We are now ready to take the second step in studying the structure of a given sentence, that is, to determine whether its component propositions are independent or dependent.
Exercise 2
Select each proposition in the following sentences. State whether it is independent or dependent, and give the grounds for your decision.
1. Children play the part in the household which the king’s jester, who very often had a mighty long head under his cap and bells, used to play for a monarch.—Holmes.
2. Already I breathed gales of the everlasting mountains, that to my feelings blew from the garden of Paradise.—De Quincey.
3. The waterfall is comparatively narrow at the top of the precipice; but it widens as it descends, and curves a little as it widens, so that it shapes itself, before it reaches the first bowl of granite, into the charming figure of the comet that glowed on our sky some years ago.—King.
4. He, who, in an enlightened and literary society, aspires to be a great poet, must first become a little child.—Macaulay.
5. One has only to sit down in the woods or fields, or by the shore of the river or lake, and nearly everything of interest will come round to him,—the birds, the animals, the insects,—and presently, after his eye has got accustomed to the place and to the light and shade, he will probably see some plant or flower that he had sought in vain for, and that is a pleasant surprise to him.—Burroughs.
6. If their lantern had been in its place, they would scarce have failed to descry me, unless indeed I had seen the gleam before I turned the corner.—Blackmore.
7. The whole town knew and kindly regarded Miss Betsey Barker’s Alderney; therefore great was the sympathy and regret when, in an unguarded moment, the poor cow tumbled into a lime-pit.—Mrs. Gaskell.