Kitabı oku: «Plain English», sayfa 28
KINDS OF DEPENDENT CLAUSES
444. Dependent clauses are of three kinds. They may be used either as nouns, adjectives or adverbs, and so are called noun clauses, adjective clauses or adverb clauses.
NOUN CLAUSES
445. Noun clauses are those which are used in place of a noun. They may be used in any way in which a noun may be used, except as a possessive.
1. The noun clause may be used as the subject of the sentence. For example:
That he is innocent is admitted by all.
The clause, that he is innocent is used as a noun, the subject of the sentence.
2. The noun clause may be used as the object of a verb, thus:
I admit that I cannot understand your argument.
The clause, that I cannot understand your argument, is in this sentence the object of the verb admit.
3. The noun clause may be used as the predicate complement, thus:
The fact is that this policy will never win.
The clause, that this policy will never win, is here used in the predicate with the copulative verb is.
4. The noun clause may also be used in apposition, explaining the noun with which it is used, thus:
The motion, that the question should be reconsidered, was carried.
That the question should be reconsidered, is here a noun clause, used in apposition with the noun motion, and explains the meaning of the noun.
5. The noun clause may also be used as the object of a preposition, thus:
I now refer to what he claims.
The noun clause, what he claims, is here the object of the preposition, to.
Exercise 2
In the following sentences the noun clauses are printed in italics. Determine whether they are used as the subject, or object of the verb, as predicate complement, in apposition, or as the object of a preposition.
1. The fact is that I was not listening.
2. Whatever King Midas looked upon turned to gold.
3. He acknowledged what we had suspected.
4. We will never know what the real situation was.
5. The fact that the wage is insufficient can be easily proved.
6. He replied to what had been asked.
7. The claim was that he had made a speech inciting to riot.
8. The law that labor unions are in restraint of trade was upheld.
9. That we cannot win by compromise is readily apparent.
10. Labor demands that it shall have its full product.
11. Whoever controls education controls the future.
12. He came to where the militia was in camp.
Exercise 3
Write sentences containing noun clauses used:
1. As the subject of a verb.
2. As the object of a verb.
3. As a predicate complement.
4. In apposition.
5. As the object of a preposition.
ADJECTIVE CLAUSES
446. A dependent clause in a complex sentence may also be an adjective clause.
An adjective clause is a clause used as an adjective, and, hence, always modifies a noun or some word used as a noun, such as a pronoun or a participle. In Lesson 22, we studied adjective clauses and found that they could be introduced by the relative pronouns, who, which, that and as, and also by conjunctions such as, when, where, whither, whence, etc. An adjective clause may modify any noun or any word used as a noun in the sentence.
1. An adjective clause may modify the subject, thus:
Men who have become class-conscious do not make good soldiers.
In this sentence the clause, who have become class-conscious, modifies the noun men, and is introduced by the relative pronoun who.
2. An adjective clause may modify the noun which is the object of the verb, as:
The men supported the party which fought for their rights.
Here the clause, which fought for their rights, is an adjective clause introduced by the pronoun which, and it modifies the noun party, which is the object of the verb supported.
3. An adjective clause may also be used to modify the noun which is used in the predicate complement, as:
That was the book which I enjoyed.
In this sentence the clause, which I enjoyed, is an adjective clause modifying the noun book, which is used as the predicate complement with the copulative verb was.
4. An adjective clause may also be used to modify the noun which is used as the object of a preposition, as:
He arrived on the train which was late.
Here the adjective clause, which was late, modifies the noun train, which is the object of the preposition on.
Sometimes it is a little difficult to discover these adjective clauses, for frequently the connecting word is omitted, as for example:
I could not find the man I wanted.
In this sentence, the pronoun whom is omitted; the complete sentence would read:
I could not find the man whom I wanted.
Whom I wanted is an adjective clause modifying the noun man.
Exercise 4
In the following sentences the relative pronouns and the conjunctions introducing adjective clauses are omitted. Rewrite the sentences using the proper relative pronouns and conjunctions. The adjective clauses are in italics.
1. The people you are seeking are not here.
2. I have read the book you brought.
3. The articles you mentioned are not listed.
4. I will go to the place you say.
5. This is a book you should read.
6. Those are ideals the people will readily grasp.
7. We make Gods of the things we fear.
8. I listened to every word he said.
9. I should love the cause you love.
10. The things the people demand are just and right.
Exercise 5
In the following sentences the adjective clauses are all printed in italics. Determine whether they modify the subject or the object, the predicate complement or the object of the preposition.
1. In that moment when he saw the light he joined our cause.
2. Other men are lenses through which we read our own minds.
3. This is perhaps the reason why we are unable to agree.
4. He that loveth maketh his own the grandeur that he loves.
5. The other terror that scares us from self-trust is our consistency.
6. There is a popular fable of a sot who was picked up dead drunk in the street, carried to the Duke's house, washed and dressed and laid in the Duke's bed, and, on his waking, treated with all ceremony like a duke and assured that he had been insane.
7. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness.
8. Superstition, who is the mother of fear and faith, still rules many people.
9. We are looking for the time when the useful shall be the honorable.
10. He who enslaves another cannot be free.
11. He who attacks the right assaults himself.
12. The force that is in every atom and every star, in everything that grows and thinks, that hopes and suffers, is the only possible God.
13. He who adds to the sum of human misery is a blasphemer.
14. The grandest ambition that can enter the soul is the desire to know the truth.
ADVERB CLAUSES
447. The third kind of clause which we may use in a complex sentence is the adverb clause.
An adverb clause is a clause which takes the place of an adverb. It may modify a verb, an adjective, or an adverb. We studied adverb clauses in lesson 21 and we found eight classes of adverb clauses, expressing time, place, cause or reason, manner, comparison, condition, purpose and result. For example:
1. Adverb clause of time: No man is truly free until all are free.
2. Adverb clause of place: We must live where we can find work.
3. Adverb clause expressing cause or reason: We lost the strike because the men were not class-conscious.
4. Adverb clause of manner: We must work as if the result depended entirely upon us.
5. Adverb clause of comparison: The working class must become more class-conscious than it is today.
6. Adverb clause of condition: We will continue to be exploited if we do not demand our rights.
7. Adverb clause expressing purpose: We must read the labor press in order that we may know the truth concerning conditions.
8. Adverb clause expressing result: The battle raged so furiously that thousands were slain.
ANALYZING COMPLEX SENTENCES
448. To analyze a complex sentence; that is, to break it up into its different parts—treat the sentence first as a whole, then find the simple subject and the simple predicate. If a noun clause is the subject, treat it first as a noun. Treat adjective clauses as adjectives modifying certain words and the adverb clauses as adverbs modifying certain words.
In other words, analyze the sentence first as a simple sentence with dependent clauses considered as modifying words; then analyze each dependent clause as though it were a simple sentence. Make an outline like the following and use it in your analysis of the sentence. Let us take this sentence and analyze it:
Conscious solidarity in the ranks would give the working class of the world, now, in our day, the freedom which they seek.
Simple subject, solidarity.
Simple predicate, would give.
Modifiers of the subject:
Adjective, conscious.
Adjective phrase, in the ranks.
Adjective clause, (none).
Complete subject, Conscious solidarity in the ranks.
Modifiers of the predicate:
Adverb, now.
Adverb phrase, in our day.
Adverb clause, (none).
Direct object, freedom.
Modifiers of direct object:
Adjective, the.
Adjective phrase, (none).
Adjective clause, which they seek,
Indirect object, class.
Modifiers of indirect object:
Adjectives, the, working.
Adjective phrase, of the world.
Adjective clause, (none).
Complete predicate, would give the working class of the world, now, in our day, the freedom which they seek.
Analyze the dependent clause, which they seek, just as a principal clause is analyzed. They is the simple subject, seek is the simple predicate, which is the direct object. The complete predicate is seek which.
449. Notice that the first two sentences given in the exercise below are imperative sentences,—the subject, the pronoun you, being omitted so that the entire sentence is the complete predicate. As for example: Take the place which belongs to you. The omitted subject is the pronoun you. Take the place which belongs to you is the complete predicate, made up of the simple predicate take; its object, the noun place; the adjective the, and the adjective clause, which belongs to you, both of which modify the noun place.
Exercise 6
Using the outline given above, analyze the following complex sentences.
1. Take the place which belongs to you.
2. Let us believe that brave deeds will never die.
3. The orator knows that the greatest ideas should be expressed in the simplest words.
4. Gratitude is the fairest flower that sheds its perfume in the human heart.
5. Children should be taught that it is their duty to think for themselves.
6. We will be slaves as long as we are ignorant.
7. We must teach our fellow men that honor comes from within.
8. Cause and effect cannot be severed for the effect already blooms in the cause.
9. Men measure their esteem of each other by what each has.
10. Our esteem should be measured by what each is.
11. What I must do is all that concerns me.
12. The great man is he who, in the midst of the crowd, keeps the independence of solitude.
13. The only right is what is after my constitution.
14. Whoso would be a man must be a non-conformist.
15. They who build on ideas build for eternity.
Exercise 7
We have studied all the parts of speech, and now our work is to combine these parts for the expression of thought. It will be good practice and very helpful to us to mark these different parts of speech in our reading. This helps us to grow familiar with their use. It also helps us to add words to our vocabulary and to learn how to use them correctly. In the following quotation, mark underneath each word, the name of every part of speech. Use n. for noun, v. for verb, pro. for pronoun, adv. for adverb, adj. for adjective, p. for preposition and c. for conjunction. Write v. p. under the verb phrases. For example:
Mark in this manner every part of speech in the following quotation:
The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.
Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guildmaster and journeyman,—in a word, oppressor and oppressed,—stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary re-constitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.
In the earlier epochs of history, we find almost everywhere a complicated arrangement of society into various orders, a manifold gradation of social rank. In ancient Rome we have patricians, knights, plebeians, slaves; in the middle ages, feudal lords, vassals, guild-masters, journeymen, apprentices, serfs; in almost all of these classes, again, subordinate gradations.
The modern bourgeois society, that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society, has not done away with class antagonisms. It has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones. —Communist Manifesto.
Exercise 8
In the following quotation, mark all of the clauses and determine whether they are dependent or independent clauses. If they are dependent clauses, determine whether they are noun, adjective or adverb clauses. Mark all the sentences and tell whether they are simple or complex.
I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me, and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of war, corporations have been enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places will follow. The money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people, until all the wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of our country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my forebodings may be groundless. Monarchy itself is sometimes hinted at as a refuge from the power of the people. In my present position I could scarcely be justified were I to omit to raise a warning voice against the approach of a returning despotism.... It is assumed that labor is available only in connection with capital; that nobody labors unless somebody else, owning capital, somehow, by the use of it, induces him to labor. Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could not have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. I bid the laboring people beware of surrendering the power which they possess, and which, if surrendered, will surely be used to shut the door of advancement for such as they, and fix new disabilities and burdens upon them until all of liberty shall be lost.
In the early days of our race the Almighty said to the first of mankind, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread," and since then, if we except the light and air of Heaven, no good thing has been or can be enjoyed by us without first having cost labor. And inasmuch as most good things have been produced by labor, it follows that all such things belong of right to those whose labor has produced them. But it has so happened, in all ages of the world, that some have labored and others have without labor enjoyed a large portion of the fruits. This is wrong, and should not continue. To secure to each laborer the whole product of his labor, as nearly as possible, is a worthy object of any government.
It seems strange that any man should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing bread from the sweat of other men's faces.
This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. —Lincoln.
Exercise 9
In the following poem find all of the assertive, interrogative and imperative sentences. Mark all of the simple sentences and all of the complex sentences. Mark all of the dependent clauses and determine whether each is used as a noun, adjective or adverb clause. The verbs and the verb phrases are in italics.
Shall you complain who feed the world,
Who clothe the world,
Who house the world?
Shall you complain who are the world,
Of what the world may do?
As from this hour you are the power,
The world must follow you.
The world's life hangs on your right hand,
Your strong right hand,
Your skilled right hand;
You hold the whole world in your hand;
See to it what you do!
For dark or light or wrong or right,
The world is made by you.
Then rise as you never rose before,
Nor hoped before,
Nor dared before;
And show as never was shown before
The power that lies in you.
Stand all as one; see justice done;
Believe and dare and do.
—Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
SPELLING
LESSON 26
In our last lesson we had examples of words in which the s had the soft sound, and also of words in which the s had the sound of z. In some English words, it is difficult to determine which sound to use. There are a number of words in English beginning with dis. In a few of the words, the s has the sound of z, and in other words it has the sound of s. There are only a few words which are pronounced with the diz sound. Discern, dismal and dissolve are always pronounced with the diz sound. Disease and disaster are pronounced both ways. Some dictionaries give the diz sound and some give the dis sound.
The spelling lesson for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday contains a number of words beginning with dis. Be sure of the pronunciation. Run through the words in the dictionary beginning with the dis sound and mark those in which the dis has the sound of diz.
We have also a number of words in the English language which end in ise or ize, and we are often confused to know which ending to use. There is a rule, which has very few exceptions, which covers the use of ise and ize. Words should be spelled with the ize ending when the ize can be cut off, and the word that is left can be used alone. For example; author, authorize. In this word you can cut off the ize and the word author can be used alone. But in the word exercise, if you cut off the ise, the remaining portion cannot be used alone.
Recognize and criticise are exceptions to this rule. When used as a suffix added to a noun or adjective to form a verb, ize is the proper ending; as theory, theorize, civil, civilize, etc. Final e or y is dropped before ize, as in the words memorize, sterilize, etc.
The spelling lesson for Thursday, Friday and Saturday contains a number of common words ending with ize or ise. Study carefully this list and add as many words to it as you can.
Monday
Disappear
Distress
Discern
Disburse
Discipline
Tuesday
Discount
Discredit
Distribute
Dismal
Disseminate
Wednesday
Disguise
Distance
Dissolve
Discontent
Disposition
Thursday
Franchise
Civilize
Surprise
Organize
Compromise
Friday
Monopolize
Revise
Legalize
Enterprise
Capitalize
Saturday
Memorize
Advertise
Theorize
Comprise
Systematize
PLAIN ENGLISH
LESSON 27
Dear Comrade:
Ingersoll said: "Words are the garments of thought and the robes of ideas." This is a beautiful and poetic way of expressing the relationship between words and thoughts. Words are really the body which we give to our thoughts. Until they are clothed in words, our thoughts are only ghosts of ideas. Other people cannot see or come into contact with them, and they can have but little influence upon the world.
Without thought, no language is possible. It is equally true that without language, no growth of thought is possible. It is futile to try to determine which is first, language or thought. The two are entirely necessary to each other and make possible social and individual development.
Every time that you add a word to your vocabulary, you have added to your mental equipment. You have also added greatly to your power of enjoyment. Through these words you will come into a new relationship to your fellow men. Each new word enlarges the circle of your acquaintance. A knowledge of language brings us into a circle of wonderful friends. When we have learned to read we need never more be lonely. Some one has written in a book somewhere just the thing we are hungry for at this moment.
In the pages of a book we can meet and talk with the great souls who have written in these pages their life's experience. No matter what mood you are in, you can find a book to suit that mood. No matter what your need, there is a book which meets that need. Form the habit of reading and you will find it a wonderful source of pleasure and of profit.
Nor do we need to be barred because of our lack of educational advantages in our youth. Buckle, the author of the greatest history that has ever been written, left school at the age of fourteen, and it is said that at that age, except a smattering of mathematics, he knew only how to read; but when he died at the age of forty, this man, who did not know his letters when he was eight years old, could read and write seven languages and was familiar with ten or twelve more. He had written a wonderful book and had become a teacher of teachers. Engraven upon his marble altar tomb is the following couplet:
"The written word remains long after the writer.
The writer is resting under the earth, but his words endure."
Good books are so cheap nowadays that they are within the reach of every one of us. Let us not be content to live in the narrow world of work and worry. Let us forget the struggle occasionally in the reading of books, and let us prepare ourselves, by reading and studying, for the battle for the emancipation of the workers of the world.
Yours for Education,THE PEOPLE'S COLLEGE.
