An English Grammar Part 76

(_b_) Pick out the subject, predicate, and complement:

1. Evil, according to old philosophers, is good in the making.

2. But anger drives a man to say anything.

3. The teachings of the High Spirit are abstemious, and, in regard to particulars, negative.

4. Spanish diet and youth leave the digestion undisordered and the slumbers light.

5. Yet they made themselves sycophantic servants of the King of Spain.

6. A merciless oppressor hast thou been.

7. To the men of this world, to the animal strength and spirits, the man of ideas appears out of his reason.

8. I felt myself, for the first time, burthened with the anxieties of a man, and a member of the world.

(_c_) Pick out the direct and the indirect object in each:--

1. Not the less I owe thee justice.

2. Unhorse me, then, this imperial rider.

3. She told the first lieutenant part of the truth.

4. I promised her protection against all ghosts.

5. I gave him an address to my friend, the attorney.

6. Paint me, then, a room seventeen feet by twelve.

(_d_) Pick out the words and phrases in apposition:--

1. To suffer and to do, that was thy portion in life.

2. A river formed the boundary,--the river Meuse.

3. In one feature, Lamb resembles Sir Walter Scott; viz., in the dramatic character of his mind and taste.

4. This view was luminously expounded by Archbishop Whately, the present Archbishop of Dublin.

5. Yes, at length the warrior lady, the blooming cornet, this nun so martial, this dragoon so lovely, must visit again the home of her childhood.

(_e_) Pick out the modifiers of the predicate:--

1. It moves from one flower to another like a gleam of light, upwards, downwards, to the right and to the left.

2. And hark! like the roar of the billows on the sh.o.r.e, The cry of battle rises along their changing line.

3. Their intention was to have a gay, happy dinner, after their long confinement to a s.h.i.+p, at the chief hotel.

4. That night, in little peaceful Easedale, six children sat by a peat fire, expecting the return of their parents.

Compound Subject, Compound Predicate, etc.

[Sidenote: _Not compound sentences._]

353. Frequently in a simple sentence the writer uses two or more predicates to the same subject, two or more subjects of the same predicate, several modifiers, complements, etc.; but it is to be noticed that, in all such sentences as we quote below, the writers of them purposely combined them _in single statements_, and they are not to be expanded into compound sentences. In a compound sentence the object is to make two or more full statements.

Examples of compound subjects are, "By degrees Rip's _awe_ and _apprehension_ subsided;" "The _name of the child_, _the air of the mother_, the _tone of her voice_,--all awakened a train of recollections in his mind."

Sentences with compound predicates are, "The company _broke up_, and _returned_ to the more important concerns of the election;" "He _shook_ his head, _shouldered_ the rusty firelock, and, with a heart full of trouble and anxiety, _turned_ his steps homeward."

Sentences with compound objects of the same verb are, "He caught his _daughter_ and her _child_ in his arms;" "_Voyages_ and _travels_ I would also have."

And so with complements, modifiers, etc.

Logical Subject and Logical Predicate.

354. The logical subject is the simple or grammatical subject, together with all its modifiers.

The logical predicate is the simple or grammatical predicate (that is, the verb), together with its modifiers, and its object or complement.

[Sidenote: _Larger view of a sentence._]

It is often a help to the student to find the logical subject and predicate first, then the grammatical subject and predicate. For example, in the sentence, "The situation here contemplated exposes a dreadful ulcer, lurking far down in the depths of human nature," the logical subject is _the situation here contemplated_, and the rest is the logical predicate. Of this, the simple subject is _situation_; the predicate, _exposes_; the object, _ulcer_, etc.

Independent Elements of the Sentence.

355. The following words and expressions are grammatically independent of the rest of the sentence; that is, they are not a necessary part, do not enter into its structure:--

(1) _Person or thing addressed_: "But you know them, _Bishop_;" "_Ye crags and peaks_, I'm with you once again."

(2) _Exclamatory expressions_: "But the _lady_--! Oh, _heavens_! will that spectacle ever depart from my dreams?"

[Sidenote: _Caution._]

The exclamatory expression, however, may be the person or thing addressed, same as (1), above: thus, "Ah, _young sir_! what are you about?" Or it may be an imperative, forming a sentence: "Oh, _hurry, hurry_, my brave young man!"