Mid flowers that never shall fade or fall!”
—Moore.
CHAPTER IX
THE ADVERBIAL CLAUSE OF TIME
Function.—All actions or events can be referred to some time—past, present, or future. Frequently the whole significance of an event depends upon either the time of its occurrence or its duration; hence it is often desirable and sometimes necessary to tell the time when an action takes place or state the period of its continuance. We may do this by means of single words, like then, now, tomorrow, forever, or by phrases, like a long time ago, at the present day, before supper, till the end of the world. Frequently, however, we wish to fix the time of one activity with relation to the time of some other activity. To do this we usually employ a proposition in the form of a temporal clause; for example,
“The British soldier trembles
When Marion’s name is told.”—Bryant.
Here the action of trembling is said to take place at the time of another action, the telling of Marion’s name. Notice that from this sentence we get double information, (1) that two actions occur simultaneously, (2) that one is the cause of the other.
Introductory Word.—All time clauses are introduced by some word which in itself denotes time, and which is chosen because of the special meaning attached to it. This word subordinates the clause to the principal proposition, and connects it to that part of the principal proposition which the clause modifies. Most grammarians say that this connective is a conjunctive adverb, and that it not only connects the two propositions but also modifies the verb in the clause. To us its grammatical office seems to be that of a mere connective, hence we call it a subordinating conjunction of time. The several conjunctions of this class can best be studied in sentences containing them.
1. “When a prisoner first leaves his cell, he cannot bear the light of day.”—Macaulay. Here when is chosen in order that the sentence may signify that the two actions occur at the same time.