Frank Edgar Farley

“ A verb is a word which can assert something (usually an action) concerning a person, place, or thing.
Some verbs express state or condition rather than action.
A group of words that is used as a verb is called a verb-phrase.
Certain verbs, when used to make verb-phrases, are called auxiliary (that is, “aiding”) verbs, because they help other verbs to express action or state of some particular kind.
Is (in its various forms) and several other verbs may be used to frame sentences in which some word or words in the predicate describe or define the subject. ”

“ Noun-phrases often contain two substantives, the second of which is in apposition with the first. In such phrases, of is generally preferable to the possessive. Thus, we may say either “Tom the blacksmith’s daughter” or “the daughter of Tom the blacksmith”; but “the son of Mr. Hill the carpenter” is both neater and clearer than “Mr. Hill the carpenter’s son.” The use of ’s is also avoided with a very long phrase like “the owner of the house on the other side of the street.”
An objective may stand in apposition with a possessive, the latter being equivalent to of with an object. ”

“ The Anglo-Saxon or Old English Period comes down to about a century, or a century and a half, after the Norman Conquest. Its extreme limit may be set at 1200. The period from 1200 to 1500 is usually known as the Middle English Period. From 1500 to the present time may be regarded as the Modern Period, though within these boundaries English has changed enormously in pronunciation and in vocabulary, very largely in syntax, and to some extent in inflection. The almost complete abandonment of the subjunctive in common speech is one of the latest of these changes. ”

“ That I may avoid the imputation of throwing out, even privately, any loose, random imputations against the public conduct of a gentleman for whom I once entertained a very warm affection, and whose abilities I regard with the greatest admiration, I will put down, distinctly and articulately, some of the matters of objection which I feel to his late doctrines and proceedings, trusting that I shall be able to demonstrate to the friends whose good opinion I would still cultivate, that not levity, nor caprice, nor less defensible motives, but that very grave reasons, influence my judgment.—Burke. ”

“ An advanced grammar must aim to be serviceable in two ways. It should afford the means for continuous and systematic study of the subject or of any part of it; and it should also be useful for reference in connection with the study of composition and of literature. With this latter end in view, many notes and observations have been included, in smaller type, to show the nature and development of the various forms and constructions, and to point out differences between the usage of to-day and that which the student observes in Shakspere and other English classics. ”

“ Exhortations in the first person plural sometimes take the subjunctive in elevated or poetical style.
Hear we the king! Join we in a hymn of praise!
Exhortation is ordinarily expressed by let us followed by the infinitive without to.
Let us join hands. Let us have peace. Let’s camp here. Let is a verb in the imperative mood, us is its object, and the infinitive (join, have, camp) depends on let. ”

“ Substantives enable us to name or designate persons, places, or things, and verbs enable us to make statements about them. Both substantives and verbs, then, are absolutely necessary in framing sentences. Without a substantive, there can be no subject; without a verb, there can be no predicate: and both a subject and a predicate, as we have seen, are needed to make a sentence. ”

“ Chemistry is a useful science. Boston is the capital of Massachusetts. Jefferson became President. This bird is called a flamingo. Mr. Hale was appointed secretary. Albert has been chosen captain of the crew. You are a friend upon whom I can rely.
In most of the examples, the predicate nominative has one or more modifiers. In the first sentence, science is modified by the two adjectives a and useful; in the second, capital is modified by the adjective phrase of Massachusetts; in the last, friend is modified by the adjective clause upon whom I can rely. ”

“ The clauses are therefore said to be coördinate,—that is, of the same “order” or rank, and the sentence is called compound.
In the second example, on the contrary, the relation between the two clauses is indicated with precision. One clause (the train started) makes the main statement,—it expresses the chief fact. Hence it is called the main (or principal) clause. The other clause (when the bell rang) is added because the speaker wishes to modify the main verb (started) by defining the time of the action. This clause, then, is used as a part of speech. ”

“ The adjective force of the infinitive comes out clearly in “nothing to eat,” where to eat is practically synonymous with eatable.
In its adjective use, the present infinitive sometimes shows no distinction in voice, so that the active and the passive are interchangeable: as,—“a house to let” or “to be let”; “an axe to grind” or “to be ground.” In such expressions the active form is usually preferable.
322. The infinitive without to may be used as an adjective modifier after the direct object of see, hear, feel, and some other verbs of like meaning. ”

“ Verbs of choosing, calling, naming, making, and thinking may take two objects referring to the same person or thing.
The first of these is the direct object, and the second, which completes the sense of the predicate, is called a predicate objective.
We chose Oscar president. [Oscar is the direct object of chose; president is the predicate objective.] I call John my friend. They thought the man a coward. Make my house your home. The predicate objective is often called the complementary object or the objective attribute. It is classed as a complement. ”

“ One gains nothing by attempting to shut out the sprites of the weather. They come in at the keyhole; they peer through the dripping panes; they insinuate themselves through the crevices of the casement, or plump themselves down chimney astride of the raindrops.—Whittier. ”

“ Thou, thy, thine, thee, and ye are old forms still found in poetry and the solemn style.
In ordinary prose, you, your, and yours are the only forms used for the second person, whether singular or plural. Yet you, even when denoting a single person, always takes the verb-forms that go with plural subjects. ”

“ The hawk, having in spiral motion achieved the upper flight, fell like a thunderbolt on the raven, stunned him with the blow, clutched him in his talons, folded him in his wings, and, the hawk undermost, they tumbled down like a black ball, till within a short distance from the earth.—Trelawny. ”

“ A relative clause always asserts something. An indirect question, on the contrary, has an interrogative sense which may be seen by turning the question into the direct form.
The sailor who saved the child is a Portuguese. [The clause who saved the child is a relative clause, for it makes a distinct assertion about the sailor,—namely, that he saved the child. Who is a relative pronoun and sailor is its antecedent.] ”

“ Shattered, sinking, and returning are verb-forms which are in some respects similar to infinitives: for (1) they express action; (2) they have no subject to agree with, and hence have neither person nor number; and (3) one of them takes a direct object. They differ from infinitives, however, in that they resemble, not nouns, but adjectives, for they describe the substantive frigate to which they belong. ”

“ Many constructions, originally elliptical, have become established idioms in which no ellipsis is felt. In such cases it is usually better to take the sentence as it stands, and not to supply the omitted words.
Thus, in “He eats as if he were famished” the italicized words are properly treated as a subordinate clause modifying eats and introduced by the compound conjunction as if. Yet in strictness this construction is an ellipsis for “He eats as [he would eat] if he were famished.” ”

“ She sleeps the sleep of death. Note. Cognate means “kindred” or “related.” The cognate object repeats the idea of the verb, often with some modification, and may be classed as an adverbial modifier. Its difference from the direct object may be seen by contrasting “The blacksmith struck the anvil” with “The blacksmith struck a mighty blow” (cf. “struck mightily”) . For the pronoun it as cognate object, see § 120.
5. Adverbial Objective 109. A noun, or a phrase consisting of a noun and its modifiers, may be used adverbially. Such a noun is called an adverbial objective. ”

“ A substantive used for the purpose of addressing a person directly, and not connected with any verb, is called a vocative.
A vocative is in the nominative case, and is often called a nominative by direct address or a vocative nominative. ”

“ The double nature of the infinitive (as both verb and noun) and the participle (as both verb and adjective) almost justifies one in classifying each as a distinct part of speech (so as to make ten parts of speech instead of eight) . But it is more convenient to include them under the head of verbs, in accordance with the usual practice.
SIMPLE AND COMPLETE SUBJECT AND PREDICATE 34. Our survey of the eight parts of speech has shown, (1) that these have very different offices or functions in the sentence, and (2) that their functions are not of equal importance. ”

“ Observe that, in each instance, the object (song-birds, ship, maps, confectionery, wells) is replaced by a prepositional phrase when an article or other adjective precedes the verbal noun.
Note. In such expressions as “I went a-fishing,” a is a shortened form of the preposition on, and fishing is a verbal noun used as its object. When a is omitted we have “I went fishing,” “The house is building,” and the like, in which the word in -ing seems to be a participle, but is really the object of the omitted a (= on) . ”

“ If you are disposed to write—write; and if not, I shall forgive your silence, and you will not quarrel with mine. 20. Had not exercise been absolutely necessary for our well-being, nature would not have made the body so proper for it.—Addison. 21. Nothing will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must first be overcome.—Johnson. 22. If fashion gives the word, every distinction of beauty, complexion, or stature ceases.—Goldsmith.
2. Write twenty sentences, each containing a conditional clause. Tell whether each condition refers to present, past, or future time. ”

“ Thus railway conductor may be taken as a compound noun, or as a noun (conductor) limited by an adjective (railway) .
INFLECTION OF NOUNS 65. In studying the inflection of nouns and pronouns we have to consider gender, number, person, and case.
1. Gender is distinction according to sex.
2. Number is that property of substantives which shows whether they indicate one person or thing or more than one.
3. Person is that property of substantives which shows whether they designate (1) the speaker, (2) the person spoken to, or (3) the person or thing spoken of. ”

“ Prove has past tense and past participle proved. The past participle proven should be avoided.
Work has past tense and past participle worked. Wrought in the past tense and the past participle is archaic, but is also modern as an adjective (as in wrought iron) .
Some verbs have rare or archaic weak forms alongside of the strong forms; thus digged, shined, past tense and past participle of dig, shine; showed, past participle of show.
Ate and eaten are preferred to eat (pronounced ĕt) .
Quoth, “said,” is an old strong past tense. The compound bequeath has bequeathed only. ”

“ The elements which make up a sentence are: (1) the simple subject; (2) the simple predicate; (3) modifiers; (4) the complements,—direct object, predicate objective, predicate adjective, predicate nominative; and (5) the so-called independent elements,—the interjection, the vocative (or nominative of direct address) , the exclamatory nominative, and various parenthetical expressions (§ 501) .
449. The absolute essentials for a sentence are a substantive as subject and a verb as predicate (§ 35) . ”

“ If the sentence is compound, divide it into its independent clauses, and mention the simple subject (noun or pronoun) and the simple predicate (verb or verb-phrase) of each clause.
If the sentence is complex, divide it into the main (independent) and the subordinate clause, and tell whether the latter is used as an adjective or as an adverb.
1. The great gate slowly opened, and a steward and several serving-men appeared. 2. The victors set fire to the wigwams and the fort; the whole was soon in a blaze; many of the old men, the women, and the children perished in the flames. 3. ”

“ In accordance with their use in the sentence, words are divided into eight classes called parts of speech,—namely, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.
I. NOUNS 8. A noun is the name of a person, place, or thing.
Examples: Lincoln, William, Elizabeth, sister, engineer, Chicago, island, shelf, star, window, happiness, anger, sidewalk, courage, loss, song. II. PRONOUNS 9. A pronoun is a word used instead of a noun. It designates a person, place, or thing without naming it. ”

“ Here the complete subject (young Charles) consists of a noun (Charles) and an adjective (young) , which describes Charles. The complete predicate consists of a verb (swims) and an adverb (slowly) , which modifies swim by indicating how the action is performed. The subject noun (Charles) and the predicate verb (swims) are the chief words in the sentence, for neither could be omitted without destroying it. They form, so to speak, the frame or skeleton of the whole. Either of the two modifiers, the adjective or the adverb, or both, might be omitted, without destroying the sentence ”

“ Compare these sentences with those in § 99. We observe that the verbs (unlike those in § 99) admit no object, since their meaning is complete without the addition of any noun to denote the receiver or product of the action. “The man struck——” prompts the inquiry, “Struck whom?” But no such question is suggested by “The lion roared”; for “Roared what?” would be an absurdity.
102. The predicate nominative (§ 88, 2) must not be confused with the direct object. They resemble each other in two particulars: (1) both stand in the predicate, and (2) both complete the meaning of the verb. ”