- I know [that] you are my friend.
- Jack said [that] the boat had sunk.
- He told me [that] he was sorry.
532. Many constructions, originally elliptical, have become established idioms in which no ellipsis is felt. In such cases it is usually better to take the sentence as it stands, and not to supply the omitted words.
Thus, in “He eats as if he were famished” the italicized words are properly treated as a subordinate clause modifying eats and introduced by the compound conjunction as if. Yet in strictness this construction is an ellipsis for “He eats as [he would eat] if he were famished.”
533. Various ellipses are illustrated in the following sentences:—
- 1. Although in a friendly country, they marched always as if in a land of enemies.
- 2. The aspect of the country was as wild and dreary as the climate.
- 3. Do not serious and earnest men discuss Hamlet as they would Cromwell or Lincoln?—Lowell.
- 4. Not so with the others.
- 5. Though rather shy and distrustful of this new acquaintance, Rip complied with his usual alacrity.
- 6. Arras was famed for its rich tapestries, Brussels for its carpets, Cambrai for its fine cambric, Lisle for its thread and the fabrics woven from it.
- 7. Every day brings its task, which, if neglected, is doubled on the morrow.
- 8. It is not easy to recover an art when once lost.
- 9. I wish you would go down with me to Newstead.
- 10. The men are all soldiers, and war and the chase their sole occupation.
- 11. While in this state of irresolution, she was startled by a low knock.
- 12. The house was tall, the skylight small and dirty, the day blind with fog.
- 13. I little thought you would have deserted me.
- 14. He is the best Oriental scholar I know.
- 15. Cromwell was evidently laying, though in an irregular manner, the foundations of an admirable system.
- 16. He was a foot taller than I.
- 17. This concerns you rather than me.
- 18. My father loved Sir Rowland as his soul.
EXERCISES
EXERCISE 1
([§§ 1–5], [pp. 1–3])
1. Tell whether each of the following sentences is declarative, interrogative, imperative, or exclamatory. If a sentence is both declarative and exclamatory, mention the fact. Mention the subject and the predicate of each sentence. Note all instances of the inverted order ([§ 5]).
1. You need not answer this letter. 2. Many surmises of evil alarm the hearts of the people.—Longfellow. 3. Here I am again in the land of old Bunyan. 4. Me this uncharter’d freedom tires.—Wordsworth. 5. Twilight’s soft dews steal o’er the village green.—Rogers. 6. Were there many robbers in the band? 7. How will posterity the deed proclaim!—Byron. 8. At dawn the towers of Stirling rang.—Scott. 9. You cannot recall the spoken word.—Emerson. 10. The boughs over my head seemed shadowy with solemn thoughts as well as with rustling leaves.—Hawthorne. 11. So you don’t like Raphael! 12. All around lay a frightful wilderness. 13. Why does the sea moan evermore?—Rossetti. 14. What lonely straggler looks along the wave?—Byron. 15. Off went his wig! 16. For some minutes he continued to scrutinize the drawing minutely. 17. Our strength grows out of our weakness.—Emerson. 18. Rudely carved was the porch. 19. What hopes the prince to gain by Lacy’s death? 20. Trust thyself.
21. The rest of the men were morose and silent. 22. Here are the ruins of the emperor’s palace. 23. Now rumbles along the carriage of some magnate of the city. 24. Wild was the life we led. 25. How poor, and dull, and sleepy, and squalid it seemed! 26. Built are the house and the barn. 27. With what tenderness he sings! 28. Marked ye the younger stranger’s eye? 29. One or two idlers, of forbidding aspect, hung about in the murky gaslight. 30. Several mountains crowned with snow shone brilliantly in the distance. 31. Follow me through this passage. 32. Stop me not at your peril. 33. Carry thou this scroll to the castle.