Chapter LXXIV: Analysis of Sentences

=294.= We are ready now to analyze sentences containing adverbial clauses. In analyzing such sentences we should state as soon as we come to an adverbial clause, (1) what it denotes and (2) what part of speech its introductory word is. We should not analyze any dependent clause in detail, however, until we have completed our analysis of the principal clause.

MODEL.—_The lion fixed his great hind claws in the softer skin of the crocodile’s throat, and ripped it open as one would rip a glove._

This is a complex, declarative sentence.

The subject is _the lion_. The predicate is _fixed his great hind claws in the softer skin of the crocodile’s throat, and ripped it open as one would rip a glove_.

The predicate is compound, the two parts being joined by the conjunction _and_. The first predicate verb is _fixed_. It is completed by the direct object _his great hind claws_, and then modified by the prepositional phrase _in the softer skin of the crocodile’s throat_. The base word of the object is _claws_; it is modified by the adjectives _hind_ and _great_, and by the possessive pronoun _his_. The base word of the object of the preposition _in_ is _skin_. It is modified by the adjectives _softer_ and _the_, and by the prepositional phrase of _the crocodile’s throat_. The base word of the object of the preposition _of_ is _throat_; it is modified by the possessive noun _crocodile’s_, which is modified by the adjective _the_.

The second predicate verb is _ripped_. It is completed by the direct object _it_ and the objective complement _open_, and then modified by the adverbial clause of manner _as one would rip a glove_, which is introduced by the subordinate conjunction _as_.

The subject of this clause is the adjective pronoun _one_. The predicate is _would rip a glove_. The predicate verb is _would rip_. It is completed by the direct object _a glove_.

=Exercise.=—Analyze the following sentences. When you write the analysis of a sentence, use abbreviations, and instead of writing out a group of words in full, as is done in the model, write only the first and last words of the group with a dash between them. Be sure to underline all words quoted from the sentence.

1.

He looks the whole world in the face,
For he owes not any man.

2. The young lion was growing so fast that the milk of three
goats was scarcely sufficient for him.

3.

When the glorious sun is set,
When the grass with dew is wet,
Then you show your little light.

4. When Charles was studying shorthand, his mother read sermons
to him for an hour every morning, so that he might have
practice in the writing of long words.

5. If you save the pennies, the dollars will take care of
themselves.

6.

Where the purple violet grows,
Where the bubbling water flows,
Where the grass is fresh and fine,
Pretty cow, go there and dine.

7. Tommy, though he was getting a big boy, retained some of the
habits of a baby.

8. I was sitting on the top rail of the front fence, when a
party of gypsies went by on their way to a camp.

9.

The day is done, and the darkness
Falls from the wings of night,
As a feather is wafted downward
From an eagle in his flight.

10. Whenever you see many drones, you will find plenty of young
bees.

11. After the robins have pinched and shaken all the life
out of an earthworm, as Italian cooks pound all the spirit
out of a steak, and then gulped him, they stand up in honest
self-confidence, expand their red waistcoats with a virtuous
air, and outface you with their bold calm eyes.

12. Moti Guj, the elephant, never trampled the life out of his
master Deesa, for, after the beating was over, Deesa would
embrace his trunk, and call him his love and his life and the
liver of his soul, and give him some liquor.

13. If imitation be the sincerest form of flattery, the
mischief of the monkey should be regarded more leniently.

14. I liked dolls well enough, though my assortment was not a
choice one.

15. Her nails were so hard that they would yield to the
scissors only after a day’s soaking in hot soapsuds.

16.

His words were shed softer than leaves from the pine,
And they fell on Sir Launfal as snows on the brine.