CONCEPTIONS. 184. TABLE OF THE CONSTITUENT ELEMENTS OF THOUGHT AND SPEECH. 3. Notions of the Modes or Con-expressed by ditions of Attributes 1. Verbs. (Assertive or Dynamic Attributives.) 1. Of Notions to Notions. expressed by Notional Words. SYNTAX. 185. A sentence is a collection of words of such kinds, and arranged in such a manner, as to make some complete sense. By making some complete sense' is meant, that something is said about something. 186. It is plain, therefore, that every sentence must consist of two parts: 1st, that which stands for what we speak about; 2nd, that which is said about that of which we speak. 187. The word which stands for that about which we speak, is called the subject of the sentence. The subject of a sentence, which is a word, must not be confounded with the thing that is spoken about. 188. That part of a sentence which consists of what is said about the thing spoken of is called the Predicate. Thus in the sentence, Time flies,' time is called the subject, and flies the predicate. In the sentence, 'The rose is red,' rose is called the subject, and is red the predicate. 189. Whenever we speak of anything we make it a separate object of thought. A word that can stand for anything which we make a separate object of thought is called a substantive. 190. It follows therefore that the subject of a sentence must be a substantive, or what is equivalent to a substantive. 191. An adjective is not the name of anything. It does not stand for a separate object of thought. An adjective therefore can never be the subject of a sentence. 192. Substantives may be arranged in the following classes : 1. Nouns. 2. The Substantive Pronouns. 3. The Infinitive Mood. 4. Gerunds, or Verbal Nouns. 5. A Substantive Clause, that is, a clause, which in its relation to the rest of the sentence, has the force of a single substantive.. 193. The only part of speech by means of which we can make an assertion is the verb. The essential part of every predicate is a finite verb (i.e., a verb in some of its personal forms, not the infinitive mood or participle). 194. The subject and the verb are the cardinal points of every sentence. All other words in a sentence are attached directly or indirectly to one or other of these two. There cannot be a complete sentence without a subject and a verb, and a complete sentence may be formed containing nothing but a subject and a verb. 195. When a sentence contains only one subject and one finite verb, it is said to be a simple sentence. When a sentence contains not only a principal subject and its verb, but also other clauses which have subjects and verbs of their own, the sentence is said to be complex. The subject of a complex sentence may be an entire clause. 196. As both the subject and the verb of a sentence are spoken of the same thing (the subject naming or denoting it, and the verb making some assertion respecting it), they must agree with each other in those points which they have in common, otherwise there would be a mutual contradiction. The points which they have in common are number and person. Hence the rule that A verb must agree with its subject in number and person.' The verb is said to be in the predicative relation to its subject. 197. The subject of a predicative verb is put in the nominative case. 198. The verb is put in the plural number when it has for its subject two or more nouns in the singular coupled by the conjunction and; as, 'John and Thomas were walking together.' 199. A collective noun in the singular used as the subject of a sentence may be followed by a verb in the plural number. 200. If the subject of a sentence consists of two nouns or pronouns united by the conjunction and, the verb is put in the plural number; but the verb must be in the singular if the two subjects in the singular are connected by or or nor, because all such sentences are contracted. 201. When a verb has two or more subjects of different persons, it is put in the first person, if one of the subjects is of that person. If there is no subject of the first person, but one of the second person, then the verb must be considered as being of the second person. E.g., 'You and I shall never believe that.' You and your brother are both wrong.' 202. The subject and the predicate may be joined together in different ways. We may make an assertion, as. *John ran away.' We then get an affirmative sentence. We may ask a question, as, 'Did John run away?' We then get an interrogative sentence. Or we may express a command or wish, as, 'Run away.' We then get an imperative sentence. But the grammatical connection between the subject and the predicate is the same in all. 203. When a verb, participle, or gerund denotes an action which is directed towards some object, the word denoting that object is called the object of the verb, participle, or gerund. Thus in,The dog bites the boy,' boy is the object of bites. In, 'Seeing the tumult, I went out,' tumult is the object of seeing. In, 'Hating one's neighbour is forbidden by the Gospel,' neighbour is the object of the gerund hating. The object of a verb is the word or phrase which stands for the object of the action described by the verb. 204. When an infinitive mood is used after another verb, it is the object of the latter. 205. The objective relation is expressed by the grammatical rule, that 'transitive verbs, with their imperfect participles and gerunds, govern nouns and pronouns in the objective case.' In complex sentences an entire clause may be in the objective relation to a verb, participle, or gerund. 206. An adjective is always used to qualify some substantive expressed or understood. If an adjective is joined directly to a substantive, it is said to be in the attributive relation to the substantive, as, This black cat.' 'A virtuous woman.' 'A horseman, covered with dust, rode past.' If the adjective is joined to the substantive by means of any part of the verb be, or of such verbs as become, be called, seem, &c., it is said to be in the predicative relation to the substantive. 207. A noun or pronoun may also be used in this way in the predicative relation to another noun or pronoun, as, 'He is my father.' 'I am he.' 'That man is my uncle.' The verbs be, become, &c., take the same case after them as before them. 208. A noun may be used in the attributive relation to another noun or to a pronoun. It is then said to be in apposition to that noun or pronoun. As, William the Conqueror became king.' 'We saw Tom's sister Lucy.' 'He does not fear the lion, the king of beasts.' 209. An adjective cannot qualify any part of speech except a substantive. An adjective cannot be the subject or object of a verb, or be governed by a preposition. 210. When an adjective or noun is attached attributively to a substantive, it is called an attributive adjunct of the substantive. 211. An attributive adjunct may also consist of a noun or pronoun in the possessive case, as, 'John's book,' 'My father's house;' of a substantive preceded by a preposition, as, 'The inventor of this machine,' 'The trees in the garden,' 'A time to weep' (i.e., 'A time for weeping); or of an adjective clause, that is, a clause which, in its relation to the substantive, has the force of an adjective, as, I know the man who wrote this book.' 6 212. Pronouns must agree in gender, number, and person, with the nouns for which they stand, or to which they relate. N.B. The antecedent of a relative pronoun is sometimes omitted: as, 'Who steals my purse, steals trash.' 'The Son quickeneth whom he will.' Also, the antecedent of a relative is sometimes disguised in the form of a possessive adjective pronoun; as, Whose is the crime, the scandal too be theirs.' This must not be confounded with the cases in which a substantive pronoun in the possessive case is the antecedent; as, 'His praise is lost who stays at home.' 213. The relative does not agree with its antecedent in case. It has its own independent construction in its own clause. Even when its case is the same as that of the antecedent, it is not because it agrees with it (in the grammatical sense of that term). 214. Adverbs are properly used to qualify the meaning of verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. In such phrases as, 'The house here,' 'The church yonder,' an adverb is used in what seems to be an attributive relation to a noun. This is because a word or phrase denoting being has to be supplied in sense; 'The house here,' means, The house existing here,' or, which is here.' 215. An adverb attached to another word is called an adverbial adjunct to that word. 216. Besides simple adverbs, we may have the following sorts of adverbial adjuncts: 1. A substantive preceded by a preposition; as, ‘I heard of his arrival;' 'He killed the man with a sword.' The gerundial infinitive (§ 115) is included in this class of adverbial adjuncts; as,We eat to live;' 'I am sorry to hear you say so.' 2. A phrase consisting of a noun with some attributive adjunct attached to it, as, 'He arrived last night ;' |