CHAPTER VIII
ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES CONTAINING NOUN CLAUSES
It is most convenient to analyze the noun clause last, even if it is the subject of the sentence. As soon as the clause is mentioned, however, as a sentence-element, its introductory word should be given. Clauses within the noun clause should be disposed of after the rest of the noun clause has been analyzed.
A direct quotation is frequently introduced into a sentence to fulfill the office of a noun clause. In structure and form it is like an independent proposition, but in function it is subordinate; for example, “The first and last and closest trial question to any living creature is, “What do you like?”—Ruskin.
Notice that this sentence is declarative though the quotation is interrogative.
Exercise 8
Analyze the following sentences:—
1. Whoever has common sense and a sound heart has the power by which Whittier may be appreciated.—Masson.
2. It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple-tree is connected with that of man.—Thoreau.
3. We were welcomed to a Highlander’s home and told where we could fish to advantage from three o’clock till dark.—Bolles.
4. The announcement that for centuries the tropical forests of Central America have hidden within their tangled growth the ruined homes and temples of a past race, stirs the civilized world with a strange, deep wonder.—Agassiz.
5. I was quite determined that the old set of singers should be dismissed.—George Eliot.
6. It was within the dingy walls of this little potentate’s imperial palace that I chose my country residence.—Longfellow.
7. Universal History, the history of what man has accomplished in this world, is at bottom the History of the Great Men who have worked here.—Carlyle.
8. The question of common-sense is always, what is it good for?—a question which would abolish the rose and be answered triumphantly by the cabbage.—Lowell.
9. Whoever has made a voyage up the Hudson must remember the Kaatskill mountains.—Irving.
10. I am told that one of the most reliable weather signs they have down in Texas is afforded by the ants.—Burroughs.
11. “It is only the love of all humanity that can keep from bitterness,” said Brian.
12. I left my own garden yesterday, and went over to where Polly was getting the weeds out of one of her flower-beds.—Warner.
13. “Now tread we a measure!” said young Lochinvar.—Scott.
14. Whoever allies himself with God is armed with all the forces of the invisible world.—J. F. Clarke.
15. Boom is not a nice place, and is only remarkable for one thing: that the majority of the inhabitants have a private opinion that they can speak English, which is not justified by fact.—Stevenson.
16. I do not doubt but that many of you came unwillingly to-night.—Ruskin.
17. With nature and God one law is inexorable—he who disuses or misuses a faculty must lose it.—Hillis.
18. It is by little things that we know ourselves.—Holmes.
19. I felt in every fibre that this woodman invariably cheated me in measurement.—Howells.
20.
“How happy,” exclaimed this child of air,
“Are the holy spirits who wander there,
Mid flowers that never shall fade or fall!”
—Moore.