Manual of English Grammar and Composition [antikvár]

NOTE This edition has been revised in order to bring it into agreement with the Recommendations of the Committee on Grammatical Terminology. This has necessitated certain changes in terminology and a few changes in classification, but the book, as a whole, remains as it was in former editions. PART I.—PARSING AND ANALYSIS CHAPTER I. ANALYSIS IN OUTLINE. This chapter assumes that the student has a rough knowledge of the Parts of Speech to start with. 1. Sentence.—When one person says something to another, or puts what he says into writing, he uses a combination of words which is called a sentence :— Fire burns. Here " fire" is the thing talked about. The word " fire," though it names the thing, does not make a sentence. It is a name, and nothing more. It is only by adding such a word as " burns " to the word " fire," that is, by saying what the thing (fire) does, that we can make a sentence. Dejinition.—A sentence is a combination of words, in which something is said about something else. Note.—That which is "said" may be a statement, a question, a desire or an exclamation,—whatever, in fact, can be expressed by a Finite verb (on the meaning of Finite verb see § 5). There are thus four different kinds of sentences :— (a) Statements, affirming or denying. A man's success depends chiefiy on himself. (Affirmative.) He did not get much help from others. {Negatíve.) {b) Questions, the interrogative forms of statements, in somé cases mere inversions of them or differing only in tone of voice. Have you finished that task ? You are going ? (c) Desires, including commands, requests, entreaties, wishes. Rely on your own efforts. Lend me a penny. Thy kingdom corne, thy will be done. May you never have cause to regret it. (d) Exclamations are a fourth class of sentence, always distinct in meaning and intonation, and to a great extent alsó in form, from both statements and questions ; but they do not stand on the same levél of importance as the other three kinds of sentences enumerated above:— What a foolish fellow you have been ! How silly ! 2. Subject and Predicate.—Every sentence, when it is expressed in full, consists of two parts, a Subject and a Predicate. E.G.C. B 3L