Higher Lessons in English Part 13

+a.n.a.lysis.+

1. Clear thinking makes clear writing.

thinking | makes | writing ============|===================== clear | clear

+Oral a.n.a.lysis+.---_Writing_ is the object complement; _clear writing_ is the modified complement, and _makes clear writing_ is the entire predicate.

2. Austerlitz killed Pitt.

3. The invention of gunpowder destroyed feudalism.

4. Liars should have good memories.

5. We find the first surnames in the tenth century.

6. G.o.d tempers the wind to the shorn lamb.

7. Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning-rod.

8. At the opening of the thirteenth century, Oxford took and held rank with the greatest schools of Europe.

took /--------- Oxford | / ' | rank ========|=and' ========== | ' / ' held / -------/

revolves /------------ moon | / '

======|== and'

' keeps | side ---------------

9. The moon revolves, and keeps the same side toward us.

10. Hunger rings the bell, and orders up coals in the shape of bread and b.u.t.ter, beef and bacon, pies and puddings.

11. The history of the Trojan war rests on the authority of Homer, and forms the subject of the n.o.blest poem of antiquity.

12. Every stalk, bud, flower, and seed displays a figure, a proportion, a harmony, beyond the reach of art.

13. The natives of Ceylon build houses of the trunk, and thatch roofs with the leaves, of the cocoa-nut palm.

14. Richelieu exiled the mother, oppressed the wife, degraded the brother, and banished the confessor, of the king.

15. James and John study and recite grammar and arithmetic.

James study grammar ========= /=========== /=============== ' | / ' | / '

'and ==|== and' ===== and'

John ' / | ' recite / ' arithmetic =========/ ===========/ ===============

LESSON 29.

NOUNS AND ADJECTIVES AS ATTRIBUTE COMPLEMENTS.

+Introductory Hints+.--The subject presents one idea; the predicate presents another, and a.s.serts it of the first. _Corn is growing_ presents the idea of the thing, corn, and the idea of the act, growing, and a.s.serts the act of the thing. _Corn growing_ lacks the a.s.serting word, and _Corn_ is lacks the word denoting the idea to be a.s.serted.

In logic, the a.s.serting word is called the _copula_--it shows that the two ideas are coupled into a thought--and the word expressing the idea a.s.serted is called the predicate. But, as one word often performs both offices, e.

g., Corn _grows_, and, as it is disputed whether any word can a.s.sert without expressing something of the idea a.s.serted, we pa.s.s this distinction by as not essential in grammar, and call both that which a.s.serts and that which expresses the idea a.s.serted, by one name--the predicate. [Footnote: We may call the verb the predicate; but, when it is followed by a complement, it is an incomplete predicate.]

The _maple leaves become_. The verb become does not make a complete predicate; it does not fully express the idea to be a.s.serted. The idea may be completely expressed by adding the adjective _red_, denoting the quality we wish to a.s.sert of leaves, or attribute to them--_The maple leaves become red_.

_Lizards are reptiles_. The noun _reptiles_, naming the cla.s.s of the animals called lizards, performs a like office for the a.s.serting word are.

_Rolfe's wife was Pocahontas_. _Pocahontas_ completes the predicate by presenting a second idea, which _was_ a.s.serts to be identical with that of the subject.

When the completing word expressing the idea to be attributed does not unite with the a.s.serting word to make a single verb, we distinguish it as the +Attribute Complement.+ [Footnote: _Subjective Complement_ may, if preferred, be used instead of Attribute Complement.] Connected attribute complements of the same verb form a +Compound Attribute Complement+.

Most grammarians call the adjective and the noun, when so used, the +Predicate Adjective+ and the +Predicate Noun+.

+DEFINITION.--The _Attribute Complement_ of a Sentence completes the predicate and belongs to the subject.+

a.n.a.lysis.

1. Slang is vulgar.

Slang | is vulgar ==========|================= |

+Explanation+.--The line standing for the attribute complement is, like the object line, a continuation of the predicate line; but notice that the line which separates the incomplete predicate from the complement slants toward the subject to show that the complement is an attribute of it.

+Oral a.n.a.lysis+.--_Vulgar_ is the attribute complement, completing the predicate and expressing a quality of slang; _is vulgar_ is the entire predicate.

2. The sea is fascinating and treacherous.

3. The mountains are grand, tranquil, and lovable.

4. The Saxon words in English are simple, homely, and substantial.

5. The French and the Latin words in English are elegant, dignified, and artificial. [Footnote: The a.s.sertion in this sentence is true only in the main.]

6. The ear is the ever-open gateway of the soul.

7. The verb is the life of the sentence.

8. Good-breeding is surface-Christianity.

9. A dainty plant is the ivy green.

+Explanation+.--The subject names that of which the speaker says something.

The terms in which he says it,--the predicate,--he, of course, a.s.sumes that the hearer already understands. Settle, then, which--plant or ivy--d.i.c.kens supposed the reader to know least about, and which, therefore, d.i.c.kens was telling him about; and you settle which word--_plant_ or _ivy_--is the subject. (Is it not the writer's poetical conception of "the green ivy"

that the reader is supposed not to possess?)

10. The highest outcome of culture is simplicity.

11. Stillness of person and steadiness of features are signal marks of good-breeding.

12. The north wind is full of courage, and puts the stamina of endurance into a man.

13. The west wind is hopeful, and has promise and adventure in it.

14. The east wind is peevishness and mental rheumatism and grumbling, and curls one up in the chimney-corner.

15. The south wind is full of longing and unrest and effeminate suggestions of luxurious ease.

LESSON 30.

ATTRIBUTE COMPLEMENTS--CONTINUED.

a.n.a.lysis.

1. He went out as mate and came back captain.

as --- '