Plain English Part 101

The simple sentence contains only words and phrases.

+451.+ +A complex sentence is one which contains a princ.i.p.al statement and one or more modifying statements.+

The statements made in addition to the princ.i.p.al statement are made in dependent clauses. The complex sentence has only one main clause and one or more dependent clauses.

+452.+ +A compound sentence is one which contains two or more independent clauses.+

These compound sentences may contain any number of dependent clauses but they must always have at least two independent or princ.i.p.al clauses.

These princ.i.p.al clauses are always connected by co-ordinate conjunctions, for the princ.i.p.al clauses in a compound sentence are always of equal rank or order.

Exercise 1

Review the lesson on co-ordinate conjunctions and notice which conjunctions are used to unite princ.i.p.al clauses into single sentences.

Use these co-ordinate conjunctions to unite the following pairs of simple sentences into compound sentences. For example:

The sun rises _and_ the day dawns.

The men work _but_ the boys play.

The sun rises. The day dawns.

He studies diligently. He learns rapidly.

He came early. He could not stay.

The weather is cold. The plants are not growing.

The men work. The boys play.

The day is cold. The wind is blowing.

Take the above sentences and use subordinate instead of co-ordinate conjunctions, and make complex sentences instead of compound out of each pair of simple sentences. For example:

_When_ the sun rises, the day dawns.

The men work _while_ the boys play.

KINDS OF COMPOUND SENTENCES

+453.+ +Compound sentences may be made up of two simple sentences.+

Rewrite the following compound sentences, making of each sentence two simple sentences:

The birds are singing and spring is here.

He believes in war but his brother is against it.

We must arouse ourselves or we shall be involved.

He will not study nor will he allow any one else to study.

+454.+ +A compound sentence may be made up of a simple sentence and a complex sentence, joined by a co-ordinate conjunction.+ For example:

John goes to school, but Mary stays at home in order that she may help her mother.

This compound sentence is made up of the simple sentence, _John goes to school_, and the complex sentence, _Mary stays at home in order that she may help her mother_.

+455.+ +Both parts of the compound sentence may be complex; that is, both princ.i.p.al clauses in a compound sentence may contain dependent clauses.+ For example:

John goes to school where his brother goes, but Mary stays at home in order that she may help her mother.

This compound sentence is made up of two complex sentences. The sentence, _John goes to school where his brother goes_, is complex because it contains the dependent clause, _where his brother goes_; the sentence, _Mary stays at home in order that she may help her mother_, is complex because it contains the dependent clause, _in order that she may help her mother_.

Exercise 2

Read carefully the following sentences, determine which are simple sentences, which are complex and which are compound.

1. When the state is corrupt, then the laws are most multiplied.

2. To teach the alphabet is to inaugurate revolution.

3. Freedom degenerates unless it has to struggle in its own defense.

4. The destroyers have always been honored.

5. Liberty of thought is a mockery if liberty of speech is denied.

6. Where slavery is, there liberty cannot be; and where liberty is, there slavery cannot be.

7. All our greatness was born of liberty and we cannot strangle the mother without destroying her children.

8. In the twentieth century, war will be dead, but man will live.

9. The abuse of free speech dies in a day, but the denial entombs the hope of the race.

SENTENCE a.n.a.lYSIS

+456.+ There is no more important part of the study of English than the a.n.a.lysis of sentences. The very best result that can come to one from the study of grammar is the logical habit of mind. The effort to a.n.a.lyze a difficult pa.s.sage gives us a fuller appreciation of its meaning. This cultivates in us accuracy, both of thought and of expression. So, spend as much time as you can on the a.n.a.lysis of sentences.

The subject and the predicate are the very body of the sentence, upon which all the rest of the sentence is hung. The other parts of the sentence are but the drapery and the garments which clothe the body of the sentence. Hence, the most important thing in sentence a.n.a.lysis is to be able to discover the _subject_ and _predicate_.

In the expression of a thought, there are always two important essentials, that about which something is said,--which const.i.tutes the subject,--and that which is said about the subject, which const.i.tutes the predicate.

There may be a number of modifying words, phrases or subordinate clauses, but there is always a main clause which contains a simple subject and a simple predicate. Find these first, and you can then fit the modifying words and phrases and clauses into their proper places.

+457.+ Let us take for study and a.n.a.lysis the following paragraph from Jack London:

Man's efficiency for food-getting and shelter-getting has not diminished since the day of the cave-man. It has increased a thousand-fold. Wonderful artifices and marvelous inventions have been made. Why then do millions of modern men live more miserably than the cave-man lived?

Let us take the first sentence out of this paragraph and a.n.a.lyze it.

_Man's efficiency for food-getting and shelter-getting has not diminished since the day of the cave-man._ What is the main word in this sentence--the word about which the entire statement is made? Clearly it is the word _efficiency_. _Efficiency_ is the noun which is the subject of the sentence.

Then you might ask _what sort of_ efficiency and _whose_ efficiency?

What sort of efficiency is explained by the adjective phrase, _for food-getting and shelter-getting_. Whose efficiency is explained by the possessive noun, _man's_. Therefore, the complete subject is, _Man's efficiency for food-getting and shelter-getting_.

Now we are ready to consider the predicate. What has efficiency done? It _has not diminished_. _Has diminished_ is the verb phrase, which is the simple predicate of this sentence. It is modified by the adverb _not_, so we have _Man's efficiency has not diminished_. Then we might ask, _when_ has it not diminished? And this is answered by the phrase, _since the day of the cave-man_. So we have our complete predicate, _Has not diminished since the day of the cave-man_.

In this way we can a.n.a.lyze or break up into its different parts, every sentence. First find the subject, then ask what that subject does, and the answer will be the predicate or verb. Do not confuse the verb with the words which state _how_ or _why_ the action is performed, and do not confuse the verb with the _object_ of the action. The verb simply a.s.serts the action. The other words will add the additional information as to how or why or when or upon whom the action was performed.