INTRODUCTORY WORDS

394. We have a number of words which we use to introduce our sentences. They are such words as, so, well and why. These are ordinarily adverbs, but when they are used merely to introduce a sentence they retain little of their adverbial force. For example:

In these sentences, so, well and why do not modify any of the words in the sentences, but are used merely to introduce the sentences. They serve in a measure to connect them with something which has gone before.

395. The adverb there is also used as an introductory word. When it is used in this manner, it loses its adverbial force. There, as ordinarily used, is an adverb of place, but it is often used to introduce a sentence. For example: There is some mistake about it. In this sentence there is not used as an adverb, but it is used simply as an introductory word. It is used to introduce a sentence in which the verb comes before the real subject. Mistake is the real subject of the verb is, and there is used simply as the introductory word.

396. The indefinite pronoun it is also used as an introductory word, to introduce a sentence in much the same manner as there. The real subject of the verb occurs later in the sentence. For example:

This could be written, To know the truth is best, and the entire meaning of the sentence would be conveyed.

397. Adverbs of mode. You remember in our study of adverbs, we had certain adverbs which were called adverbs of mode. These are used to modify the entire sentence. They express the feeling in which the entire sentence is uttered. Adverbs of mode may be regarded also as independent words. They are such words as, indeed, surely, certainly, perhaps, etc. For example:

Exercise 4

Note in the following sentences the words which are pure interjections, and those which are other parts of speech used as exclamatory words. Mark those which are used in direct address, those which are used parenthetically, and those which are used as mere introductory words.

  1. Oh, it seems impossible to believe it.
  2. Surely, you will accept my word.
  3. Nonsense, there is not the least truth in the story.
  4. It will be impossible for us to join.
  5. Therefore we urge you to join in this campaign.
  6. There is only one solution to the problem.
  7. It is difficult to discover the true facts.
  8. Well, I have done my best to persuade you.
  9. Mr. Chairman, I rise to a point of order.
  10. Comrades, come and stand for your rights.
  11. Yes, I have studied that philosophy.
  12. Enough! we have been enslaved too long.
  13. Hark! we hear the tramp of the army of labor.
  14. Alas! that any should refuse to join in this battle.
  15. You have not, it seems, understood the issue.
  16. Indeed, solidarity is our only hope.
  17. Br-r-r-r-r-r-r, thus whirl the machines that grind our children's lives.
  18. Hush! Over the crash of the cannon sounds the wail of Europe's women and children.

EXPLANATORY WORDS

398. We sometimes use words which do not belong in the construction of a sentence to explain other words in the sentence. For example:

In the first sentence, the words, the undersigned, are added to the pronoun we to explain who we means. In the second sentence, the words, the most wonderful woman of this age, are added to explain who Helen Keller is. Words added to other words in this way are called explanatory words. They are placed in apposition to the noun which they explain. Apposition means by the side of, or in position near. You remember that in clauses we found that a clause may be placed in apposition with a noun to explain the meaning of that noun. For example:

These words in apposition may themselves be modified or limited by other words or phrases or clauses. For example:

In this sentence, woman is the noun placed in apposition to the particular name, Helen Keller, and the noun woman is modified by the adjectives the, and wonderful, and by the phrase of this age.

Sometimes a second explanatory word is placed in apposition to the first one. This is quite often the case in legal documents or resolutions, where the language is quite formal. For example:

These words, undersigned and members, are both placed in apposition to the pronoun We, explaining to whom that pronoun refers.

Exercise 5

In the following sentences note the explanatory words and their modifiers:

  1. Wendell Phillips, the great abolitionist, was a man of genius.
  2. Buckle, the historian, writes from the view point of the materialistic conception of history.
  3. Giovannitti, the poet, wrote "Arrows in the Gale."
  4. Helen Keller, champion of the working class, wrote the introduction to this book.
  5. We, the workers of the world, will some day claim our own.
  6. He was found guilty of treason, a crime punishable by death.
  7. Ferrer, the martyr of the twentieth century, was put to death by the Spanish government.
  8. Jaures, the great French socialist, was the first martyr to peace.
  9. But ye, Plebs, Populace, People, Rabble, Mob, Proletariat, live and abide forever.
  10. Ye are eternal, even as your father, labor, is eternal.
  11. This document, the Constitution of the United States, hinders the progress of the people.
  12. The memory of Guttenberg, the inventor of the printing press, should be reverenced by every class-conscious worker.
  13. Wallace, the scientist and author, was co-discoverer with Darwin of the theory of evolution.
  14. Karl Marx, the thinker, applied this theory to social forces.
  15. Do you understand the three basic principles of Socialism—the class struggle, economic determinism and surplus value?

Exercise 6

Read the following list of words and note the ideas which they suggest to you, then make sentences containing these words, modified by a word or group of words in apposition, which explain more fully these words.

Law, martyr, society, education, inventor, commander, freedom, Eugene V. Debs, Karl Marx, Kaiser Wilhelm, The Balkan, Lawrence, Colorado, Calumet.