CHAPTER XIX
THE CONJUNCTION IN SOME OF ITS USES
In our study of complex and compound sentences we have noted the office of conjunctions, both subordinating and coördinating, so far as they join propositions. But this is by no means their sole office nor their most common one.
The Coördinating Conjunction.—The abridgment of propositions has been carried so far that we find the coördinating conjunctions, and, or, but, joining words or phrases just as often as propositions, for example, “The intimacy between man and nature began with the birth of man on the earth, and becomes each century more intelligent and far-reaching.” The first and joins the two nouns man and nature, the second the two predicates whose base-words are the verbs began and becomes, the third the two adjective complements more intelligent and more far-reaching.
There is nothing at all peculiar or difficult in this use of the conjunction, for we naturally expect it to join any two like elements, provided they have the same office in the sentence. Occasionally, however, we find it joining unlike elements; for example, “St. Edmund punishes terribly yet with mercy.”—Carlyle. Here yet joins two modifiers of the verb punishes, but one is an adverb, the other a prepositional phrase.
A common substitute for and when it joins words or phrases is as well as, the whole group of words having the value of one conjunction; as, “Truth needs the wisdom of the serpent as well as the simplicity of the dove.”—Helps. This conjunction has a peculiar force. By its aid the sentence just quoted tells us not that truth needs two qualities, which the conjunction and would imply, but rather that, while everybody grants that truth needs the simplicity of the dove, it is the author’s opinion that she needs, too, the wisdom of the serpent. It is wonderful that the substitution of this little phrase as well as for and can make a sentence so different in meaning.
A group of words similar in office to as well as, but not so often used, is no less than; as, “The first lesson of literature, no less than of life, is the learning how to burn your own smoke.”—Lowell.
Besides joining words, phrases, or propositions as the elements of one sentence, the coördinating conjunction, especially and or but, is often found at the beginning of an entirely new sentence, where its function is to show the relation in thought between the new sentence and the one preceding. In such a position its office is not grammatical but logical; for example, “But month after month only showed the king the uselessness of further resistance.”—J. R. Green. This conjunction is sometimes reinforced by an adverb; thus, “And again, Drake’s cannon would not have roared so loudly and so widely without seamen already trained in heart and hand to work his ships and level his artillery.”—Froude.
The Subordinating Conjunction.—Owing to abridgment we find many sentences constructed like the following,—
“Then safe, though fluttered and amazed,
She paused, and on the stranger gazed.”—Scott.
Here the subordinating conjunction of concession, though, seems to join two adjective modifiers of she. These are safe and the two participial adjectives, fluttered and amazed. Of course it would be proper to fill out the ellipsis and make a clause of concession, though she was fluttered and amazed, but it does not seem necessary, and we certainly would not supply anything if but had been used instead of though.
The subordinating conjunction than is used in this way between like elements oftener than any other, especially when it is associated with the adverb rather; for example, “Commonly a light is for the eyes rather than for the feet, and a lamp is to read or sew by rather than to walk by.”—Munger. The ellipsis after than may be supplied here, that is, we may make the sentence read as follows,—“Commonly a light is rather for the eyes than it is for the feet, and a lamp is rather to read or sew by than it is to walk by.” But if the sentence had been,—“Commonly a light is not for the feet but for the eyes,” etc., we should say that but joins the two phrases and that the first one is modified by not. So in the original sentence we may say that the first than joins the two prepositional phrases for the eyes and for the feet, while the second joins the infinitives to read or sew by and to walk by. Rather is then an adverb modifying in one case the phrase for the eyes, and in the other the infinitives to read or sew by.
Correlatives.—The correlatives when ... then, where ... there, so ... as, as ... as, though ... yet, whether ... or, have been sufficiently noted in previous lessons. There remains something to be said about the familiar pairs either ... or, neither ... nor, both ... and, not only ... but. The first three pairs are alike in use, the second word in each case, or, nor, and, being the connective, and the first no part of speech whatever. Either, neither and both, when correlatives, merely hint that the real conjunction is coming. The correct position of these words is immediately before the first of the two elements joined by the conjunction. Either and both may be omitted without affecting either the meaning or the structure of the sentence.
These correlatives are found with verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, phrases, or propositions either independent or dependent; for example, “Generally, good useful work, whether of the hand or the head, is either ill-paid or not paid at all.”—Ruskin. “He neither pretended to high blood nor in good truth cared one fig about the matter.”—Lamb. “There is a working class—strong and happy—among both rich and poor.”
The correlatives not only ... but are different in some respects from the others. But is the conjunction, and only is an adjective or adverb modifying the first of the two words joined by but, while not makes this word negative; thus, “Longfellow has not only charmed the ear, but has touched the heart of the world.” In this sentence but joins the two predicates. The first predicate is modified by only and then denied by the negative adverb not. In this use but is not an adversative conjunction, that is, it does not signify any opposition between the two predicates. The sentence means that Longfellow has done two things which are in the same line of action—he has charmed the ear of the world and in addition has touched its heart.
It is not uncommon for but to be reinforced by the adverb also; for example, “Punctuality should be made not only a point of courtesy, but also a point of conscience.”
Exercise 23
State the office of all conjunctions in the following sentences. Determine, if possible, why the given conjunction is chosen instead of some other.
1. But I for one do not grudge Amos Barton his sweet wife.—George Eliot.
2. Either they may be nomads, living in tents and driving their flocks and herds from one pasture ground to another, or they may be people with fixed habitations.
3. You must be able, not only to hit any particular dog out of the team of twelve, but also to accompany the feat with a resounding crack.
4. The finest passages are those which are lyric in form as well as in spirit.—Macaulay.
5. He was abstemious in his food and careless in what it consisted, rarely or never touching wine.—Froude.
6. The prince or chief governor was elected annually, but only by the nobles.—Motley.
7. In many parts of London it is difficult, if not dangerous, to cross the streets.
8. But the times were times for action rather than for contemplation.—Webster.
9.
And you would say that sun and stars took part
In that unnatural conflict; for a cloud
Grew suddenly in Heaven, and darked the sun
Over the fighters’ heads.—M. Arnold.
10. Discipline, no less than concentration, is a cure for a weak will.—J. F. Clarke.
11. But not only is its own population the vastest in the world; a large population is poured into it every morning by railway and by steamer from all parts of England and from every continent and country on the globe.
12. We are on the eve of a great political crisis, if not of political change.—Ruskin.
13. It is injurious to the mind as well as to the body to be always in one place, and always surrounded by the same circumstances.—Jefferies.
14.
Let us do our work as well,
Both the unseen and the seen.—Longfellow.
15. I recall him in the attitude of the Colossus of Rhodes, standing full before a generous wood fire, not facing it but quite the contrary.—Holmes.
16. Rough work, honorable or not, takes the life out of us.—Ruskin.
17. The elected chieftains had rather authority to persuade than power to command.—Motley.
18. Not only were the labors of Hannah More extended to the ignorant and degraded by the establishment of schools, but she employed her pen in their behalf.—Lord.
19. They neither get fairly hold of their subject, nor, what is more important, does it get hold of them.—Lowell.
20. The rough work is, at all events, real, honest, and, generally though not always, useful; while the fine work is, a great deal of it, foolish and false as well as fine, and therefore dishonorable.—Ruskin.
21. To detect the flavor of an olive is no less a piece of human perfection, than to find beauty in the colors of a sunset.—Stevenson.
22. All the ground was covered, not with grass and green leaves, but with radiant corollas.—Muir.
23. The world is filled with the voices of the dead; they speak not from the public records of the great world only, but from the private history of our own experience.—O. Dewey.
24. And where now the steamers of all nations may be seen resting at anchor, on that day one solitary ship from France discharged her cargo and was viewed with lingering interest by every colonist in Quebec.—Mrs. Catherwood.
25. Before him and facing him, two paces in front, stood Dan, his arms still bound to his sides, his head uncovered, and his legs free.—Caine.