes the Concord, Government, and Arrangement of Words.

By concord is meant the agreement of certain words in the same mood, tense, number, person, &c. By government is meant that power which one word has over another to determine its mood or case. Two verbs in the same mood are said to agree; but a verb in the infinitive following one in the indicative is governed by it. Arrangement signifies, as is obvious, the assigning to each word its proper place in the sentence.

It has not been thought desirable to classify the following rules under these heads separately, but rather to introduce them in something like the order of their importance.

I. CONCORD OF THE NOMINATIVE AND VERB.

RULE I.

196. A verb must agree with its nominative in number and person; as-I am going; thou speakest wisely; the boy walks fast; the boys walk well.

That is, the verb must be of the same number and person as its
subject or nominative.

The violations of this rule which are apt to occur in conversation,
and which, indeed, are met with in some eminent authors, arise
from not clearly distinguishing which is the nominative, and
therefore making the verb agree with the noun next before it ;
thus-Mackintosh says: 'The general consternation spread by
these proceedings have prevented a particular account of many
of the cases from reaching us.' Here the subject or nominative
of have prevented is consternation, and it should have been has
prevented. In Buckingham's Travels, we have: To these
belong the power of licensing places for the sale of ardent
spirits.' The subject is power, and the verb should be belongs.
It is to be remarked, however, that the simple correction of many
such errors would produce harshness; and that while this great
leading rule must be strictly observed, it is desirable that the
nominative and verb should be so placed with reference to each
other, as not to allow grammatical accuracy to grate on the ear.
We shall have occasion to illustrate this more fully as we
proceed with the following subordinate rules on the agreement
of verbs with their nominatives.

EXAMPLES.

(196.) You say, you are a better soldier.-SHAKS. Memory is the purveyor of reason.-JOHNSON. Fathers, we once again are met in council.-ADDISON. Thou art the nurse of virtue.-CowPER.