In this last sentence, the adjective phrase, of the mine, is placed after the noun manager, which it modifies, and the adverb phrase, with the men, is placed after the verb remained, which it modifies.
437. These sentences illustrate the logical order in which the elements of the sentence usually come. But this logical order is not strictly adhered to. Many times, in order to place the emphasis upon certain words, we reverse this order and place the emphasized words first, as:
- Without your help, we cannot win.
The logical order of this sentence is:
- We cannot win without your help.
But we want to place the emphasis upon your help, so we change the order of the words and place the phrase, without your help, first.
438. This inversion of the order helps us to express our thought with more emphasis. Our language is so flexible that we can express the same thought in different ways by simply changing the order of the elements in the sentence. Notice in the following sentences, the inversion of the usual order, and see what difference this makes in the expression of the thought.
- Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.
- A more terrible scene you cannot imagine.
- With the shrieking of shot and shell the battle raged.
- Louder and louder thundered the tempest.
- Silently and sadly the men returned to their homes.
To transpose these inverted sentences—that is to place the elements in their logical order, gives us an insight into the thought expressed in the sentence. It is worth a great deal to us to be able in our reading to see the live elements in the sentence at a glance, and in this way we can grasp at once the thought of the sentence. So you will find that this analyzing of the sentences is very helpful to us in our reading.
439. When we have learned to analyze a sentence quickly we will not be lost in the maze of words. A paragraph is often like a string of pearls. The author has a single thread of thought running through the different sentences which compose the paragraph and if we have trained ourselves well in sentence analysis, we will never lose this thread. It will be like a life line to which we cling while the breakers of thought and emotion roar about us.