The structure of the English sentence

by Lillian Kimball Stewart

Oshkosh, Wis., May, 1900.

CONTENTS

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CHAPTER		PAGE
[I.]	The Proposition	7
[II.]	The Classification of Propositions	11
[III.]	The Classification of Sentences according to Structure	18
[IV.]	The Classification of Sentences according to Form	23
[V.]	The Adjective Clause	28
[VI.]	The Analysis of Simple, Partially Compound, and Complex Sentences	38
[VII.]	The Substantive Clause	42
[VIII.]	Analysis of Sentences containing Noun Clauses	51
[IX.]	The Adverbial Clause of Time	53
[X.]	The Adverbial Clause of Place	59
[XI.]	The Adverbial Clause of Manner	62
[XII.]	The Analysis of Sentences	66
[XIII.]	The Adverbial Clause of Cause	68
[XIV.]	Clauses of Purpose and Result	73
[XV.]	The Adverbial Clause of Condition	78
[XVI.]	The Adverbial Clause of Concession	82
[XVII.]	The Adverbial Clause of Degree or Comparison	87
[XVIII.]	The Compound Sentence	97
[XIX.]	The Conjunction in some of its Uses	105
[XX.]	The Infinitive Phrase	113
[XXI.]	The Participial Phrase	129
[XXII.]	The Gerund	139
[XXIII.]	The Prepositional Phrase	146
[XXIV.]	The Appositive Phrase	161
[XXV.]	The Direct Object	169
[XXVI.]	The Subjective Complement	175
[XXVII.]	The Objective Complement	179
[XXVIII.]	The Indirect Object	188
[XXIX.]	The Adverbial Noun	189
[XXX.]	Peculiar Modifications	193
[XXXI.]	Independent Elements	201
[XXXII.]	Sentence Modifiers	209
[XXXIII.]	Elliptical Sentences	214
	Miscellaneous Sentences for Analysis	[228]
	Index	[241]

THE
STRUCTURE OF THE ENGLISH SENTENCE

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CHAPTER I

THE PROPOSITION

In the mind of every human being there are innumerable ideas, or mental pictures, gathered from previous experience. Whenever we perceive a relation between any two of these ideas, we form a judgment, or, in other words, have a thought. If we wish to communicate our thought we ordinarily express it in words, and this verbal expression of a thought we call a sentence.

For example, I have an idea of children and an idea of the activity called play; I see a relation between them, that of agent and thing done; I affirm this relation, and have the sentence, Children play. Or I detect a relation between flower and whiteness, and say, The flower is white. Or I fail to establish such a relation and so deny the former statement by saying, The flower is not white. In each case my sentence serves the great purpose of communicating thought; and it does this by calling up in the mind of the reader the same combination of ideas that exists in my mind.