Plain English

Then you might ask what sort of efficiency and whose efficiency? What sort of efficiency is explained by the adjective phrase, for food-getting and shelter-getting. Whose efficiency is explained by the possessive noun, man's. Therefore, the complete subject is, Man's efficiency for food-getting and shelter-getting.

Now we are ready to consider the predicate. What has efficiency done? It has not diminished. Has diminished is the verb phrase, which is the simple predicate of this sentence. It is modified by the adverb not, so we have Man's efficiency has not diminished. Then we might ask, when has it not diminished? And this is answered by the phrase, since the day of the cave-man. So we have our complete predicate, Has not diminished since the day of the cave-man.

In this way we can analyze or break up into its different parts, every sentence. First find the subject, then ask what that subject does, and the answer will be the predicate or verb. Do not confuse the verb with the words which state how or why the action is performed, and do not confuse the verb with the object of the action. The verb simply asserts the action. The other words will add the additional information as to how or why or when or upon whom the action was performed.

Let us finish the analysis of the sentences in the paragraph quoted from Jack London. In the second sentence, It has increased a thousand-fold, the personal pronoun it, which refers to the noun efficiency, is the subject of the sentence; and when you ask what it has done, you find that the question is answered by the verb, has increased. Therefore, has increased is the verb in the sentence. The noun, thousand-fold is used as an adverb telling how much it has increased. It is an adverb-noun, which you will find explained in Section 291.

In the next sentence, Wonderful artifices and marvelous inventions have been made, we find two nouns about which a statement is made.Artifices have been made and inventions have been made; so artifices and inventions are both the subjects of the sentence. Therefore, we have a compound subject with a single verb, have been made. Artifices is modified by the adjective wonderful, and inventions is modified by the adjective marvelous, so we have wonderful artifices and marvelous inventions, as the complete subject, and have been made, as the complete predicate.

In the last sentence, Why then do millions of modern men live more miserably than the cave-man lived?, we find a sentence which is a trifle more difficult of analysis. It is written in the interrogative form. If you find it difficult to determine the subject and the verb or verb phrase in an interrogative sentence, rewrite the sentence in the assertive form, and you will find it easier to analyze.

When we rewrite this sentence we have, Millions of modern men do live more miserably than the cave-man lived. Now it is evident that the noun millions is the subject of the sentence. We see quickly that men cannot be the subject because it is the object of the preposition of, in the phrase, of modern men. So we decide that the noun millions is the simple subject.

When we ask the question what millions do, our question is answered by the verb phrase, do live. So do live is the simple predicate, and the skeleton of our sentence, the simple subject and the simple predicate, is millions do live. The subject millions is modified by the adjective phrase of modern men.

Then we ask, how do men live? And we find our question answered by they live miserably. But we are told how miserably they live by the adverb more and the adverb clause, than the cave-man lived, both modifying the adverb miserably. So we have our complete predicate, do live more miserably than the cave-man lived.

This interrogative sentence is introduced by the interrogative adverb why.

Do not drop this subject until you are able to determine readily the subject and predicate in every sentence and properly place all modifying words. There is nothing that will so increase your power of understanding what you read, and your ability to write clearly, as this facility in analyzing sentences.

Exercise 3

The following is Elbert Hubbard's description of the child-laborers of the Southern cotton-mills. Read it carefully. Notice that the sentences are all short sentences, and the cumulative effect of these short sentences is a picture of the condition of these child-workers which one can never forget. The subjects and predicates are in italics. When you have finished your study of this question, rewrite it from memory and then compare your version with the original version.

I thought that I would lift one of the little toilers. I wanted to ascertain his weight. Straightway through his thirty-five pounds of skin and bone there ran a tremor of fear. He struggled forward to tie a broken thread. I attracted his attention by a touch. I offered him a silver dime. He looked at me dumbly from a face that might have belonged to a man of sixty. It was so furrowed, tightly drawn and full of pain. He did not reach for the money. He did not know what it was. There were dozens of such children in this particular mill. A physician who was with me said that they would probably all be dead in two years. Their places would be easily filled, however, for there were plenty more. Pneumonia carries off most of them. Their systems are ripe for disease and when it comes there is no rebound. Medicine simply does not act. Nature is whipped, beaten, discouraged.The child sinks into a stupor and dies.

Exercise 4

In the following sentences, mark the simple sentences, the complex sentences and the compound sentences, and analyze these sentences according to the rules given for analyzing simple sentences, complex sentences and compound sentences:

1. Force is no remedy.

2. Law grinds the poor, and the rich men rule the law.

3. Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues.

4. Freedom is a new religion, a religion of our time.

5. Desire nothing for yourself which you do not desire for others.

6. An ambassador is a man who goes abroad to lie for the good of his country.

7. A journalist is a man who stays at home to pursue the same vocation.

8. Without free speech no search for truth is possible.

9. Liberty for the few is not liberty.

10. Liberty for me and slavery for you mean slavery for both.

11. No revolution ever rises above the intellectual level of those who make it.

12. Men submit everywhere to oppression when they have only to lift their heads to throw off the yoke.

13. Many politicians of our time are in the habit of saying that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim. If men are to wait for liberty till they become wise and good in slavery they may indeed wait forever.

SUMMARY

458. The following is a summary of that which we have learned in sentence building:

459.

ESSENTIALS OF A SIMPLE SENTENCE

460.

THE SUBJECT

Modifiers of the Subject

461.

THE PREDICATE

462. Take the simple subjects and simple predicates in Exercise 5, and build up sentences; first, by adding a word, then a phrase and then a clause to modify the subject; then add a word and a phrase and a clause to modify the predicate.

So long as you have only words and phrases you have simple sentences. When you add a dependent clause you have a complex sentence. When you unite two independent clauses in one sentence, then you have a compound sentence, and the connecting word will always be a co-ordinate conjunction. These will be readily distinguished for there are only a few co-ordinate conjunctions.

Go back to the lesson on co-ordinate conjunctions and find out what these are, and whenever you find two clauses connected by these co-ordinate conjunctions you know that you have a compound sentence. Remember that each clause must contain a subject and predicate of its own. When you have two words connected by these co-ordinate conjunctions you do not have a clause. Each clause must contain a subject and a predicate of its own.

463. Here is an example of a sentence built up from a simple subject and a simple predicate:

SIMPLE SUBJECT ENLARGED

Simple Subject and Predicate—Soldiers obey.

Adjectives added—The enlisted soldiers obey.

Phrase added—The enlisted soldiers in the trenches obey.

Clause added—The enlisted soldiers in the trenches, who are doomed to die, obey.

SIMPLE PREDICATE ENLARGED

Simple Subject and Predicate—Soldiers obey.

Object added—Soldiers obey orders.