ORDER OF WORDS IN A SENTENCE.

77. Which usually comes first in a sentence, the subject or the predicate? Prove your answer by your reading lesson. Do complements usually follow or precede the verbs? Give examples. Do the word modifiers of a noun generally precede or follow the word modified? Is this true of the phrase modifiers? Find examples to show that your answers are correct. Write the answers to the questions in this paragraph in complete sentences.

Show in what respect each of the following sentences varies from the usual order. Observe the difference in the impression left in your mind. Re-write each sentence, changing the order to the usual form.

(a) In union is strength.

(b) Ideals we do not make. We discover them.

(c) Slowly and quietly the great gray clouds creep up over the

night sky.

(d) Silent and soft and slow

Descends the snow.

(e) All around the happy village

Stood the maize fields green and shining.

Is it not true in each case that the words placed first attract attention and so are emphatic?

If all sentences should be arranged in the same order, composition would become monotonous. To introduce variety into composition, and to render a special word emphatic, writers change from the usual order. A verb, adjective, adverb, complement, or modifier placed first in a sentence receives especial emphasis. Any part of a sentence may be put out of its natural order to give the composition variety, and especially to give emphasis to the transposed part.

EXERCISE.

78. Analyze the five sentences above and the sentences below. There is no new element in them. Be very careful to know what each sentence means before you begin with the analysis.

1. From the dull ground, the violet gathers up her tender blue. 2. A prisoner Robert remained for twenty-eight years.

3.

A mighty man is he,

With large and sinewy hands.

4. A rare old plant is the ivy green. 5. With his hard, rough hand,

He wipes a tear out of his eyes. 6. A primrose by the river's brim

A yellow primrose was to him.

7. Three years she grew in sun and shower.

8. Sweet is the breath of morn.

9. In a small chamber, friendless and unseen,

Toiled o'er his types one poor unlearned young man.

10. Him have I offended.

11. Shorter and shorter now the twilight clips the days. 12. Old homesteads I love, in their clusters of trees.

79. The following sentences show a common way of varying the usual order of words in a sentence.

(a) A window-box of beautiful geraniums is here by me. (b) There is a bank of beautiful geraniums here by me. (c) No day is without its innocent hope.

(d) There is no day without its innocent hope.

(e) Something forever comes between us and happiness.

(f) There comes forever something between us and happiness.

(g) Shepherds were keeping watch by night.

(h) There were shepherds keeping watch by night.

(i) Men of honor and courage are still in the world.

(j) There are still men of honor and courage in the world.

What word is used to introduce the sentence in (b), (d), (f), (h), and (j), when the usual order is changed? Though this word is sometimes used as an adverb of place, thoughtful study of the meaning will show that it is not so used in the sentences given. For example, in the first sentence, here is certainly an adverb of place; and both here and there could not be used in the same sentence to denote the same place. In this, as in the other sentences given above, "there" is simply an introductory word.

What three elements are necessary in every sentence? What is the subject of (j)? What does are mean in (j)? Is this verb a copula

or a copula-attribute? Is it a copulative or an attributive verb? Whenever": "is means "exists," it forms the copula-attribute of the sentence.

Show that the two sentences in each group have the same subjects and the same predicates. Tell just what changes have been made in the natural order when the introductory word there is used. Give other examples.

Another form of expression is shown in the sentences below.

(a) To have friends at court is good.
(b) It is good to have friends at court.

(c) To get a joke well into a Scotch understanding requires a surgical operation.

(d) It requires a surgical operation to get a joke well into a Scotch understanding.

(e) To be conscious of no faults is the greatest of faults.

(f) It is the greatest of faults to be conscious of no faults.

(g) To catch a thief needs a thief.

(h) It needs a thief to catch a thief.

(i) That every man's work is born into this world with him is true. (j) It is true that every man's work is born into this world with

him.

What is the complete subject of (a) ? (c) ? (e) ? (g)? (i) ?

When the real subject of a sentence is a group of words denoting a single idea, it seldom stands at the beginning of a sentence. The predicate often comes before the real subject, with the pronoun “it” used as another subject in apposition with the real subject. For example, in (b), It and the phrase to have friends at court mean the same; they name the same subject of thought; they are in apposition.

Can you think why the word "it" in such sentences is called an anticipatory subject? The group of words which it anticipates is called the real subject. What is the real subject of (b) ? (d) ? (f) ? (h) ? (j) ?

EXERCISE.

80. Analyze the following sentences. separate the real subject into its parts.

of each sentence is easy to analyze.

Do not try to

The predicate

MODEL.

because ...

"It is honorable to work with the hands" is a sentence

The complete subject is "It"

"to work with the hands."

The complete predicate is "is honorable," composed of a copula and an attribute complement. The sentence is, therefore, of the first type.

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"It" is the anticipatory subject, in apposition with the real subject, "to work with the hands."

1. It is a grand thing to make something beautiful.

2. There is no food for the soul but truth.

3. It was morning on hill and stream and tree.

4. There's a star in the sky.

5. It is a great thing to be beloved by one's country.

6. There is no doubt on that score.

7. There was little conversation.

8. There was a little chapel cut in the very heart of the mountains.

9. It takes a long time to bring excellence to maturity.

CLASSES OF SENTENCES.

81. (a) Truth is eternal.

(b) Art is long.

(c) Time is fleeting.

(d) Rome was not built in a day.

(e) Are we so soon forgot?

(f) How soon are we forgot?

(g) Who loves not power?

(h) What find I here?

(i) To what will avarice bring us?

(j) What manner of man is this?

(k) What have they named the new ship?

(1) Be a hero in the strife.

(m) Act well your part.

(n) Be charitable with others.

(0) Be strict with thyself.

Which of the above sentences are used to declare that something is, or is not, true? Which are used to ask questions? Which are used to give commands?

Sentences are classified according to their use, as declarative, interrogative, or imperative.

What element of a declarative sentence usually stands first? Is this usually true of interrogative sentences? Is the subject first in (e) ? in (f)? in (g) ? in (h)? in (i) ? in (j) ? in (k)? What may stand first in an interrogative sentence? What element stands first in the imperative sentences? What element is omitted in the imperative sentences?

A declarative sentence usually begins with the subject. In an interrogative sentence, that element stands first about which the question is asked. If the question is about the copula, the copula is first; as in (e). If it is about the subject, the subject stands first. The same principle holds true with the other elements of a sentence.

In an imperative sentence, the verb, the word that gives the command, stands first. In all kinds of sentences, then, the important word in the sentence stands at the beginning. The grammatical use of the interrogative word in a sentence may be made clear by substituting the word which answers the question.

In the interrogative sentence, "Who is he?" "Who" is not, as it might seem to be, the subject. For if we substitute the word which answers the question, the sentence reads, "The King is he," or, as we usually say, "He is the King." King" is the attribute; and so “Who” is an attribute complement in the question, “Who is he?”

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Since we give commands to the person spoken to, there is no need of always saying "you." So the subject of an