Chapter XCIV: Analysis of Sentences

=366.= A participial phrase is analyzed very much like an infinitive phrase. First the participle should be given as the base, then its complement and modifiers.

MODEL.—_Behind each islet of tall reeds is a fishing boat held fast by two poles stuck in the bottom of the river._

This is a simple, declarative sentence. The subject is _a fishing boat held fast by two poles stuck in the bottom of the river_. The predicate is _is behind each islet of tall reeds_.

The base word of the subject is _boat_. It is modified by the infinitive _fishing_, the article _a_, and the participial phrase _held fast by two poles stuck in the bottom of the river_.

The base word of this phrase is the participle _held_. It is modified by the adverb _fast_ and by the prepositional phrase _by two poles stuck in the bottom of the river_. The base word of the object of the preposition _by_ is the noun _poles_. It is modified by the adjective _two_ and the participial phrase _stuck in the bottom of the river_. The base word of this phrase is the participle _stuck_. It is modified by the prepositional phrase _in the bottom of the river_, etc.

=367.= A sentence containing an absolute phrase should be analyzed as follows:—

MODEL.—_Amy having gone to Vermont, the lady was lonely._

This is a simple, declarative sentence containing the absolute phrase _Amy having gone to Vermont_, which is used instead of the adverbial clause of cause, _since Amy had gone to Vermont_.

The subject is _the lady_. The predicate is _was lonely_, etc.

The absolute phrase consists of the noun _Amy_ and the participial phrase _having gone to Vermont_, which have the logical relation of subject and predicate. The base of the participial phrase is the participle _having gone_, etc.

=Exercise.=—Analyze the following sentences:—

1. In one store I would find a catbird moping on a high shelf
or in a dark back room; in another a bluebird scared half to
death, and dumb in the midst of squawking parrots and singing
canaries.

2. In that first battle, Jim ran barking after the very first
shell that came screaming over our heads.

3. The island is supplied with the best water imaginable, small
streams leaping down from the sides of the hills and running
through every valley.

4. The biting cold wind that shrunk our faces and pinched our
noses blue only brought a wild-rose bloom to mother’s delicate
cheeks.

5. The doings of the people thus suddenly become his neighbors,
Bobby studied with all a bird’s curiosity.

6. Coming out into the road on my way home again, I fell in
with an old friend.

7. The soldiers were miserably clad, and asked whether we had
shoes to sell.

8. It is difficult to describe the left-half’s agony as he
picked himself up and went limping back to his place.

9. At daylight, directly ahead of us was the island of Juan
Fernandez, rising like a deep blue cloud out of the sea.

10. Long ears twinkling, round eyes softly shining, the rabbits
leaped lightly hither and thither, pausing every now and then
to touch each other with their sensitive noses, or to pound on
the snow with their strong hind legs in mock challenge.

11. In long, graceful leaps, barely touching the fence, the fox
went careering up the hill as fleet as the wind.

12. Joel’s long legs began to ache, and seemed stiffening at
the thighs and knees.

13. After their supper of milk and oatmeal porridge, the
children sat down, waiting and watching, and fancying they
heard sounds in the hills.

14. Hearing loud cries of distress coming from the lawn, the
gardener rushed across and found the crow lying on his back,
his claw tightly gripping the end of one of the wings of a
large hawk.

15. We soon found the vireo’s nest, suspended within the angle
of two horizontal twigs, and trimmed outwardly with some kind
of white silky substance.

16. He lay like a warrior taking his rest.

17. For four miles the pilot must race along a squirming,
twisting, plunging thread of water, that leaps ahead like a
greyhound, and changes its crookedness somewhat from day to day
with wind and tide.

18. For centuries the trees had developed strength to resist
the winds when they were clad in all their leaves, or to carry
the load of those leaves weighted with raindrops, or to bear
the winter snows; but they had no strength that would enable
them to be coated thick with ice and then wrenched by angry
blasts.

19. The servants having gone to their cabins, the great house
was filled with the quiet of a Sunday afternoon.