Dear Comrade:

We have finished our study of the different parts of speech and are going to enter upon the work of sentence building. In the next few lessons we will gather up all that we have been studying in these lessons so far. This is a good time to give this work a thorough review. Perhaps there have been a number of things in the lessons which you have not thoroughly understood, or perhaps there have been some rules for which you have not seen the reason. Now as we begin to construct our sentences, all of this will fit into its place. We shall find the reason for many of the things which may not have seemed thoroughly clear to us.

There is a science in language as in everything else, and language, after all, is governed by the will of the people. This has seemed so self-evident to those who make a special study of the language and its development that they have given this power a special name. They speak of the "Genius of the Language" as though there was some spirit guiding and directing the developing power of language.

There is a spirit guiding and directing the developing power of language. That spirit is the creative genius of the people. It is the same spirit that would guide and direct all phases of life into full and free expression, if it were permitted to act. There being no private profit connected with the control of the language, the creative genius of the people has had fuller sway.

The educator sitting in his study cannot make arbitrary rules to change or conserve the use of words. The people themselves are the final arbiter in language. It is the current usage among the masses which puts the final stamp upon any word. Think what this same creative genius might do if it were set free in social life, in industrial life. It would work out those principles which were best fitted to the advance of the people themselves. But those who would profit by the enslavement of the people have put stumbling blocks,—laws, conventions, morals, customs,—in the way of the people.

Their creative genius does not have full sway or free sweep, but let us rejoice that in language, at least, we are free. And let us, as we realize the power of the people manifest in this phase of life, determine that the same power shall be set free to work out its will in all life. Some day the revolution will come. The people will be free to rule themselves, to express their will, not in the realms of words alone, but in their social and economic life; and as we become free within, dare to think for ourselves and to demand our own, we each become a torch of the revolution, a center of rebellion—one of those who make straight the path for the future.

Yours for the Revolution,

THE PEOPLE'S COLLEGE.

SENTENCE BUILDING

400. Every expression of a complete thought is a sentence. A sentence is the unit in language. Words are the material out of which we build our sentences, so we have been studying the various parts of speech that are used in sentence building. Now we are ready to use these parts of speech in the building of sentences. We have found that there are eight parts of speech, though the interjection, which is termed the eighth part of speech, is not in reality a part of the sentence; but is a complete, independent construction. So in your sentences all of the many hundreds of words which we use can be grouped into seven divisions; nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions and conjunctions.

401. You remember in our first lesson we found that there were just three kinds of sentences. The assertive, the interrogative and the imperative; or in other words, sentences which state a fact, ask a question or give a command. We also found that these three kinds of sentences could all be expressed in exclamatory form.

THREE KINDS OF SENTENCES

• Assertive. Makes a statement.
• Interrogative. Asks a question.
• Imperative. Gives a command.

• Assertive sentence; I remember the day.
• Interrogative sentence; Do you not remember the day?
• Imperative sentence; Remember the day.

In Exclamatory Form

• Assertive; Nonsense! I remember the day.
• Interrogative; What! Do you not remember the day?
• Imperative; Oh come! Remember the day.

ANALYSIS—SIMPLE SENTENCES

402. Now that we have finished the study of the various parts of speech, we are ready for sentence building and for sentence analysis. Sentence analysis is the breaking up of the sentence into its different parts in order to find out how and why it is thus put together. To analyze anything is to break it up or separate it into its different parts. We speak of analyzing a sentence when we pick out the subject and the predicate and their modifiers, because we thus unloosen them or separate them from one another.

These parts of the sentence are called the elements of the sentence. The elements of a sentence consist of the words, phrases and clauses used in forming the sentence.

403. Let us begin from the simplest beginning and build up our sentences, using the various parts of speech as we have studied them. Let us take the simplest form of sentence which we can consider. For example:

• Men work.

There are only three parts of speech which can be used to make a simple sentence in this manner, and these are, either the noun and the verb, or the pronoun and the verb. We might say instead of Men work, They work, and have a complete sentence.

In the sentence Men work, men is the subject and work is the predicate. The subject and the predicate are the two principal elements in a sentence. No sentence can be formed without these two parts and these two parts can express a thought without the help of other elements. Now we may begin to enlarge the subject by adding modifiers.

You remember we have found that a noun may be modified by an adjective. So we add the adjective busy, and we have:

• Busy men work.

Our simple subject is still the noun men, but the complete subject is the noun with its modifier, busy men. We may add other adjectives and say:

• The busy, industrious men with families work.

Here we have our simple subject men modified by the adjectives, the, busy and industrious, and also by the adjective phrase, with families. So the complete subject of the sentence now is, the busy, industrious men with families.

Our predicate is still the single verb work. Let us now enlarge the predicate. We have found that adverbs are used to modify verbs, and so we may say:

• The busy, industrious men with families work hard.
• The busy, industrious men with families work hard in the factory.

Our simple predicate, work is now enlarged. It is modified by the adverb, hard and the adverb phrase, in the factory. So our complete predicate is now, work hard in the factory.

404. These sentences with the simple subject and the simple predicate and their modifying words and phrases form simple sentences.

A simple sentence is one which expresses a single statement, question or command.

405. A simple sentence, therefore, will contain but one subject and one predicate. The subject may be a compound subject and the predicate may be a compound predicate, but still the sentence expresses a single thought. For example: The boys sing. This is a simple statement with a simple subject and a simple predicate. Then we may say: The boys sing and play. We still have a single statement, but a compound predicate, sing and play.

Now we may make a compound subject, and say, The boys and girls sing and play, but we have still a single statement, for both predicates are asserted of both subjects. So, The boys and girls sing and play, is a simple sentence.

If we say, The boys sing and the girls play, we have a compound sentence, composed of two simple sentences, The boys sing, The girls play. If we say, The boys sing while the girls play, we have a complex sentence formed of the simple sentence, The boys sing, and the dependent clause, while the girls play.

406. Now let us sum up our definitions:

Every sentence must contain two parts, a subject and a predicate.

The subject of a sentence is that part about which something is said.

The predicate is that part which asserts something of the subject.

The simple subject of a sentence is a noun, or the word used in place of a noun, without modifiers.

The simple predicate is the verb or verb phrase without its modifiers.

The complete subject of a sentence is the simple subject with all of its modifiers.

The complete predicate of a sentence is the simple predicate with all of its modifiers.

A simple sentence is one which expresses a single statement, question or command.

A complex sentence is one containing an independent clause and one or more dependent clauses.

A compound sentence is one containing two or more independent clauses.

A clause is a part of a sentence containing a subject and a predicate.

Exercise 1

In the following sentences the simple subject and the simple predicate are printed in italics. Find all of the modifiers of the subject and all of the modifiers of the predicate, and draw a single line under the complete subject and two lines under the complete predicate.

1. Beautiful pictures hang on the wall.
2. Those elm trees grow rapidly every year.
3. A terrible storm broke unexpectedly at sea.
4. The clear, crystal water runs swiftly to the sea.
5. The beautiful flowers fade quickly in the heat.
6. The happy, boisterous children play at school every day.
7. The sturdy oak in the forest stands bravely through every storm.
8. Their arching tops almost speak to us.
9. A cry of joy rings through the land.
10. The leaves of the trees flutter in the wind.
11. Great clouds of smoke float in the air.

Exercise 2

Note carefully the following simple sentences. Each of these groups of two words will suggest ideas and pictures to you. Lengthen each sentence by adding modifiers to the simple subject and to the simple predicate so as to make a fuller and more definite statement. For example: Ships sail. This is a simple subject and simple predicate. We add adjectives and an adjective phrase and adverbs and an adverb phrase as modifiers and we have, as follows:

• The stately ships in the bay sail proudly away to foreign shores.

• Snow melts.
• Winds blow.
• House stands.
• Boys run.
• Soldiers fight.
• Tides flow.
• Children play.
• Ships sail.
• Guns boom.
• Women endure.

ANOTHER ELEMENT

407. You will note that all of these verbs which we have used in these sentences have been complete verbs as hang, grow, runs, fade, etc. A complete verb, you will remember, is a verb that does not need an object or a complement. It is complete within itself. It may be modified by an adverb or an adverb phrase, but when you leave off these modifiers you still have complete sense.

In any of the sentences above you may cross out the adverb or the adverb phrase which modifies the verb and you will still have complete sentences. For example:

• Great clouds of smoke float in the air.

Here, the adverb phrase, in the air, may be omitted and still we have complete sense, thus:

• Great clouds of smoke float.

408. The incomplete verbs, however, require either an object or complement to complete their meaning.

Incomplete verbs are of two kinds; those that express action and those that express state or condition.

An incomplete verb that expresses action requires an object which is the receiver of the action expressed in the verb, so we have another element which enters into the simple sentence, when we use an incomplete verb. For example:

• The busy man makes shoes.

In order to complete the sentence, we must use an object with the incomplete verb makes. To say, The busy man makes, is not enough. We must have an object which is the receiver of the action expressed in the verb, makes. Verbs of action often have two objects. One object names the thing that receives the action and the other names the thing indirectly affected by the action. For example:

• The tailor made him a coat.

409. Coat is the direct object of the verb made. But we have another object in the pronoun him. We do not mean that the tailor made him, but that the tailor made him a coat. Coat is the direct object and him is the indirect object. The indirect object is always placed before the direct object. The indirect object may be used as the object of the preposition to or for. As for example, this sentence might be rewritten to read, The tailor made a coat for him. In this sentence, him is not the indirect object of the verb, but is the object of the preposition for.

410. The direct object of the verb always answers the question what? As for example, the tailor made what?—a coat. The indirect object of the verb names the person or thing to or for which the act is done,—the tailor made a coat for whom?—for him.

The direct and indirect object become a part of the complete predicate of the sentence. There may be other modifiers also, as adverbs or adverb phrases, and all of these taken together form the complete predicate in the sentences where you have used an incomplete verb. As for example:

• The tailor gladly made him a coat for the occasion.

The complete predicate is, gladly made him a coat for the occasion, formed of the verb made, the direct object, coat, the indirect object him, the adverb modifier, gladly, and the phrase modifier, for the occasion.

Exercise 3

In the following sentences, underscore the direct object with one line and the indirect object with two lines. The verb is in italics.

1. He gave her a book.
2. He wrote me a long letter.
3. Her father bought her a watch.
4. The nurse gave the patient his medicine.
5. The mother gave her daughter a present.
6. Give me time to think.
7. The clerk sold her a dress.
8. The teacher read the children a story.
9. The company furnishes the men food and shelter.
10. The man showed us his wounds.

Exercise 4

In the following sentences underscore the complete subject and the complete predicate. Notice especially the direct and the indirect objects of the incomplete verbs. The simple subjects and the direct objects are in italics.

1. A great many miles separate us from our friends.
2. The merry shouts of the children fill the air with music.
3. A gentle breeze brings us the perfume of the flowers.
4. A careless druggist gave the unfortunate man the wrong medicine.
5. His admiring friends gave him a beautiful ring.
6. Soldiers obey orders from their superiors.
7. This terrible war claims thousands of victims.
8. The power of hunger drives the unemployed to rebellion.
9. The workers of the world produce enough for all.
10. The retiring secretary showed us a letter from the president.
11. The old sea captain told them an interesting story of life at sea.
12. Labor produces all wealth.

COPULATIVE VERBS

411. We have another class of incomplete verbs which require a complement to complete their meaning. These are the copulative verbs. The number of copulative verbs is small. They are: all forms of the verb be; also, like, appear, look, feel, sound, smell, become, seem, etc. These verbs require a noun or an adjective or a phrase as a complement, to complete their meaning. They are really connective words serving to connect the noun or adjective or phrase used in the predicate with the noun which they modify. The noun or adjective or phrase used to complete the meaning of the copulative verb is called a predicate complement. For example:

• The man is a hero.

Here we have a noun, hero, used as a predicate complement after the copulative verb, is, to describe the noun man.

• The man is class-conscious.

In this sentence, we have an adjective, class-conscious, in the predicate to modify the subject, man. It is connected with the subject by the copulative verb is.

• The man is in earnest.

Here we have a phrase, in earnest, used in the predicate to modify the noun man, and connected with the subject by the copulative verb is.

412. So in the predicate with the copulative verbs—incomplete verbs which express state or condition—we may use a noun or an adjective or a phrase. A noun used as the predicate complement may have modifiers. It may be modified by one or more adjectives or adjective phrases. These adjectives in turn may be modified by adverbs. The complete predicate, then, is the copulative verb with its predicate complement and all its modifiers. For example:

• Grant was the most famous general of the Civil war.

In this sentence, Grant is the complete subject, was the most famous general of the Civil war is the complete predicate. Was is the copulative verb; general is the noun used as the predicate complement; the and famous are adjectives modifying general; most is an adverb modifying the adjective famous, and, of the Civil war is an adjective phrase modifying general, so our complete predicate is, was the most famous general of the Civil war.

When an adjective is used in the predicate complement it, too, may have modifiers and more than one adjective may be used. For example:

• The man is very brave and loyal to his class.

Here we have two adjectives used in the predicate complement, brave and loyal. Brave is modified by the adverb very, and loyal is modified by the adverb phrase, to his class. The complete predicate is, is very brave and loyal to his class.

When we use a phrase as a predicate complement, it, too, may have modifiers and more than one phrase may be used. For example:

• The man is in the fight and deeply in earnest.

In this sentence, two phrases are used in the predicate complement, in the fight and in earnest. The second phrase, in earnest is modified by the adverb deeply. The complete predicate is, is in the fight and deeply in earnest.

Exercise 5

Fill the blanks in the following sentences with a noun and its modifiers used as predicate complement. Name all of the parts of speech which you have used in the predicate complement as we have done in the sentences analyzed above:

• The men are loyal members of the Union.
• Slavery is.......
• Liberty will be.......
• War is.......
• The machine is.......
• The children were.......

Fill the blanks in the following sentences with one or more adjectives and their modifiers used in the predicate complement.

• The work is hard and destructive to the children.
• The history will be.......
• Labor has been.......
• Peace will be.......
• Poverty is.......

Fill the blanks in the following sentences with a phrase used in the predicate complement.

• His service was for his class.
• Socialism is.......
• The workers are.......
• The message shall be.......
• The government is.......
• The opportunity is.......

VERB PHRASES

413. Note that in most of the sentences which we have used, we have used the simple form of the verb, the form that is used to express past and present time. In expressing other time forms we use verb phrases. Note the summary given in section 145, which gives the different time forms of the verb.

414. Sometimes in using the verb phrase you will find that other words may separate the words forming the phrase. When you analyze your sentence this will not confuse you. You will easily be able to pick out the verb phrase. For example:

• I shall very soon find out the trouble.

Here the adverbs, very and soon, separate find from its auxiliary shall. The verb phrase is, shall find. The negative not very often separates the words forming a verb phrase. For example:

• I will not go.

In this sentence, will go is the verb phrase.

When we use the auxiliary verb do to express emphasis, and also the negative not, not comes between the auxiliary verb do, and the principal verb. For example:

• I do not obey, I think.

In this sentence, do obey is the verb phrase.

In interrogative sentences, the verb phrase is inverted and a part of the verb phrase is placed first and the subject after. For example:

• Will you go with us?

You is the subject of this interrogative sentence and will go is the verb phrase; but in order to ask the question, the order is inverted and part of the verb phrase placed first. In using interrogative adverbs in asking a question, the same inverted order is used. For example:

• When will this work be commenced?

In this sentence, work is the subject of the sentence and will be commenced is the verb phrase. If you should write this in assertive form, it would be:

• This work will be commenced when?

By paying close attention we can easily distinguish the verb phrases even when they are used in the inverted form or when they are separated by other parts of speech.

LET US SUM UP

415. The elements of a sentence are the words, phrases or clauses of which it is composed.

A simple sentence is one which contains a single statement, question or command.

A simple sentence contains only words and phrases. It does not contain dependent clauses. The elements of a simple sentence are:

The complete subject	{	The simple subject—the noun, or the word used in place of the noun— and all its modifiers.
The complete predicate	{	The simple predicate—the verb, and all its modifiers.

Exercise 6

In the following sentences, the simple subjects and the simple predicates of the principal clauses are printed in italics. Locate all the modifiers of the subjects and predicates, and determine the part of speech of each word in the sentence.

Sentences Nos. 1, 5, 6, 14, 15, 16, 18, 30, 31, 32 and 37 are simple sentences.

Sentences Nos. 2, 4, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 22, 26, 28, 33, 34 and 36 are complex.

Sentences Nos. 3, 10, 12, 21, 23, 24, 25, 29 and 35 are compound.

No. 8 is incomplete, having neither subject nor predicate.

No. 9 is incomplete, there being no predicate in the principal clause.

No. 20 is a simple sentence, with a complex sentence in parenthesis.

No. 27 consists of two dependent clauses.

In the complex sentences, draw a line under the dependent clauses.

• "Br—r—r—r—r—r—r—r—r—."

1. What are the machines saying, a hundred of them in one long room?
2. They must be talking to themselves, for I see no one else for them to talk to.
3. But yes, there is a boy's red head bending over one of them, and beyond I see a pale face fringed with brown curly locks.
4. There are only five boys in all, on the floor, half-hidden by the clattering machines, for one bright lad can manage twenty-five of them.
5. Each machine makes one cheap, stout sock in five minutes, without seam, complete from toe to ankle, cutting the thread at the end and beginning another of its own accord.
6. The boys have nothing to do but to clean and burnish and oil the steel rods and replace the spools of yarn.
7. But how rapidly and nervously they do it—the slower hands straining to accomplish as much as the fastest!
8. Working at high tension for ten hours a day in the close, greasy air and endless whirr——
9. Boys who ought to be out playing ball in the fields or taking a swim in the river this fine summer afternoon.
10. And in these good times, the machines go all night, and other shifts of boys are kept from their beds to watch them.
11. The young girls in the mending and finishing rooms downstairs are not so strong as the boys.
12. They have an unaccountable way of fainting and collapsing in the noise and smell, and then they are of no use for the rest of the day.
13. The kind stockholders have had to provide a room for collapsed girls and to employ a doctor, who finds it expedient not to understand this strange new disease.
14. Perhaps their children will be more stalwart in the next generation.
15. Yet this factory is one of the triumphs of our civilization.
16. With only twenty boys at a time at the machines in all the rooms, it produces five thousand dozen pairs of socks in twenty-four hours for the toilers of the land.
17. It would take an army of fifty thousand hand-knitters to do what these small boys perform.
    "Br—r—r—r—r—r—r—r—r—."
18. What are the machines saying?
19. They are saying, "We are hungry."
20. "We have eaten up the men and women. (There is no longer a market for men and women, they come too high)—
21. We have eaten up the men and women, and now we are devouring the boys and girls.
22. How good they taste as we suck the blood from their rounded cheeks and forms, and cast them aside sallow and thin and careworn, and then call for more.
23. Br—r—r—r—r—r—r—r! how good they taste; but they give us so few boys and girls to eat nowadays, although there are so many outside begging to come in—.
24. Only one boy to twenty of us, and we are nearly famished!
25. We eat those they give us and those outside will starve, and soon we shall be left almost alone in the world with the stockholders.
26. Br—r—r—r—r—r—r—r! What shall we do then for our food?" the machines chatter on.
27. "When we are piling up millions of socks a day for the toilers and then there are no toilers left to buy them and wear them.
28. Then perhaps we shall have to turn upon the kind stockholders and feast on them (how fat and tender and toothsome they will be!) until at last we alone remain, clattering and chattering in a desolate land," growled the machines.
29. While the boys went on anxiously, hurriedly rubbing and polishing, and the girls downstairs went on collapsing.
30. "Br—r—r—r—r—r—r—r!" growled the machines.
31. The devil has somehow got into the machines.
32. They came like the good gnomes and fairies of old, to be our willing slaves and make our lives easy.
33. Now that, by their help, one man can do the work of a score, why have we not plenty for all, with only enough work to keep us happy?
34. Who could have foreseen all the ills of our factory workers and of those who are displaced and cast aside by factory work?
35. The good wood and iron elves came to bless us all, but some of us have succeeded in bewitching them to our own ends and turning them against the rest of mankind.
36. We must break the sinister charm and win over the docile, tireless machines until they refuse to shut out a single human being from their benefits.
37. We must cast the devil out of the machines.—Ernest Crosby.