CHAPTER XXXII
SENTENCE MODIFIERS
Closely allied to the independent elements discussed in the preceding chapter are certain adverbs and adverbial phrases, which seem to modify not any special part of the sentence but the whole assertion. In some cases it is difficult to decide whether it is better to call a certain expression a sentence modifier or an independent element, but this need not trouble us greatly, for it is not the name we give to an element that is the vital point; it is a clear perception of what that element does in the sentence for the communication of the author’s thought.
Classification of Sentence Modifiers.—Certain of these modifiers are so clearly distinguishable from all other sentence-elements that we may study them in the following groups.
1. Adverbs.—Most of these are modal adverbs, denoting the manner in which an assertion is made. This may be positive, doubtful, or negative, hence the adverbs surely, perhaps, and not are very common sentence modifiers.
Other adverbs make the sentence emphatic, as indeed; others denote the extent of its application, as generally; still others take the reader back in thought to some previous statement, and denote the logical relation between this previous statement and the sentence in which they occur, as moreover, however, anyhow, though.
Examples of the use of these adverbs are found in the following sentences:
(a) “Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to recommence your narrative.”—Conan Doyle.
(b) “Indeed, almost all slang is like parched corn and should be served up hot or else not at all.”—Higginson.
(c) “It served, moreover, as a council of state to assist the monarch in the transaction of public business.”—Prescott.
2. Prepositional phrases.—These denote, for the most part, what the modal adverbs denote. Usually they may be changed to adverbs that are nearly or quite equivalent in meaning; for example, “on the other hand” = however; “at all events” = anyhow; “of course” = certainly.
It may seem best to some persons to say of these phrases, as likewise of the adverbs, that they modify the predicate instead of the whole sentence. There can be no objection to this, as the predicate is the asserting part of the sentence.
Examples of these phrases are found in the following sentences:
(a) “For the most part, young people have a pretty keen sense of honor, so that the main thing is to keep it fresh and active.”—Munger.
(b) “For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go.”—Stevenson.
(c) “For the life of me, I cannot understand it.”—Stevenson.
3. Phrases or clauses introduced by as; for example,—
(a) “As luck would have it, there was a fair spring morning shining over the city.”—Black. This clause means luckily, and tells the author’s opinion of the statement he makes.
(b) “As a rule, we disbelieve all facts and theories for which we have no use.”—Wm. James. This phrase means generally, and denotes the extent to which the statement is true.
(c) “As sure as my name is Jack Copley, I saw the prettiest girl in the world today.”—Mrs. Wiggin. This clause means truly, verily, and is used to make the statement emphatic.
4. We frequently meet sentences containing a phrase like that italicized in the following,—“Far from showing due reverence to St. Edmund, he did not even show him common justice.”—Carlyle. This phrase, it is plain, means “instead of showing due reverence to St. Edmund,” but in addition it implies there is a very wide difference between two things,—the thing he did not do and the thing he did do. It would be natural for us to say—“Instead of white, she wore pink”; and it would be just as natural to say—“Far from wearing white, she wore black.” Our choice of phrases depends on the degree of difference between the two things contrasted. The difference between white and pink is not great; but the difference between white and black is one hundred and eighty degrees.
When we analyze this sentence modifier we find it to consist of the adverb far for a base-word, modified by a prepositional phrase introduced by from. The object of the preposition is a gerund, which may be complete or incomplete, modified or unmodified.
It is not uncommon for far to be modified by so, which only intensifies its meaning; thus, “For the King’s subjects, so far from being charmed by his resolution to marry a woman out of their midst, are scandalized.”
Exercise 40
Dispose of the sentence modifiers in the following sentences.
1. Nevertheless, an important part of culture is to acquire the habit of finishing every work.—J. F. Clarke.
2. For my own part, I think there is such a thing as being too Anglo-Saxon.—Lowell.
3. People, as a rule, only pay for being amused or for being cheated, not for being served.—Ruskin.
4. Believe me, my dear Miss Elizabeth, that your modesty, so far from doing you any disservice, rather adds to your other perfections.—Jane Austen.
5. True eloquence, indeed, does not consist in speech.—Webster.
6. Had we seen this charming landscape immediately after bidding farewell to Chocorua, it would have failed to make the strong impression upon us which as a matter of fact it did produce.—Bolles.
7. Of course, genius and enthusiasm are, for both sexes, elements unforeseen and incalculable; but, as a general rule, great achievements imply great preparations and favorable conditions.—Higginson.
8. Probably the election goes by avoirdupois weight; and, if you could weigh bodily the tonnage of any hundred of the Whig and the Democratic party in a town on the Dearborn balance, as they passed the hayscales, you could predict with certainty which party would carry it.—Emerson.
9. To be inefficient or shiftless is the unpardonable sin, to the mind of a born New Englander.—J. F. Clarke.
10. With a frank cordiality charming to contemplate, they severally and collectively did their very best to make him feel that, so far from being a stranger in a strange land, he was very much at home among genuine friends.—Janvier.
Exercise 41
Analyze the following sentences. As far as possible analyze independent elements.
1. For, to repeat, the ground of a man’s joy is often hard to hit.—Stevenson.
2.
Alas! they had been friends in youth;
But whispering tongues can poison truth;
And constancy lives in realms above;
And life is thorny; and youth is vain;
And to be wroth with one we love
Doth work like madness in the brain.—Coleridge.
3. Surely this was his native village which he had left but the day before.—Irving.
4. As a rule, when I have heard some slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my memory.—Conan Doyle.
5. Milton, it is said, inherited what his predecessors created.—Macaulay.
6. For my own part, as the gondola slipped away from the blaze and bustle of the station down the gloom and silence of the broad canal, I forgot that I had been freezing two days and nights; that I was at that moment very cold and a little homesick.—Howells.
7. The king, as we have seen, must be an experienced warrior.—Prescott.
8. Our solar system, far from being alone in the universe, is only one of an extensive brotherhood bound by common laws and subject to like influences.—Draper.
9. Fight on, thou brave true heart, and falter not through dark fortune and through bright.—Carlyle.
10. Further,—and this was where the pinch came,—his reputation as a promoter had been most severely injured.—Janvier.
11. “So, my dear Miss Pyncheon,” said the daguerreotypist,—for it was that sole other occupant of the seven-gabled mansion,—“I am glad to see that you have not shrunk from your good purpose.”—Hawthorne.
12. The voice, for example, in a surprisingly large number of us, has a tired and plaintive sound.—Wm. James.
13. As for this old man, he had the beard of a saint and the dignity of a senator.—Howells.
14. Fortunately for us, want of food, great heat, extreme cold, produce promptings too peremptory to be disregarded.—Spencer.
15. In the first place, he was named “Frank,” a circumstance I mentally resented; but, what was more to the point, he had an evident desire to spill us over the steepest bank he could find.—Bolles.
16. Thanks to the beneficent mysteries of hereditary transmission, no capital earns such interest as personal culture.—C. W. Eliot.
17. The human species, according to the best theory I can form of it, is composed of two distinct races, the men who borrow, and the men who lend.—Lamb.
18. The first author, it is plain, could not have taken anything from books, since there were no books for him to copy from.—Bagehot.